<p>So I'm going to be a senior in high school next year, and I'm rather sure PE is the route I want to take. So how did you guys find out PE was your major and why over all of the others? The more answers the betters do anything helps! Thanks everyone.</p>
<p>Well I’ll be completely honest with you, the starting salaries look real good. It’s not a very common major so job placement should be good. I’m good at math as well. And I live in PA so all the wells on Marcellus Shale gave me the idea. But I’m only going to be a sophomore so don’t completely take my word for it.</p>
<p>Well I’m a Junior transferring to ULL in the Fall for Petro Eng. I wanted to become an engineer because I liked the idea of making stuff. As dumb as this might sound I picked Petro because of the 2/3 weeks off after working 3/4 weeks straight. I’m a lazy guy and really enjoy the idea of catching up on my comic books while making bank haha. But seriously its a interesting field. I get to tell people I’m going to college to dig holes. And its great for meeting girls and telling them you’re a drilling engineer.</p>
<p>Petro Engineer might be risky in the future. Just be prepared for what you are getting into. Alot of people its similar to chemical engineering. It is not at all. More along the lines of mining and mechanical.</p>
<p>Yes! I got so excited when I saw a new petroleum engineering thread. In fact, I was about start one… I am a senior in high school and I plan to go to Penn State. Petroleum engineering appealed to me for a bunch of reasons. It’s an exciting job where you can travel and work many places around the world. I see it as a future oriented career compared to most people. As cheap free flowing oil gradually runs out, the demand for new and innovative drilling techniques will increase and engineers will make a killing. With my generation ignorantly believing oil will dry up soon, the career won’t be too competitive.</p>
<p>Working on a giant machine just seems so much more fun than anything else. All the other types of engineering just don’t seem as EXCITING. I have talked to professors about the specifics of the job and the actual work seems very interesting to me. I know its something I will be great at and end up successful with. The oddness of the career fits me. I would love the unusual schedule and having my “office” be in the middle of nowhere. I could write an essay about why I love this stuff.</p>
<p>I asked a professor what you need to do to stand out and become successful in this industry. He said plain and simply, “HARD WORK.” That’s what all of you guys need, in order to get where you want to go.</p>
<p>Anyone know how a B.S. MechE can break into oil and gas as a Pet Eng (say Reservoir, Production, Facilities, or Drilling Engineer), straight out of college without relevant experience or coursework?</p>
<p>Facilities is more up the MechE path, do you have any MechE work experience?</p>
<p>For drilling/completions… I really think anyone with an engineering degree especially mechanical can do it.</p>
<p>For production and reservoir, petroleum engineers would be a better choice. Hence, if you want to do a rotation of all three disciplines, I’d bet on petroleum engineering.</p>
<p>Note that this field by the time you graduate, the specific job market might be saturated and I am seeing that trend is quite possible.</p>
<p>khoiey, where exactly do you see these trends?</p>
<p>I’m sure its commonly talked about on this forum, but students here are generally more aware of possible career opportunities. Only a small handful of universities even offer the major. In most places around the country, people don’t know what petroleum engineering is. The young generation is afraid to get into the oil business anyways.</p>
<p>The demand will increase as oil becomes more challenging to recover. About a month ago, North Dakota unexpectedly became the highest producing state. The field is growing and probably won’t be too competitive for students.</p>
<p>I predict the supply will continue to NOT meet the demand in this industry.</p>
<p>I’m really liking these answers so far guys. Keep 'em coming!</p>
<p>mathandscience,</p>
<p>this is based on my observation. I am a senior in PetE with 1 internship.</p>
<p>1) PSU PetE program is currently at its maximum capacity for the entrance-to-major (110 students declared PNGE as their majors in Fall 2012 and they will graduate in 2015). I can believe that other school programs would be the same case.</p>
<p>2) Most operators hire 1-2 students (and I can name all of them… that’s how many operators are out there) and same for independents (per school). However, independents might be even harder to get since their hiring pref is over 2 years of experience. However, service companies do hire the most but they also pay the least but for a mech/civil, it would consider to be the best. So imagine the competition would be now that the pool of enrolled students size has increase from 20 students to 110 students.</p>
<p>Unlike other industry, Oil/Gas is small. You can check out the rigs status in the country if you like.</p>
<p>3) The best time to graduate is 2010-2013 as it’s considered to be easy to get a job if you have a petE degree. But if you were to start as a freshman in 2013, I’d look at alternative (unless your family is connected in oil/gas).</p>
<p>If I was to graduate in 2017, I’d do a chem/mech degree and try to get an internship since freshman year with an oil/gas company and that would get me an opportunity to do drilling/completions. If I like to do reservoir, I’d then continue to do my master in PetE and perhaps get the company to pay for it.</p>
<p>This way, if I can’t get in the oil/gas industry by then, I can apply to other industry and have a better edge than a PetE trying to apply himself to a different field outside of Oil/gas sector.</p>
<p>Note: I do see the need of geophysics and geology majors pass 2017.</p>
<p>I also saw you saying you are going to PSU. While PSU has a great program (I’m also a PSU) but you would be better off starting down south due to easy access to internship market. Feel free to PM me and I can provide you better insight.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is just foolishness. It certainly won’t dry up in the next 20 years or anything, but it is still a very limited resource, and as it becomes more expensive to drill for new oil, the prices will rise and other technologies will come en vogue. Oil won’t die soon, but it won’t be such a dominant energy source forever, and that change is coming sooner than you seem to think. The demand for quality engineers will certainly rise, but not necessarily the overall number as other technologies become more competitive with petroleum-based technologies.</p>
<p>This is precisely why there aren’t many schools that offer the degree. If they don’t already offer it, it just doesn’t make any sense to start a new program from scratch that will be obsolete within the next century.</p>
<p>Additionally, one of the reasons why oil companies are so desperate right now is the aging workforce. In oil and gas especially, the engineering staffs are dominated by baby boomers who are nearing retirement. Of course, that means that in the very near future, they will retire and the companies will then be filled with relatively young employees and won’t have so much turnover and the demand for new graduates will fall.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>On what do you base your claim? You said in another thread that you are a high school senior, so you have zero experience in the petroleum industry or the job market or engineering in general, so on what are you basing this claim? It may well come to pass, but you seemingly have no basis for saying this.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That clearly isn’t true given the sheer volume of petroleum engineering threads on this forum, which are primarily created by high school kids asking about it and its great salaries.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>There were a handful of MEs that I graduated with who went into both drilling and reservoir positions in the oil and gas industry. It isn’t as common as petroleum engineers in those positions, but it can be done, especially if you are a standout candidate.</p>
<p>There is undeniably a demand for petroleum engineers. Both because the baby boomers are retiring and there is a need of QUALITY engineers to assess the difficulties of the future. Oil companies will need a large pool of students to choose from in order to find these “quality” engineers. The general conscious of the young generation is to AVOID OIL. Sure you see a bunch of high school kids drawn by the high salaries on this forum, but that is anecdotal evidence. They tend to be more educated of career possibilities, and that is why they are on this website. Most smart students are probably not even aware that petroleum engineering exists, let alone are interested in it. </p>
<p>In the grand scheme of things, the pool of enrolled engineers will not become “saturated,” it will remain relatively small. Sure some of the few petroleum engineering programs will reach maximum capacity. But petroleum engineering wont win an award for being most competitive. Compared to most industries, it may not be too difficult to find a job. I’m sure many of these CCers are smart enough to overcome the competition in the industry and end up as a quality engineer. Now if you are not so sure about yourself, a mechanical engineering degree with an oil internship may be preferable.</p>
<p>Of course, these are general assumptions I have compiled. I am not completely ignorant of the industry. I have had face to face conversations with professors, discussing the future of the oil business. This is my basis.</p>
<p>I am totally confident I want to go to PSU. I live three hours away and have looked forward to studying there for a while. What I lack in internship opportunities, I will have to overcome by maintaining a high GPA.</p>
<p>Thanks khoiey, I would like some insight.</p>
<p>
That, or they simply find that the field isn’t worth it. A general trend of this forum is to ask “what do I do to make $1000/day from a college degree” and the high salary of PetE can be very attractive to high schoolers.
Here’s another side of PetE that is, at the very least, worth a read: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/14214945-post2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/14214945-post2.html</a></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, there is a need. There will not always be a need as you seem convinced. Furthermore, this need will almost certainly not be maintained at it’s current incredibly high level given all the reasons mentioned previously. The high level of need for new petroleum engineers right now is simply unsustainable over the long and even medium term. There will probably still be a large need in 5 years, but will it be as large as it is now? It almost certainly won’t be that way in 10 years.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Of course they will want a large pool to choose from to find quality engineers. That doesn’t in any way mean they will hire all of them. If it were up to the companies, even if they only had 15 openings each year they would still want 15,000 graduates to choose from. It lets them be more picky and pay less. This line of reasoning is a non sequitur.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Based on what information or facts? You can’t just assume things like this. This industry in particular absolutely fits the bill for one that will become saturated in the near- to medium-term future. Think about it: the large need currently is driven by a retiring workforce, the resource it exploits is not infinite (even if it won’t run out in your career), and students are currently flocking to it in droves lured by the high salaries. Logic dictates that in all likelihood, the market for petroleum engineers will saturate barring some other influence coming into play.</p>
<p>Again, I will stress that there is no way to say exactly when that market will saturate. All signs point to the fact that it will, but it may be 10 or 15 years yet before it happens. The point is, it won’t all be roses forever, or even for too much longer. The nature of that industry is such that in the long run, it will fade away.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Petroleum engineering is quite competitive, actually. There are admittedly few programs, but most of them are at capacity every year. Of course, the same thing goes for mechanical engineering. Still, your speculation here is all wrong. The programs for petroleum engineering are quite competitive, usually at capacity year-to-year, and the job aren’t just falling off trees as you seem to be convinced.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is a very dangerous line of thinking. I am not disparaging PSU, but think long and hard about your choice if there really is difficulty getting internships out of PSU. The current hiring trends suggest that companies value internship/co-op experience in their industry at least as much as GPA, probably more in many cases. If you come out of school these days with a 4.0 GPA but absolutely zero work experience, you will have a very difficult time finding a job in all likelihood. Just keep that in mind.</p>
<p>Remember Petroleum industry do recruit ME/ChemE/CE other than petroleum engineering. </p>
<p>In this industry, internship trumps high GPA alone. If you want to be competitive, you will have to have a minimum of 3.2 gpa and 1 internship. That is for 2012-2013 oil/gas engineering job market. For 2013-2014, I think it will be much more expectation. </p>
<p>PSU is pumping out max capacity and I’m sure other schools in TX would be double or triple that amount.</p>
<p>I realize I haven’t been making myself clear</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This may be the source of our disagreement. I have been convinced that the demand has not yet peaked and it will continue to reach higher levels. The job outlook is expected to grow, is it not? This is my impression of the oil industry: Cheap, free flowing oil resources from places such as Saudi Arabia (which we primarily rely on) are eventually going to dry up (possibly 10 years?). This will trigger increased drilling in places around the world that are more difficult and expensive. Oil prices will be driven up, requiring more engineers and essentially causing a final boom in the industry. This would create a “need” far beyond just replacing the baby boomers.</p>
<p>I thought this was typically considered in the future of the oil business. I may be wrong.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>My point was that there wont be a large and competitive pool to choose from. Not enough top students are applying for petroleum engineering degrees (comparable to the scale of increased demand). If I am wrong and the market does become saturated, oil companies wont have a problem. But common discussions on college confidential and a few universities with full capacity is not evidence of saturation to me. In fact, most universities still boast something near 100 percent job placement! Anything close to that means not enough people are in the industry and it is hard to believe that will drastically change over a few years.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I claimed petroleum engineering was not overly competitive when I was giving reasons for choosing my career. Other careers I have considered include doctor and biomedical engineer. Petroleum engineering just doesn’t have competition comparable to medical school or the biomedical engineering job market. My point was that for a decently smart and hard working individual, petroleum engineering may be a less difficult career path, considering its a smaller and less known industry.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I meant that maintaining a high GPA would give me a greater chance of obtaining the limited internships at PSU.</p>
<p>Think of it this way: is it a good risk? If oil does go under or get oversaturated, are you left with widely marketable skills or a degree that is way too specific to serve any real purpose? Are the future benefits really worth the conditions that you have to work in?</p>
<p>Hi, I have a question about becoming a Pet Engingeer: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/1371908-i-want-work-petroleum-engineer.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/1371908-i-want-work-petroleum-engineer.html</a></p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Goodness gracious guys. Play nice here. I didn’t start this thread to talk about the possibility of peak oil, job stability or anything like that. I started this thread for students interested in the field to ask questions about it, not starting an argument over it. Although your insight on the future is interesting, this is. I place for it. If you want to discuss this argument to anymore extent please restrict it to personal messages. To those who actually made a good contribution to the thread, thank you.</p>
<p>Now back to the real purpose of the thread, I have some more questions. </p>
<p>-What courses did you take in high school/how did you compare to others? Because I know I can speak for others when I say I’m intimidated by other people here on CC who say they have lille a 1836 weighted GPA and other crazy stats. </p>
<p>And if the new posts on this thread are not to help aspiring engineers, please keep them to your selves. Or if you really think they need to be heard you and PM them to someone who wants to read them because this is not the place. Thank you and have a nice day.</p>
<p>I kindly disagree. The above discussion has been very relevant. If one of us had been in this thread discussion our point of view, could the other of us allow information we consider wrong to be proliferated? That pretty much defeats the purpose of the forum.</p>