<p>I am looking to transfer to a petroleum engineering college. I am not sure which ones I should apply for. So I have a few questions:</p>
<p>Which petroleum engineering universities do the big oil companies like Exxon, Shell, Chevron and BP prioritize their recruiting from?</p>
<p>Also, for example, if I wanted to work in Alaska would it be beneficial for me to go to a petrol engineering university in Alaska? For instance, if I wanted to work in Alaska would it be more likely an oil company hire me for a position in Alaska if I go to Alaska University? Or if I want to work in Texas would it be less likely I get hired for a job in Texas if I go to Alaska university?</p>
<p>Separately, let's say I wanted to work internationally, for example in the Middle east or central Asia which schools or companies should I be looking at?</p>
<p>And also I would prefer doing field work oppose to desk work.
What can I do now as far as which universities I should apply for in insuring I have a higher likely hood of being recruited for field work?</p>
<p>Which states have a lot of field work opportunities.</p>
<p>Thank you very much to who ever helps to answer my questions. This is a very important time and these decisions are difficult to make if I do not have all the facts.</p>
<p>There aren’t very many programs to start with, if you search google it’s pretty easy to find a complete list. Once you see the list you can immediately pick out the schools that you usually hear people talk about… Off the top of my head, I’d say these are the ones to apply to, more or less in order of most recruited to least (don’t take this to be exact, it’s just my best guess). I don’t know where they’d go on this list but I believe Stanford and USC also have programs…</p>
<p>UT-Austin
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Colorado School of Mines
LSU
University of Oklahoma
[University of Alaska]** might be more heavily recruited than I think due to location.</p>
<ul>
<li>Also, although you can surely end up working anywhere coming out of any of these schools, you should definitely assume that location will play a large role in where you start your career.</li>
</ul>
<p>Going to U of Alaska will not necessarily give you an advantage in Alaska because the companies are still based in Houston. I would think that going to a more highly rated program (aka down south) would give you a better shot and then when you talk to the recruiters, you just make it known that you would like to work in Alaska… or wherever else you may want to work.</p>
<p>Then again, if your heart is set on U of Alaska, you should consider that just because it is a good fit.</p>
<p>I don’t really agree with that logic. Recruiting is definitely region specific, even at well known nationally ranked schools there is going to be about 50% region specific recruiting. Plus, just because a company is based somewhere other than where they’re recruiting doesn’t mean they’re there recruiting for their corporate headquarter base. Usually if a company has large operations near a school with a decent program they will recruit there for those operations. </p>
<p>I would be willing to bet that a substantially larger percentage of U-Alaska grads start out working in Alaska than UT grads.</p>
<p>It is region specific, but Houston is the oil capital of North America. The people calling the shots are in Houston. The people sitting in Alaska are the ones from the branch offices who are getting their hands dirty, but the ones hiring the “talent” are not necessarily up there. Maybe there is a big, giant Exxon office in Fairbanks or Anchorage or something that has a bunch of staff and HR people and all that good stuff, but if it is just a series of field offices that cover Alaska, then I doubt they do the actual hiring directly for engineering. They probably do for the labor, but not engineering.</p>
I’m going to ask some Fairbanks grads this exact question. I tend to think you are wrong though. I think that Fairbanks grads tend to work for BP and Alaska centric companies more often than others. There is a significant amount of engineering activity that is needed on-site.</p>
Only ones of significant size that you missed are Tulsa and Montana Tech. I think Penn State & West Virgina are smaller programs (but I haven’t actually looked at the numbers).</p>
<p>For the record, I never said that there wasn’t any engineering activity on-site. In fact, I know for a fact that there is an engineer on every drill site at all times while drilling operations are taking place, and there are usually several, including those form the oil companies and those from the service companies such as Halliburton or Schlumberger. However, it still wouldn’t surprise me if the recruiting was still done most heavily through the larger offices. I very well may be wrong, as I only have experience in the Texas/Oklahoma area, but at the very least, I don’t think the chances would be HURT by going somewhere like UT or TAMU.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the feedbakc guys? But hiw about if I wanted to work over seas and on the field? What colleges would be best for being recruited to work internationally?</p>
The difference, of course, is the rapid growth in the past 2-3 years. All my coworkers who went to those schools describe their graduating classes as 10 people or less.</p>