Question for Petroleum Engineers!

<p>Definitely true. The time to enter a petroleum engineering program was 4-5 years ago. Texas A&M even sent out a letter to incoming freshman regarding market saturation and increased competition for internships and full time offers. There were tons of offers from Chevron, Exxon , Shell, Anadarko and BHP at my school 3-5 years ago, and now, a lot of bright petroleum engineering majors that I know are settling for field engineering positions with service companies, which do not pay nearly as well (see $60K vs $90-95K), and start new hires in really harsh areas.</p>

<p>Is it possible to work offshore if you don’t know how to swim? Need help on this. Thanks.</p>

<p>Harsh areas? like?</p>

<p>North Dakota, Canada, etc. A note that ‘harsh’ can vary depending on your personal feelings towards it. I’ve roughnecked in Texas and in the GOM; I’ve heard that working up north presents a lot of challenges with the weather, but I care more about money than personal comfort at this point =).</p>

<p>Just this year “lookbehindyou” was asking for his chances to transferring to Texas a&m engineering. I wonder how that worked for him? Even better why he is criticizing the one major that he had a passion for not too long ago. If you want some objective information on this subject look at the stats, starting salaries, and department saturation, over the years at colleges offering Petroleum engineering. Also follow politics if you want to know if PetE will open the way to a successful career in the future.</p>

<p>According to my calculation, you should no be in PETE program now, </p>

<p>[Chemjobber:</a> A fair warning to petroleum engineering students?](<a href=“Chemjobber: A fair warning to petroleum engineering students?”>Chemjobber: A fair warning to petroleum engineering students?)</p>

<p>[17-2171.00</a> - Petroleum Engineers](<a href=“http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/17-2171.00]17-2171.00”>17-2171.00 - Petroleum Engineers)
2010 total position: 30,000
2010-2020 project opening: 11800 </p>

<p>[Petroleum</a> Engineers : Occupational Outlook Handbook : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics](<a href=“http://stats.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/petroleum-engineers.htm]Petroleum”>http://stats.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/petroleum-engineers.htm)
Revised data
2012 total obs; 38,500 (2012 total employed; 36,410)
2012-2022 project opening: 9,800</p>

<p>[Could</a> Oil-Fed Enrollment Boom Lead To Bust At U.S. Colleges? - Forbes](<a href=“http://www.forbes.com/sites/lorensteffy/2013/06/25/could-oil-fed-enrollment-boom-lead-to-bust-at-u-s-colleges/]Could”>Could Oil-Fed Enrollment Boom Lead To Bust At U.S. Colleges?)</p>

<p>So if they are asking for 1,000 manpower per year, and the year the number exceeded 1000 was 2011. So if anything the salary should drop in 2012 and 2013, so the unemployment rate for pet should increase and for the graduating class of 2018 (4+1), the employment rate for jobs that req PETE degree will likely be much lower. </p>

<p>For case in comparison, in 2012 82,920 (52,000 from US law school) passed bar exams but BLS only projected 74,800 over 10 year period, so at the end in 2013 only 56% of the 2012 graduates had jobs that req bar passage. So approximately 25,000 US lawyers from ABA schools were gainfully employed, remove BLS projected new opening 7,500 each year, appr 18,000 of which likely as a result of replacement (but it is more than that since half of the lawyers are solo and self employed, so the replacement likely comes from the other 50%~9,000) So my theory is that graduating at number at double the BLS projection should be reasonable (half from replacement half from new). Anything above will create a saturation. </p>

<p>So my guess is if the current trend continues, the day of saturation will come about 2-3 years after 2013 class starts to hit internship market and declare that </p>

<p>[Lawyers</a> : Occupational Outlook Handbook : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics](<a href=“http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Legal/Lawyers.htm]Lawyers”>http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Legal/Lawyers.htm)
<a href=“http://www.ncbex.org/assets/media_files/Bar-Examiner/articles/2013/8201132012statistics.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ncbex.org/assets/media_files/Bar-Examiner/articles/2013/8201132012statistics.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/barely_half_of_all_2012_law_gr[/url]”>http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/barely_half_of_all_2012_law_gr&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>And it may get even worse since other engineers can qualify for 1/3 of the petroleum engineering openings, so the actual number of grad req should be at 1,400 which was already achieved in 2013. I dont think we will start hearing horror stories until say 2016.</p>

<p>My suggestion is that unless oil price rises to create enough positions (30% higher at $120/barrel), or they cut the enrollment number to 2012 level, do not major in PETE program.</p>

<p>I’m currently a Fresman Petroleum Engineering major at Texas A&M and would just like to tell the OP to not buy into these “scares” other people are posting. It seems like everyday some department head is telling the students it is a great time to be in this major. Baby Boomers are retiring which are opening a lot of positions. As a Freshman, I was able to secure an internship at the job fair for this upcoming summer and I expect my incoming income to fully pay for college next year. In fact, I know several freshmen who were able to secure internships. If you are passionate about the field don’t be afraid to go into it.</p>

<p>^^^^</p>

<p>And I know many great junior and senior students who weren’t able to get internships or really struggled to find jobs.</p>

<p>Absolute S-T-R-U-G-G-L-E! Slim pickens these days… you really have to go to desperate measures to get an internship, or even just a job on a rig right now. School’s like mine without the great alumni base, it’s an uphill battle to put it lightly. NMT’s program exploded last semester; completely unsustainable enrollment for this small school. We may all be a few years too late, we shall find out soon. But what are you gonna do? It’s not like the other engineering fields are blowing petroleum away.</p>

<p>Steve, you could switch to mining/mineral engineering at NMT. 100% placement rate and starting salaries between 65K-70K.</p>