Posted on 08/06/2012 4:42:48 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Just three years ago, petroleum engineering wasn't an especially hot major for college students looking to enter a field with plentiful jobs.
How things have changed.
Today, the oil patch and active drilling in the Eagle Ford Shale is convincing more students that a job in the energy field is the way to go, experts said.
A recent study of 60,000 college students, including 2,400 in Texas, by Universum, a Stockholm-based company, found that students view jobs at oil and gas companies as much more desirable than even a year ago.
Top salaries paid by energy companies are making energy jobs a hot ticket on college campuses.
The average salary for spring graduates in petroleum engineering at Texas A&M University was $87,743 a year. The maximum salary offered was $113,000 a year.
“Every oil company listed in our survey — all the top ones — increased in their attractiveness to students last year,” said Vicki Lynn, senior vice president of employer branding at Universum's U.S. headquarters in New York.
Oil and gas jobs in Texas, specifically, are seen as more attractive to students.
[snip]
There's also an uptick in hiring by the oil and gas industry in mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering departments, [Tadeusz Patzek] said.
Although UT Austin had sought to limit enrollment in its Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department, the school decided to admit more in the face of so much demand.
In 2012, Patzek said the university's petroleum engineering department sought 80 students, admitted 111 and rejected about 700 applicants.
(Excerpt) Read more at mysanantonio.com ...
Have unions "ruined" this industry yet?
The average salary for spring graduates in petroleum engineering at Texas A&M University was $87,743 a year. The maximum salary offered was $113,000 a year.
BTTT
Good news.
Obama's EPA no-holds barred oversight and oppressive regulations are doing their best to snuff out cheap energy and U.S. energy independence.
Not necessarily. The petroleum industry is very prone to "boom/bust" cycles, including those induced by fedgov eco-interference. If these kids can land that high-paying job....great.....but they need to live as though they can lose it tomorrow (get and stay debt free, build up a six-month cash reserve....etc).
“The average salary for spring graduates in petroleum engineering at Texas A&M University was $87,743 a year. The maximum salary offered was $113,000 a year.”
The problem is that the kids have to stop trying to SAVE THE WORLD (in other words, put down their video games) for a few and crack a book or two.
Not too many takers these days.
I managed to get onto a Production Platform for Mobil Oil for two summers, and that pretty much paid my way thru college. However, by the time I graduated in 1985, I was lucky to get a clean-painter job on a drilling rig. In 1986, I got laid off from that and haven't been in the oilfield since.
Now, if some oil company is willing to hire an old, broken-down Highway/Geotechnical Engineer for $87,000-$113,000, I'll be more than willing to re-locate. {8^D
Point is, the Petroleum Engineering is more subject to the whims of economics and politics than other Technical fields. A prospective Petroleum Engineering student entering college needs to have a passion for the Oil Patch, and is willing to stick it out during the dry times as well.
I believe you could start your search in North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Texas.
http://oilshalegas.com/bakkenshale.html
http://geology.com/articles/marcellus-shale.shtml
http://oilshalegas.com/eaglefordshale.html
This can do with less of their political crap.
I’ve been at it since the mid 70’s and yep it’s got it’s ups and downs but I was never out of work. Hell I’m trying to retire now and they won’t let me, it’s always one more project. I’ve got a standing offer for 2,000 a day if I’d just move to Williston ND but that ain’t gonna happen. Four rigs running at the same time keeps a man plenty busy and I’m just to old for that anymore. Plus it’s colder than hell up there, did some work for ARCO back in the 80’s south of Williston and damn near froze to death. My feet are now planted in West Texas and they ain’t moving.
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Good advice for anyone in any industry.
My regret is my first eight post college working years were outside the energy biz.
And for those not interested in a college degree or a desk job...
Texas oil boom fueling trucker bonuses propels Odessa
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2012/08/06/texas-oil-boom-fueling-trucker-bonuses-propels-odessa/
Truckers can get $5,000 signing bonuses from companies serving Odessa, the West Texas center of a new Lone Star State oil boom and the nation’s fastest-growing city.
Housing is so tight that the local school district put deposits down on 15 apartments, to ensure that new teachers moving to the area would have places to live.
Union Pacific Corp. (UNP) is adding tracks and railyard facilities to help trains handle flows of drilling supplies coming in and crude oil heading out. The rising prosperity, driven by new extraction technologies and hydraulic fracturing, has unleashed an economic surge that is transforming Texas’s “petroplex” of Odessa and nearby Midland.
Bump!
Good point. I say, become an accountant in the petroleum industry.
And in the “I Don’t Want to Have a Future” catagory are all the students who foolishly major in Journalism or Communication (TV). Newspapers are as antiquated as the teletype. There are only a few hundred TV stations in the country, and only a tiny number hire new anchors each year. (Elderly anchors can stay until their plastic surgeons retire, and if you are White, you are not in the diversity game.)
Yet universities across the land are happy to take thousands of parents’ savings to train their starry-eyed youth for these imaginary jobs. In a just world, this would be investigated as fraud
The WSJ had an article about the the top 200 careers, taking into consideration pay, job security and working conditions. News reporter was 5th from the bottom.
I don’t remember whether they even had petroleum engineer on the list, but oil companies will take any kind of engineer. An engineer with an MBA would be golden. some of the oil companies are actually paying bonuses to older employees for not retiring because they don’t have the people coming up to replace them.
I’d expand your point to all extractive/commodity industries. The same sort of boom/bust cycle exists in everything from oil, to precious metals mining, base metals mining, steel/iron/coal/coke, grains/crops, cattle, etc.
The important point is that these “boom or bust” cycles keep these industries from expanding to the point of debt bubble collapse, such as we now see in the housing/real estate industries, banking/finance, etc.
My grand-daughter graduated 3 yrs. ago w/ a Mech. Engineering degree.
She was typical lib, refusing to apply with Shell Oil that at the time was crying for workers in W. Co.
She spent the next 2 yrs. in a daycare center. Saw the light.
Got a job, finally, designing and modelling oil pipelines.
She loves it. I’m real proud of her.
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