Career advice - Petroleum

BRPORSCHE · 08-11-2011, 03:30 PM

OK guys I am at a very interesting crossroads in my education.

I am very close to getting a B.S in Geology. I wanted to be a Petroleum Engineer, but I messed up a lot and ended up in Geology. Now I still want to be a Pet E, but I don't want to go back and take different engineering classes to be able to have it as my major. My university offers a minor in Pet E, so what I am thinking is to get my B.S in Geology with a minor in Pet E. I would only have to fulfill about 5 more classes to be able to achieve this minor.

Now here is the fun part. If I want to Master in Pet E I would need 5 pre-requisites classes to be able to enter the Pet E class with a B.S in Geology. Those 5 classes are the ones that I needed to fulfill my minor.

What I am trying to figure out is that if the master is even worth it? I am sure it would definitely boost my salary and would keep me moving in a forward direction with my education. Are there major companies that would hire a kid with a B.S in Geology and a Masters in Pet E?

Anybody in the industry thanks for the advice.

RWebb · RWebb's Garage

this would be in exploration, right?

way back when, oil co.s often sent people back to college FREE to get adv. degrees - no idea now, but I bet sammy can offer some advice

BRPORSCHE · 08-11-2011, 05:42 PM

This may be of importance but the service comp that I work for os paying for it.

Is it atill a good deal?

aigel · aigel's Garage

I am not in your industry but have some advice that applies to any engineering field:

A graduate degree will make it easier for you to transfer jobs while keeping a higher salary. You may be fine climbing the latter with a BS in a single company but when it is time to move to another company (by choice or not) it will be tough to keep your pay. With a graduate degree there is an automatic pay level they will have to start you at, experience or not.

With every level of education, chances of being unemployed go down. There is a big difference on that statistics betwen BS and graduate degrees. We have posted those stats on here before from the department of labor.

Grad school will also extend college - a time you will miss very much as soon as you are in the corporate hamster wheel.

George

sammyg2 · 08-11-2011, 05:50 PM

Yes! There are plenty of them!

Many oil companies are hungry for young engineers to move into exploration and production.

There's a phenomenon happening in the industry: They have a whole bunch of experienced engineers that are almost ready to retire, but don't have enough young prospects to replace them.
They are aggressively pursuing young talent as long as they don't mind traveling constantly, often to to far off third world countries.

Disclaimer: I'm not in the production side, I work in refining but the same thing is going on in both sectors.
We've lost 4 young engineers in the past 14 months to major oil companies.

aigel · aigel's Garage

On the degrees: In my experience the highest degree counts. As long as your bachelor is in a related field, you will be all set. It may even be good if you have BS and MS in different areas, but related - it shows some versatility.

I am not sure if I read it right, but if your employer pays for it, by all means go for it. If not, try to get an assistantship which usually takes care of tuition and some living expenses.

Good Luck!

George

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Get your minor in Pet E. Take the FE (aka EIT) exam. Work on and Get Master's degree in Pet E. No one will care if you have a BS in Pet E. Finish by getting your PE license. You will have a great difficulty, not having a job.

You might want to consider working overseas. It provides more experience at a younger age and allows you to make a lot of money.

Pazuzu · 08-11-2011, 07:42 PM

Degrees in petro related things mean nothing. Find and independent and go to town.

If you go work for one of the Big Boys, you are in for 10 years of misery. I know you know this.

As for your more direct question...

I've never seen a science field where a MS in a specific degree is negated by a BS is a slightly less specific degree. Your MS in petro engineering will be fine with the minor. Companies won't look away just because your BS isn't exactly "right".

I had to look up my degrees to make sure that...oh yeah, none of them have a damned thing to do with petro. Go independent! More and more companies are calling us and asking how the Mike experiment worked. Sammy's right, they're desperate. However, they're not desperate for a bunch of UofH petro grads who have been told that they're worth $100K starting.