If you are hard working candidate, be with CS, don't get into Petroleum engineering. Petroleum engineering is easy money,you just need to manipulate stuff(like tossing a coin), initially you may like it but later on you will get frustrated.Go to CS!
If you are hard working candidate, be with CS, don't get into Petroleum engineering. Petroleum engineering is easy money,you just need to manipulate stuff(like tossing a coin), initially you may like it but later on you will get frustrated.Go to CS!
PE is boom and bust. Yeah, it's great right now, but that doesn't mean it will be forever. And when it does bust you're pretty limited, since a petroleum engineering degree doesn't transfer very well to other disciplines.
I interned as a wireline field engineer with Schlumberger. Don't know how it compares to the other opportunities for an actual PE, but it seemed to me like a pretty crap job for a pretty good pile of cash. Not really difficult at all, from an intellectual stand point. I graduated a few years back and was offered 80k first year, then the next year it would have jumped to 100-120 after I had completed training and started performing my own jobs. And that would have been in BFE NE Utah, so really pretty awesome money.
But, the hours were nuts (you could very well work 95% of 10 days straight, but then you do get 5 days off, although you might get called in then too) and the bulk of the job consisted of either driving from well site to well site, or sitting in the truck watching data stream in at the well sites. For those who do not know, wireline, at least the "open hole" variety that I mostly did, involves using a truck with a big spool of cable to drop data logging equipment down into an exploratory well, so that the geologists can figure out if there's any good stuff down there. You drive around in your area of operatoins, generally a 100-200 mile radius, with one or two other people (an engineer and one or two techs), and do that until the phones stop ringing with rig operators demanding your services.
Pretty boring work, pretty hectic conditions not exactly conducive to a healthy lifestyle...lots of sleep deprivation. Aside from the general lack of interest in the work, I also didn't like the sort of one track path I felt it would have taken me down. My work experience wouldn't have been relevant at all to a more traditional engineering job had I decided to jump ship.
So now I make less money in the SF Bay area than I would have in BFE, and have like 3x the cost of living, but I'm actually doing something interesting and can live a normal life.
But if you don't have a strong desire to do any particular type of work, and don't mind the crazy hours and locations, it really is a pretty good career choice I think. Yeah, maybe the industry finally goes in the shitter in 30 years (although I bet it will still be doing fine...they'll need more and more highly paid engineers to get the harder to produce reserves), but you could probably retire by then anyways with all of the money they'll throw at you.
Be aware!
University of Tulsa.
End of Fall'14.
Professors are committed to make the PE Major as difficult as possible and that doesn't mean they are good at teaching at all. Also, they prepare exams not based on what they teach. Next, it is an email from a PE professor to the Freshman students:
Grades in Intro to PE were posted in WebAdvisor but will not become visible until midnight when the system updates. I enjoyed this season's classes. I trust this course served its designed purpose to give you enough depth into the Petroleum Engineering profession for you to determine if this is a good fit for you and your career beyond TU. Intro to PE can be a tough course for some and will only get tougher in future editions. Some will be satisfied with their grades, while others will be disappointed. If you struggled and did not earn better than a C, it will be a quite difficult degree path. With determination to improve, you can still be successful in your next round of PE courses, but it will not be easy. I wish you success as you go forward. Those of you continuing in PE, I look forward to seeing you in the classroom again a couple years down the road.
Dr. Hazlett
Ha ha! Obvious bump by an idiot who flunked his exam.
Seriously stick to CS, CS makes bank and is very very flexible. You could be making iPhone apps or making control systems for missiles. More jobs, more potential. But if you like petrol more than do petrol; what you like should come first.
Hock o Ham wrote:
PE is boom and bust. Yeah, it's great right now, but that doesn't mean it will be forever. And when it does bust you're pretty limited, since a petroleum engineering degree doesn't transfer very well to other disciplines.
This.
I took some classes in grad school in the Petroleum Engineering department. The had about 250 students in the early 80s and then about 7 students in the 90s, all from Venezuela. All the petroleum engineers from the 80s were trying to get jobs in groundwater remediation in the 90s.
The coursework is a selection of chemical and geological engineering classes. If you're interested in the field, I'd recommend Chemical Engineering with some Geology and you'd be attractive to the energy companies without being locked into a boom or bust industry.
Here is a good ranking of schools for petroleum engineering: http://petroleum-schools.com/petroleum-engineering
LOL
I was just about to write something similar.
Hello
What college did you go to?
Hock o Ham wrote:
PE is boom and bust. Yeah, it's great right now, but that doesn't mean it will be forever. And when it does bust you're pretty limited, since a petroleum engineering degree doesn't transfer very well to other disciplines.
Three years later, It's a bust.
I love tailpipes and the middle east. Would petroleum engineering a good career choice for me?