Education Advice, Long Term Prospects?

[hotjava66]

I am looking for advice on becoming a PetE. I am a former excavating contractor, decided when things went bad in 08 to change careers and went back to school. Just about done with the engineering basics and need to choose a specific branch and transfer to a university to finish up the last 2 years. Are any of the 12 or so PetE programs out there better than the others or provide better recruitment/job opportunities? Any that are better for drilling/extraction or pipeline. That is my interest and what could best apply my former experience to. I will have to move and bring the family along wherever I choose, nothing close by(Michigan). Wife is in health care so job is pretty mobile. Also wondering what your thoughts are on long term prospects in the field. Keep in mind it would probably be 2015 by the time I finish and I will be close to 40 by that time? Will there be opportunities available, and will I be able to make enough $ to retire in 20 years or so? I could still choose another branch in engineering if I have to, though petro has my interest at this time. I am hoping my experience in running a company, bidding, running crews, and my familiarity with heavy equipment and trucks will be an asset both in hiring and to hit the ground running so to speak. Thanks in advance for any input or advice you can give.

 

[BigInch]

See 27 Dec.

Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone. - Pablo Picasso

 

[zdas04]

For the most part, Petroleum Engineering guys divide into two main groups--Reservoir Engineers and Production Engineers. Drillers are a world of their own, but are kind of a hybrid offshoot of Production. None of the Petroleum Engineers do pipeline or site construction. The industry uses mostly ME's for that (there are a few Petroleum guys in facilities, but they're pretty rare, there is a pretty good number of ChE's, but mostly they've spent time in a Process Engineering job prior to moving into construction).

If you want to be a Driller or a Production Engineer then yes there are differences in the Petroleum Engineering programs. A disproportionate number of the top managers in the industry graduated from Colorado School of Mines, Texas A&M, University of Tulsa, or Tulane. Texas Tech used to be high on that list, but the school has seriously de-emphasized their Petroleum program over the last few years.

A better fit for your background is probably Mechanical Engineering with a fluids emphasis. You probably won't find a pipeline program (or any courses), so you can salt in extra materials courses to help round out what the programs lack. For Mechanical Engineering there are a large number of great programs, but the ones that have yielded the best Facilities Engineers I've seen are West Point, Texas A&M, University of Texas (Austin), and the University of Oklahoma (Norman). I've worked with guys from the other great engineering schools (MIT, Cal Tech, Georgia Tech, etc.), but in Oil & Gas they really haven't stood out as universally above average like the guys from West Point or Texas A&M.

As to stability, the greenies HATE our industry. The mass media HATES our industry. Consequently all the general public hears about the industry is very negative and mostly they hate us too. It can be unpleasant to be loathed for making people's lives better, a lot of people have left the industry just because of that. The government is passing increasingly intrusive legislation and regulations to "protect the public" from us and that is hard on job stability (in New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming fuzzy headed regulations have had the industry in those states in a depression for the last 5 years but there are signs that these states are starting to come out of it). In the beginning of 1986 there were over 500,000 U.S. jobs in Oil & Gas. By the end of 1987 that number was closer to 100,000 jobs. We didn't get back to 500,000 jobs until 2008 when it happened again. The numbers are a bit fuzzy right now but the best I can tell Oil & Gas employment has increased back to around 400,000. Those of us that survived 1986 and 2008 have seen very strong salaries and reasonably stable (over)workload.

As to being 40 and starting out as a newbie, in the right job most of the majors and many of the large independents would count your time in construction as "related work experience" and some would not put you through the 3-5 year intern programs that have become so popular. 2013 might be a really good time to enter the industry if you focus your extra-curricular study on Shale Gas and Shale Oil production and facilities.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

http://www.muleshoe-eng.com

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

"It is always a poor idea to ask your Bridge Club for medical advice or a collection of geek engineers for legal advice"