<p>I know UT has great programs for both majors, but I was just wondering which one I would be better off doing-which has the best job opportunities/is easier to find a job with? Would double majoring in these be a bad idea? Or possibly majoring in one and minoring in another? Or would it be too much of a workload?</p>
<p>don’t double major or minor</p>
<p>According to bls, there are more chemical engineering jobs out there than petroleum.</p>
<p>Looking at the curricula of both I’d say you’d have a very heavy workload if you decided to pursue both. It’s definitely possible, but be prepared to forfeit a good majority of your non-academic life for time in the library with your nose in a book. From reading other posts on the subject, it seems PetE, although not as popular as ChE, provides excellent job opportunities as well as one of the best (if not the best) expected earnings for any engineering discipline. However, you should search and read through some of the PetE posts on CC. From my reading, most PetE’s get places upstream at well sites, sometimes offshore, working incredibly long hours away from home. That said, petroleum will be in demand for years to come (most likely for the entirety of your professional career) so you’d be entering a very stable field</p>
<p>On the other hand, according to BLS.gov, ChE jobs are expected to decline by ~3% between 2010 and 2018. HOWEVER, this does not mean demand for ChE’s is declining. There is a large boomer population ready to retire/retiring and many companies are looking for fresh blood to fill these positions. I would also say that anyone with a decent to excellent GPA and UG internship/co-op experience will not have a problem fining a job. Besides that, ChE has a “wider” range of opportunities than PetE. ChE ranges from Biotech to High Tech to Nanotechnology. Also, if you really want to work in oil, many Oil Co’s hire ChE’s for their downstream (refining) operations.</p>