Fair enough. I meant to add that a graduate degree (here in the US) is more or less necessary for a geology background. I’m sure Chem/Petro engineers do fine with a bachelors.
@Fatsquirrel I actually know a ChemE graduate from UMich working at Shell without MS/PhD. Thanks for the clarification.
I know many ChemE majors working for high pay for oil companies and they only have BS’s. They were hired right out of college for $80k+ salaries.
My oldest has a few friends in the petroleum industry and they were geology and ChemEs…and yes with BS degrees. Not sure where Fatsquirrel is getting information. Could be true that an advanced degree is required, but that’s not my anecdotal experience/understanding.
Re:energy resources, you will probably want a grad degree, but if you want to stay in a narrow sector, it’s possible an undergrad degree will be enough.
The OP hasn’t been back. Really, she needs to provide more info…student’s stats, family budget, is this a domestic student, etc.
@momofthreeboys I’m a senior in the geology department and my friends and I are quite aware of the current job market for our major. Major companies like Shell, Exxon, Schlumberger, and BP (and the smaller companies that do contract work for them) won’t talk to a student that has/will only have a undergraduate degree. As I said, a masters or PhD is required if you don’t want to be a mudlogger. Mudlogging and a couple other low level jobs are very easy to get with a bachelors, but pay, locality, and schedule are abysmal. I’m sure there’s exceptions as there always are, but generally geology will require an advanced degree to really open any doors.
@Fatsquirrel What about an undergrad degree in geophysics?
@Ynotgo I’ve never asked any recruiters specifically about geophysics (we don’t have a geophysics degree here, only a concentration) but I think one would maybe fair a little better with just a BS in geophysics compared to geology. In talking to recruiters they tended to be very interested in a persons research and seeing that they could see a project through to completion (which is where the graduate degree comes in) so I think this would still big factor for an aspiring geophysicist getting hired.
I was talking to a friend yesterday whose DD is a MechE major at a top school. She had 4 offers for internships this summer. 3 Fortune 500 companies offered a large salary for the summer as well as paid housing. All 3 were companies I would have expected to hire MEs. The 4th offer was from a well known PetEng firm, and they offered her DOUBLE what the other firms did. I never really thought about PetEng firms hiring engineers other than PE majors. I also was a bit surprised that with the industry down right now that they are throwing around that kind of money that dwarfs the other industrial titans.
Perhaps the petroleum companies have to pay more due to the possibility of poor working conditions – messy oil all over the place, extreme hot and cold climates, isolated oil fields or offshore oil rigs, oil fields in politically unstable countries, oil fields in countries with extreme (by US standards) social restrictions, etc…
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I never really thought about PetEng firms hiring engineers other than PE majors.
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That doesn’t surprise me. They also hire ChemE majors.
Many engineering job reqs will list a variety of majors/degrees that they will consider.
You are confusing field hands, roughnecks and mudloggers with engineers.
I have a number of close friends (engineers, geologists, geophysicists) in the oil industry. Most never leave their computers in luxury, air- conditioned office towers in major cities.
To be hired, engineers (domestic students) need only an undergrad degree. Geologists & geophysicists need to have a minimum of a masters degree. PhD is not necessary.
For engineers, it is not necessarily to have a narrowly tailored degree in petroleum engineering. Nor is it even necessary to be a chemical engineer. There are plenty of mech e’s.
The most coveted jobs for fresh graduates are with the super-majors (exxon, shell, chevtex, bp). They offer the best training (starting salary in upper 90’s). Once a young professional has 10 years experience, and with a pedigree from a super-major, then that’s when the door opens for the high paying jobs with independent companies and for overseas assignments.
To be recruited by a super-major, u usually need to graduate from schools the companies traditionally hire from. That means big name, national schools known for petroleum engineering & geoscience (state flagship in oil states, and mining schools), or from local schools in the city where the company has a major office (typically Houston, Dallas). Besides the obvious schools associated with tbe oil industry, for geoscience Penn State is a big recruiting favorite. The large companies are extremely keen to attract female hires.
OP seems to be an int’l parent. Int’l students will not be hired for a US based job with only a bachelors degree. But the companies might be interested in offering a job in the home country at a local salary which will be much, much lower than a US salary.
FYI. Breakdown of 2014 oil industry salaries by discipline and by region in the world.
http://www.spe.org/industry/docs/14SalarySurveyHighlights.pdf
Colorado School of the Mines. My D and I toured there and they said that Petroleum Engineers are some of their highest paid graduates. Our tour guide was a senior in Petroleum Engineering and he had a high paying job secured. Golden is a nice town and the campus is very nice.
They’re the highest paid graduates if they get a job
http://www.businessinsider.my/challenger-gray-april-job-cuts-2015-5/
The OP (if they are still reading this) didn’t say engineering specifically, so I thought I’d mention a degree called “Energy Management” which is more business than science and traditionally leads to a career as a “landman”.
My niece just graduated with this degree from the University of Oklahoma, and even with the current conditions she had 3 job offers to choose from-high paying jobs all in nice, air conditioned offices. Her class was 50/50 female/male if that is a concern to the OP and his daughter.
While it is generally true that engineers, geologists and geophysicists work in air-conditioned offices, those petroleum engineers who choose to go into drilling engineering (as opposed to, say, reservoir engineering) do often work on-site. Many I know work for a number of days on site, a number in the office, then comp days off. Many geologists do go to wells on occasion, and most I know love occasional well site work. It is a perk of the career. Remember, most geology majors chose that major in part hoping to work outdoors at least occasionally.I don’t know any geophysicists who go to the field. (I’ve been in the energy industry in various facets for over 30 years and I really miss the field work now that I’ve moved “up”.)
Also, thanks @GMTplus7 for posting that link. Note that the salary data for foreign countries is based on 3 out of 4 respondents being citizens of that county. A US citizen sent to another country to work is going to be much more highly compensated than shown in the SPE data. For example, if you look at the salaries for the Middle East, remember that at US citizen sent to the Middle East by a US employer will be much more highly compensated.
There are a few who specialize in seismic acquisition operations, and they do go out in the field for this. A geophysicist friend went out to supervise a land seismic shoot in the jungles of Papua New Guinea. As he was being lifted away by chopper, he wanted to get a good photo of the site, so he stuck his hand out of the helicopter, holding his iPhone. That was the last second he saw his iPhone. Some random native in the jungle is probably going to pick up the iPhone one day and wonder “what the…?”
And who wouldn’t want to get out of the office to blow stuff up?
@GMTplus7, so would the IPhone in the jungles of New Guinea be “The Gods Must be Crazy III”.