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Want a Guaranteed Job After College? Study This
Fiscal Times ^ | 01/20/2012 | Kirsten Hayes

Posted on 01/21/2012 7:59:10 PM PST by SeekAndFind

While millions of college grads look forlornly into the worst U.S. job market in decades, Emily Woner pretty much guaranteed herself one of America's best-paid post-graduate jobs before she ever set foot on campus.

Spurred by an early interest in following her father's footsteps into the oil sector, Woner secured a post-high school internship with Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy Corp.

After summers spent riding seismic trucks in the Barnett shale, designing water pipelines in east Texas and helping model oil reservoirs in Wyoming, she's now a 22-year-old senior at the University of Tulsa waiting to take a job in one the country's most sought-after professions: petroleum engineering.

"I'm really lucky. In my class, a lot of us are already committed to companies," Woner said.

Luck has little to do with it. Energy companies are racing to exploit America's vast shale gas and oil fields, the increasing discoveries of which has upended markets and sparked the biggest drilling boom in generations.

While Wall Street slashes the kind of banking and trading positions that were once the most coveted for top graduates, energy firms can't hire fast enough for the technical jobs that have been all but overlooked for a generation.

The shale boom has run into many obstacles: environmental concerns from earthquakes to water safety, a lack of needed materials, and logistical bottlenecks.

But the shortage of specialty engineers may prove one of the most vexing. Poaching is rife and supplies are short, putting a premium on industry veterans who know how to get the most value out of wells that can cost tens of millions of dollars to drill.

Oil companies have seen the squeeze coming for years, and -- to a degree -- the job market has responded. Bachelor's degrees in petroleum engineering trebled to over 750 since 2001.

But industry officials and analysts say it is likely still not enough for companies to maintain their ambitious growth in North American shale oil plays, Canada's oil sands, deepwater offshore Brazil, post-war Iraq and other frontiers.

At least 40 percent of the globe's petroleum engineers are expected to retire in the coming decade, according to top industry recruiters. A generation lost to the 1980s oil bust leaves a thin cadre of mid-career professionals to take up the slack until incoming 20-somethings get up to speed.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Education; Society
KEYWORDS: bigoil; engineering; jobs; liberalcollegechick; petroleum
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1 posted on 01/21/2012 7:59:19 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I remember the geology majors in the 80s - oil bottomed out at about $9 a barrel - who couldn’t find a job ANYWHERE close to their area of study ... times change!


2 posted on 01/21/2012 8:07:37 PM PST by Ken522
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To: SeekAndFind

But I was a promised a good job too if I majored in Ethnic Studies!


3 posted on 01/21/2012 8:08:21 PM PST by RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
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To: SeekAndFind
A 4 year engineering degree in about any field is a great asset for someone to get.
4 posted on 01/21/2012 8:11:51 PM PST by HereInTheHeartland (I love how the FR spellchecker doesn't recognize the word "Obama")
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To: SeekAndFind
Yeah, but this involves real work and they expect real results. No bonus points are given for the right ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. < / sarcasm >
5 posted on 01/21/2012 8:12:04 PM PST by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: Vigilanteman

But it also means Obama will be your boss. :/


6 posted on 01/21/2012 8:16:35 PM PST by ari-freedom (If SOPA passes, we will lose our Free Republic.)
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To: RightGeek

“But I was a promised a good job too if I majored in Ethnic Studies!”

It’s good if you plan on making cupcakes for Occupiers.


7 posted on 01/21/2012 8:18:00 PM PST by ari-freedom (If SOPA passes, we will lose our Free Republic.)
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To: SeekAndFind

McDonalds in the Bakken Shale area of ND and MT are paying $18/hr just to get someone to work. So there’s maybe hope there for English majors too.


8 posted on 01/21/2012 8:18:38 PM PST by bigbob
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To: SeekAndFind
I have a relative; a very, very smart young lady. She was accepted at a very prestigious, very expensive university.

She decided to major in History. Dumb idea. Really a tremendous waste of money.

However, after just a few months on campus she decided to change her major. She is now three years into the study of Third World Women's Literature, or some such crap.

9 posted on 01/21/2012 8:31:24 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (Nothing will change until after the war.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

BTW: I use this young lady as an object lesson for my kids. I’m very blunt. I say, “Study something practical, and I will pay for college. However, if I decide that you are not pursuing something practical, and I will stop paying. Choose wisely.”


10 posted on 01/21/2012 8:35:05 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (Nothing will change until after the war.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

She was probably listening to some libtard professors pompously sniffing that a liberal f@rts degree would broaden her mind and would be the big ticket to a wonderful career of her choosing.


11 posted on 01/21/2012 8:53:37 PM PST by Moorings
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To: bigbob

Yea but if you don’t already live in ND then finding a place to live is harder than finding the job.


12 posted on 01/21/2012 9:02:32 PM PST by Domandred (Fdisk, format, and reinstall the entire .gov system.)
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To: SeekAndFind
In the early 90’s if you majored in Paper Science/Engineering at SUNY ESF ( Environmental Science and Forestry), the main campus basically part of Syracuse University but a separate state school, all of the graduates were offered jobs right out of school starting in the $60,000 plus range.

And you paid state tuition!

Yes, it's an Environmental Science school, but paper engineering involves cutting down trees— made the tree huggers mad at every turn!

Quick trivia: by size, I think ESF is the largest school in the country owning tons of acres in the Adirondacks and the Wanakena Ranger school at Cranberry Lake.

13 posted on 01/21/2012 9:02:53 PM PST by MacMattico
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To: SeekAndFind

14 posted on 01/21/2012 9:05:12 PM PST by dfwgator (Don't wake up in a roadside ditch. Get rid of Romney.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

15 posted on 01/21/2012 9:09:03 PM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: ClearCase_guy

I posted this on another thread on a similar topic today. The story of the young lady who is in high demand as a petroleum engineer is contrasted with the post of another freeper who notes that years ago someone graduating with a degree in petroleum engineering could not get a job in his field because economic conditions were different. Sometimes kids pick one field to major in because market research at the time they’re freshmen indicates that that major will lead to a great job. Then conditions change.

The current crop of unemployed graduates may be unemployed because they studied history or Ethnic Women’s Literature, but they might just have signed up for something useful four or five years ago, only to see that the world changed abruptly when they were two or three years into a program. Four years ago it looked like a business degree would be valuable, but the Great Crash terminated that idea. In the last two years a lot of kids were told they could get jobs as medical coders, and they invested in coding courses, but now the field is overrun and they can’t get jobs.

So don’t be too hard on them; they’re not all Occupy morons.


16 posted on 01/21/2012 9:09:25 PM PST by ottbmare (off-the-track Thoroughbred mare)
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To: martin_fierro

LOL!


17 posted on 01/21/2012 9:10:21 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (Nothing will change until after the war.)
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To: SeekAndFind

As a recent retiree from Devon Energy, I can tell you that newly minted petroleum engineering graduates are getting up to $100k per year and petroleum land management graduates up to $85k per year.


18 posted on 01/21/2012 9:31:14 PM PST by SVTCobra03 (You can never have enough friends, horsepower or ammunition.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

“Study something practical, and I will pay for college. However, if I decide that you are not pursuing something practical, and I will stop paying.”

I wish we could let you manage the Pell Grant program - that philosophy might make it almost worthwhile.

(Don’t call me a RINO. I said almost.)


19 posted on 01/21/2012 9:57:26 PM PST by Gil4 (Sometimes it's not low self-esteem - it's just accurate self-assessment.)
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To: Ken522

My brother has a degree in Ocean Engineering from Texas A & M. He works at A & M doing all their computer stuff.


20 posted on 01/21/2012 10:18:39 PM PST by rfreedom4u (Forced diversity causes dissent!)
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