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re: Engineering Career Advice - Mechanical, Chemical, Petroleum
Posted on 8/15/19 at 9:39 am to PCRammer
Posted on 8/15/19 at 9:39 am to PCRammer
quote:
get into the oil and gas industry doing pipeline design.
This^^^^^^^^
I’m a piping designer. Good designers typically make more than engineers. I’ve worked with several designers that had engineering degrees but chose to be designers because they could make more money. Engineers are usually salaried and aren’t compensated for OT whereas designers are paid hourly and get premium OT pay.
2
Posted on 8/15/19 at 9:42 am to tonydtigr
I dunno even how they rank schools that are accredited. It's the same curriculum. If they go off grades, schools will be easier on the students to pad the stats and get higher rank. If they went off if facilities, then PFT would probably be super high.
Posted on 8/15/19 at 9:43 am to jcliv
im a chemical engineer so I may be a bit biased but in my experience, this degree is the most versatile and in-demand. There are typically many more chemical engineers than mechanical in the plants or design firms. Its also the easiest path into management, if he chooses to do so. We also have to learn a bit of mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, controls, etc.
I don't regret this degree a bit. The only caveat would be if he is just really into machinery and cant stand chemistry. He then might consider mechanical. Its not that we do a lot of chemistry in the working world...most of our work is based around processing, equipment, safety. But there is a significant amount of chemistry in the curriculum.
Id say a hard no on petroleum. I feel sorry for the recent grads with that degree
I don't regret this degree a bit. The only caveat would be if he is just really into machinery and cant stand chemistry. He then might consider mechanical. Its not that we do a lot of chemistry in the working world...most of our work is based around processing, equipment, safety. But there is a significant amount of chemistry in the curriculum.
Id say a hard no on petroleum. I feel sorry for the recent grads with that degree
This post was edited on 8/15/19 at 10:18 am
Posted on 8/15/19 at 9:44 am to fleurdelis
I’m a software engineer and I make over $800k per year from home without changing out of my pj’s.
Posted on 8/15/19 at 9:45 am to notsince98
quote:
Yeah.....you'd be wrong about that. The data doesn't support that.
According to your article you so greatly supplied me with: Here's your data.
Average Electrical Engineer Salary $74,525
Bachelor's Degree, Chemical Engineering Degree $99k
And I'm not shitting on you "sparkies". I work with PM's all the time, who budget jobs, and I see salaries. In my experience, which is the O&G business, EE's are nowhere near CE's.
This post was edited on 8/15/19 at 9:48 am
Posted on 8/15/19 at 9:45 am to OleWarSkuleAlum
quote:
LSU’s engineering program is trash. Should have went to GT, Westpoint, hell any other school really.
Oh, the irony!
Posted on 8/15/19 at 9:45 am to Gray12
quote:
You know who is getting those $130k and even above $150k total compensation starting out at Exxon and other big operators, it’s all those computer science majors from MIT, Stanford and even UT Austin
I mean, you’re probably right in that those are the hot fields and likely the most lucrative and demanded long term. But petroleum engineers can def get 130k+ total compensation out of school, if you can get one of the good jobs that everyone is fighting for
Posted on 8/15/19 at 9:46 am to Dam Guide
quote:
Civils are the bottom of the barrel on the engineering pay scale overall.
I'd contribute that to needing the PE. Once you get a PE, numbers spike. Entry level won't have that.
Posted on 8/15/19 at 9:51 am to fleurdelis
quote:
I’m a piping designer. Good designers typically make more than engineers. I’ve worked with several designers that had engineering degrees but chose to be designers because they could make more money. Engineers are usually salaried and aren’t compensated for OT whereas designers are paid hourly and get premium OT pay.
^^^^^^ Pipe Designer here with an ME degree. What program do you run? Cadworx, Bentley, PDMS?
Posted on 8/15/19 at 9:57 am to jcliv
Materials. Physics, ME, Chem E courses...materials is where it’s at. That’s where the buck stops ALL OF THE TIME. It all falls under condensed matter physics and literally deals with reciprocal space...but I don’t think it necessarily has to be that hard. ME’s version wouldn’t be. PhD Chem guy’s were definitely in graduate physics courses.
Posted on 8/15/19 at 9:57 am to phutureisyic
Currently using PDS. I’m also experienced in Plant3D. Our client will be switching to SP3D soon so I’ll be learning that as well.
Posted on 8/15/19 at 10:04 am to phutureisyic
I do fracture life assessments on pipe when it starts to crack...I’ve had it back and forth with the designers about the pipe having ‘no lateral loads’...well it’s cracking mfer, I’m putting some in my stability model.
This post was edited on 8/15/19 at 10:05 am
Posted on 8/15/19 at 10:08 am to Sun God
quote:
You seem confused
He's probably right. I know a few years ago that cementing and production enhancement at Halliburton started at 60K. You got signing/training bonuses and per diems but base was 60. Some of the other divisions were higher but basically proportional to how shitty the work environment was going to be. And all field engineering is in shitty work environments. Some divisions worked on a job percentage basis rather than per diem which amounted to nice chunks of change though.
To OP,
My company (O&G major, downstream) recruits almost exclusively from LSU, A&M, Rice, Lamar, TT, and UTX with some satellite recruiting at MIT/Northwestern/Stanford.
Location to operations is probably the biggest factor in recruiting. Because of that, Clemson sends a ton of graduates into textiles and automotive. If he wants to stay in SC and have options then ME might be his best bet.
Posted on 8/15/19 at 10:19 am to jcliv
In manufacturing, at the plant level, chem E's have the most room to move up and around. Maintenance and engineering departments will have chem, electrical, mechanical and civil...but production units typically have a mix of production and process engineers that are all chem e's. They typically move up the management tree easily. as they become less flexible overall, they become more focused on a certain product, which can lead to managing a product portfolio and so on.
Posted on 8/15/19 at 10:33 am to Gray12
(no message)
This post was edited on 10/19/21 at 11:57 am
Posted on 8/15/19 at 10:47 am to lsutiger2010
quote:
quote:
Even when the market is great for petroleum engineers, most baws only make $70k their first few years working for the service companies. It’s $70k with 90 hour work weeks. After taxes, that’s almost nothing.
Don’t let that high income promised fool you. Only the top 10% people in your class, chicks, extremely diverse people and those with solid connections land that over $90k with Shell, Exxon, etc with 40 hour work weeks.
More than 80% of people are working for $12 an hour at schlumberger and Halliburton.
What a load of total bullshite
Guy absolutely nailed it. I graduated in 2014 from LSU PETE, and all of my friends went the service company route. The 7 girls in the program got the office jobs (tbf they usually had 4.0s or close to it so more power to them. The other 5 or 10 decent jobs went to 4.0s or guys with a good connection. Graduated 3.1 in a class of 90). After spending 4 years in the field with a service company, saved up, quit for 6 months, and taught myself everything I could about computers and software.
Start my first job outside of O&G next week as a developer at literally the first place I applied to and couldn't be happier about the decision.
This post was edited on 8/15/19 at 11:01 am
Posted on 8/15/19 at 10:52 am to jcliv
Tell him to start out on construction management. That's where he'll end up anyway
Posted on 8/15/19 at 10:55 am to jcliv
quote:
Son starts school at Clemson next week.
Is he not already registered for classes??
Posted on 8/15/19 at 10:57 am to 904
quote:
Guy absolutely nailed it. I graduated in 2014 from LSU PETE, and after spending 4 long years in the field with a service company, taught myself how to code. I start my first job outside of O&G as a developer on Tuesday.
Congratulations on your new job! Some of these people have no idea what that field life is like for a service company. It’s hard work with barely any sleep and time off. Knew a guy who spent 6 years to be a Petroleum Engineer who worked for 5 months and got fired very recently because Halliburton was cutting frack crews in the Permian.
Most of you baws will think of North Baton Rouge as heaven if you had to spend even a few months in West Texas and North Dakota.
We all wished we did computer science when we started.
This post was edited on 8/15/19 at 10:58 am
Posted on 8/15/19 at 10:58 am to phutureisyic
quote:
According to your article you so greatly supplied me with: Here's your data. Average Electrical Engineer Salary $74,525 Bachelor's Degree, Chemical Engineering Degree $99k And I'm not shitting on you "sparkies". I work with PM's all the time, who budget jobs, and I see salaries. In my experience, which is the O&G business, EE's are nowhere near CE's.
Average EE isn't 74k
LINK /
Median entry level is 68k.
Honestly, I don't know what salaries are like in O&G because there is not a chance in hell that I would want to take a job in that industry. Over 100k is easy to get as an average EE with around 10 years experience.
You work in an industry no decent EE wants to go into unless they have a regional location preference. EEs typically earn more than MEs when including all industries.
Here's a link that breaks it down further on EEs
LINK
This post was edited on 8/15/19 at 11:11 am
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