Jobs for the Major
How this major affects a job search
As long as we need hydrocarbons, there will be a job for you. This major has a huge advantage over many others in that you're training yourself with a specific career in mind. You're all about the oil, the black gold, the bubblin'...okay, we ran out of terms for oil. That old...dead...dinosaur?
Doesn't matter. What does matter is that there's a market for your skills right out of the gate. You know where you're going, and you know what you're doing.
The only downside is that hydrocarbons are falling out of favor for a bunch of reasons. People are trying to develop fuel sources that don't pollute so much, or aren't located under people who want to kill us.
You might not have the most long-term security for this reason. After cars were invented, horse mechanics took a nasty drop in popularity. That's a thing, right? Horse mechanic? Hmm...well, doesn't look like any colleges offer that major, which sort of proves our point.
Common Career Fields
Geologist. This probably sounds different from what it actually is. You're probably picturing someone who collects rocks. Surprise—they only look at rocks. Totally different. These people look for oil and natural gas by checking out rock formations or examining rocks cut from the ground. No way around it, this job rocks.
...we are so, so sorry about that last joke.
Drilling Engineer. Oil doesn't just hop out of the ground on its own. That would be unnerving, wouldn't it? Especially if it talked in a screechy clown voice? Yikes. Well, drilling engineers are responsible for figuring out the best way to get the oil from the ground. Usually with drills. Can you blame them? To someone with a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail.
Well-log Analyst. There are two ways to determine how much oil is in a potential well. The first is sorcery, which isn't ideal because it produces wildly variable results, and is also completely made up. The second is by drilling core samples and doing science at them until more science comes out. It's all very technical. The well-log analyst does that sciencing and determines if it's worth drilling.
Environmental/Regulatory Specialist. It's probably no surprise that there are a lot of regulations around drilling for oil. That's because it's in everyone's best interest not to let it get into drinking water, all over birds, or spill into the Gulf of Mexico to lubricate fish. Fish are slippery enough as it is. Don't go making any business deals with them. These specialists make sure that oil spills (and super slippery fish deals) don't happen.
Reservoir Engineer. No one wants only some of the oil. They want all of the oil. Reservoir engineers make sure that the maximum that can be taken out of the ground is being taken out. No word on if you get to wear a cool black suit and sunglasses every day and listen to loud '70s rock, but there's nothing that says you can't either.
Energy Economist. This is the business side of the equation. Companies need to make profit; otherwise, they're just buildings full of sad-looking people in suits. Energy economists make the plans that will lead to profit, and they need a solid understanding of business, petroleum, and petroleum business.
Facility Engineer. So you've got a giant...pile of oil. That doesn't sound right. Pile? Pool? Tower? Anyway, the oil is out of the ground. Fantastic, time to make it rain.
Not so fast. Are you planning to just pick it up in globs and shove it into cars in the hopes that will do something? Sure, it'll do something—break the car—but that's probably not what you had in mind. You need to put the oil in big tanks, or ship it off to some place that can take care of it.
Facility engineers handle all of that. From the pipelines that transport the oil, to the facility that receives it. These are the infrastructure people.
Current unemployment of the major
5.5%Percentage of majors who get a higher degree after college
67%Stats obtained from this source.