Realistically, I suggest you teach english abroad for a 1-2 years to enjoy life a bit. The energy industry is experiencing a bloodbath right now and is going to experience a lot of cost cutting that will stay onto the next boom unless it gets out of control. While your not in the industry keep in contact with as many people as you can and keep networking, so when it picks up again you can be ready to go. Realize that even though you studied petroleum engineering, your not a petroleum engineer yet.
What I've learned through this boom was a lot of the hiring was based off expectations, to train say a Engineer in training into a petroleum engineer was a massive undertaking for a company. Your basically paying for a young guys apprenticeship and eating all his costs at the tune of 60-120k/year for 3-5 years, before he really knows what he's doing. In a down environment like now it's a ridiculous expectation to have of employers now.
You basically have 2 choices, stay in the industry and plod along in another job to pay the bills and wait out the crash. Or just change career into something else and forget about the industry.
What I've learned through this boom was a lot of the hiring was based off expectations, to train say a Engineer in training into a petroleum engineer was a massive undertaking for a company. Your basically paying for a young guys apprenticeship and eating all his costs at the tune of 60-120k/year for 3-5 years, before he really knows what he's doing. In a down environment like now it's a ridiculous expectation to have of employers now.
You basically have 2 choices, stay in the industry and plod along in another job to pay the bills and wait out the crash. Or just change career into something else and forget about the industry.