[puckerman]

I used to work for a company that did a lot of geological consulting. I wonder if they would hire someone like you. Talk to your professors. Did you intern anywhere? Talk to those people. What kind of network have you built?

You might even consider the PeaceCorps. As a commercial used to say, it's "the toughest job you'll ever love." You will also have an instant network--everyone else who has been in the PeaceCorps. They love to help each other out. And you'll definitely get some pussy out of it because girls in the PeaceCorps don't want to fuck the locals--they fuck other men in the PeaceCorps.

There's an excellent chance that you will learn a new language. Of course, it might be a totally useless one--i.e., some obscure African language. But if you got something like Spanish, German, Korean, Chinese, or Japanese, it would certainly help as well.

It will be two years without a lot of money, but I suspect your experience will be invaluable.

Finally, why are calling this a "failed career choice"? You haven't even tried.

[jake1720]

(09-19-2015 07:54 PM)puckerman Wrote:  

I used to work for a company that did a lot of geological consulting. I wonder if they would hire someone like you. Talk to your professors. Did you intern anywhere? Talk to those people. What kind of network have you built?

You might even consider the PeaceCorps. As a commercial used to say, it's "the toughest job you'll ever love." You will also have an instant network--everyone else who has been in the PeaceCorps. They love to help each other out. And you'll definitely get some pussy out of it because girls in the PeaceCorps don't want to fuck the locals--they fuck other men in the PeaceCorps.

There's an excellent chance that you will learn a new language. Of course, it might be a totally useless one--i.e., some obscure African language. But if you got something like Spanish, German, Korean, Chinese, or Japanese, it would certainly help as well.

It will be two years without a lot of money, but I suspect your experience will be invaluable.

Finally, why are calling this a "failed career choice"? You haven't even tried.

I just applied for a 1 yr related to energy. We'll see what happens.

[cosworth]

(09-19-2015 01:38 PM)micky Wrote:  

(09-18-2015 07:24 PM)cosworth Wrote:  

Shit happens .
I wanted to be a pilot , Sept 11th killed all the jobs when I graduated.
I took a degree in internet stuff then the dot com crash killed all the jobs.

Ended up in Financial Technology , I basically fly around the world selling trading systems to investment banks , hedge funds etc.
Pays well , nice people , quite interesting as well..

How did you end up selling those systems? What are the minimum requirements for someone getting into the financial software sales?

I did some hedge fund marketing cap intro , for free when I left uni . It failed.
But got me lots of contacts , one of those contacts gave me a job .

Its hard to break into , I was entrepreneurial in my approach .

Markets are looking shaky so might not be the best time to move into that line of work ... But i'm at a loss to think of any industry doing well at the mo ..

[midlifealpha]

I stand corrected. After being hired in June, my nephew and a ton of his co-workers have already been RIF'd.

Damn he was really counting on that. 6 years of schooling considering he started at EE and moved over to PE so he has a lot of decisions to consider and most probably involve moving out of state if he wants to stay in his field.

[AceTomatoCo]

I would think a petroleum engineer would be a valuable asset to any of the large number companies, big and small, working in Marcellus shale. It does seem a bit premature to assume that your chosen field is a failure, though. Domestically, oil and natural gas are competing resources. As oil has steadily crept down over the last 5-7 years, natural gas has picked up. But the industry itself is rather volatile, because energy is a global and politically charged market.

In any case, I wouldn't give up so soon on your career choice. If being employed right now isn't an urgency for you, I would take the down time to combine your degree with an MBA (as you suggested) or something that makes you all that much more marketable in the likely event of a rebound in energy.

[jake1720]

(09-21-2015 03:52 AM)AceTomatoCo Wrote:  

I would think a petroleum engineer would be a valuable asset to any of the large number companies, big and small, working in Marcellus shale. It does seem a bit premature to assume that your chosen field is a failure, though. Domestically, oil and natural gas are competing resources. As oil has steadily crept down over the last 5-7 years, natural gas has picked up. But the industry itself is rather volatile, because energy is a global and politically charged market.

In any case, I wouldn't give up so soon on your career choice. If being employed right now isn't an urgency for you, I would take the down time to combine your degree with an MBA (as you suggested) or something that makes you all that much more marketable in the likely event of a rebound in energy.

Believe me. Being in the position right now is BAD.

Normally it's an excellent choice. But at the moment it is not too good.

[Col Mortimer]

I would strongly consider/suggest the .Mil option. Pay for your school, travel the world, efc.

[jake1720]

(09-21-2015 07:25 AM)Col Mortimer Wrote:  

I would strongly consider/suggest the .Mil option. Pay for your school, travel the world, efc.

No debt.

I have traveled the world. The one friend from childhood who joined the army lost his leg. No thanks.

[YossariansRight]

I don't believe any job or career choice is a total failure. You learn something from even the most mundane or shitty situation(s). As silly as it sounds, I learned the cost differential between paper & plastic while working as a 15 year old bag boy while I was in high school.

I've found in life that having a broad, well rounded skill set is applicable to most industries; you need to glean what you've learned and market yourself and your skill set.

Set your resume up to accentuate your skills and what you can do vs. what you can't do. If you have "it", that can take you a long way.

Sorta like game; that's why my tagline is what it is. The underlying principals to success in everything are pretty much the same. Recognizing that is a huge piece in mastering life, on your terms.

[Mikan]

The conditions of the petroleum industry at present are being artificially depressed by the controlling cartel, OPEC, opening up the taps in the middle east specifically to drive companies in non OPEC nations out of business and to drive people like you to other professions. It's been working pretty good too.

Human demand for petroleum products hasn't gone anywhere. Oil is the most artificial 'market' in the world right now. It is literally run by organized crime pretending to be governments.

The hustle has been running so long now that its actually starting to effect the finances of the middle eastern countries who are organizing it. It's destroying Venezuela.

At some point the demand for petroleum workers will be back. Analysts predictions very wildly concerning how much longer OPEC can keep this up, some estimate less then a year, some think 5+ years. We will see.

I would probably cross train in ChemE for the time being.

[jake1720]

I'm going to check out sales for a bit. I'll jump into the oilfield later.

Really I just want to make a lot of money in my 20s. 1M by 30 or so sounds nice.

[heavy]

1. You have a scientific engineering degree, so you'll be fine $$ long-term. The career path with solid experience is stable.

2. Because of #1 and you being young, right now (short-term), don't worry about making $90k or $70k or whatever. Go get some solid experience in a similar (or possibly even different) engineering field.

3. Did I say don't worry about making mad $? Travel, move, get good experience. Note that I'm not broadcasting 'have fun while you're young', but in your case, you've worked at getting a solid degree, now go and get experience while building a great *fun* lifestyle.

4. As has been said...petroleum will definitely bounce back, whether you've moved on to better things or not.

[Easy_C]

(09-16-2015 05:42 PM)jake1720 Wrote:  

Grad school. MBA ==> Energy finance. 100 hr weeks to not sound like fun however.

Don't go that route. For starters, any MBA program worth going to will want you to have work experience. You don't at this point.


Also that "100hr weeks" factor is generally only true when you are working for bulge bracket banks in their investment banking division.

I've got two things you might want to consider:

1) Look into Equity Research roles. They're considerably more manageable (60 hour weeks are typical), and still pay well although not as well as Investment Banking jobs. You also might want to explore traditional corporate finance positions internal to energy companies, or energy consulting.


2) Another viable option is to get a Master's in Finance. It's a quick, one year degree you can use to make the transition. Most are competitive to get into but if you have a decent GPA in a technical field(sounds like you do) it should be quite realistic.

3)In the long term going to get an MBA isn't a bad route. The curriculum applies to most areas of management, the network benefit is massive, and it can open a lot of new opportunities that you didn't even know existed before. On the flipside the benefits drop off significantly past the M7 schools(look the term up if you have to) and then drop off exponentially once you get past the top 25 ranked schools. As such you don't want to make your life plans contingent upon getting into such a program but do take the option if you get it and it supports your future ambitions. You'll want three years of GOOD work experience with some good recommendations to show for it in order to pull that off at a top 20 program. Military Officers, Peace Corps, Teach for America, and other more interesting backgrounds often do well in applications because adcoms view them as adding intellectual diversity to incoming classes. They also make good token student profiles.

source: I'm currently at a top 20 program. PM me if you want to ask more(sorry, can't say which school exactly but I will give you a range).

Quote:

"The conditions of the petroleum industry at present are being artificially depressed by the controlling cartel, OPEC, opening up the taps in the middle east specifically to drive companies in non OPEC nations out of business and to drive people like you to other professions. It's been working pretty good too."

ehh....yes and no. You're absolutely correct that they have been attempting to manipulate the market but here's the thing: no single player can manipulate well enough to turn around a long term trend. Yes they can cause significant dips and bounces, but they've only prolonged the process. The decline in fossil fuels is well underway and it isn't going to stop because the Saudis try to stop it. The train's left the station on this one.