GOOD PROSPECTS SEEN FOR PETROLEUM ENGINEERING GRADS

Prospects for petroleum engineering (PE) graduates entering the U.S. work force within the next few years appear good, based on results of an annual survey of PE graduates by the Society of Petroleum Engineers. The percentage of U.S. petroleum engineering graduates able to find work after the 1990-1991 school term increased from the prior term for the fourth straight year. Also continuing to climb is the median starting salary for PE graduates.

Oct. 7, 1991

3 min read

The percentage of U.S. petroleum engineering graduates able to find work after the 1990-1991 school term increased from the prior term for the fourth straight year.

Also continuing to climb is the median starting salary for PE graduates.

However, the increase in placement percentages and salaries may simply be due to the slide in the number of individuals seeking PE jobs in the U.S. market,

HIRING RATES RISE

There were 159 petroleum engineering graduates seeking work in the U.S. job market after the 1990-91 school year, SPE figures show. Of those, 91% found work with a median salary of $3,347/month.

Besides the 159 graduates looking for petroleum engineering jobs in the U.S., 51 sought work internationally, Six went on to graduate school, and one joined the armed forces.

At the same time last year there were 236 persons seeking jobs in the U.S., and 83% had success with a median salary of $3,050.

That compares with 951 PE graduates looking for work after the 1985-86 school term, when only 40% found jobs in the field.

ADVANCED DEGREES

Petroleum engineers with master's degrees were offered higher salaries, but not by much.

The median salary accepted by 19 respondents with master's degrees was $3,500/month, compared with $3,275/month after last year's school term, but only about $153/month more than the median bachelor's degree graduate.

"The increase in BS salaries and in the percentage of BS students receiving offers by graduation is absolutely the reason they're not going on to MS programs," said David E. Lancaster, ex officio member of SPE's engineering manpower committee and vice-president of S.A. Holditch & Associates in College Station, Tex.

"Last year very few graduates went on to graduate school. Even fewer went on this year," he wrote in an article for SPE's Journal of Petroleum Technology.

And new petroleum engineers appear to be in a better position than other engineers.

Lancaster said, "Petroleum engineering salaries were the highest last year, and I think they will be the highest again this year. The attention recruiters pay them is like it was in the good old days. They're wining and dining them. I'm not aware that any other group of engineering students is getting that treatment."

PE SUPPLY/DEMAND

The higher placement rates and salaries are most likely a function of PE supply and demand, which appears to be leaning in favor of the PE graduate right now.

There apparently are more jobs than qualified people to fill them, and if enrollment in upper level courses at the country's engineering schools continues to be light the trend could continue.

However, Jim Murtha, petroleum engineering professor at Ohio's Marietta College told the Journal of Petroleum Technology he is concerned about the growing freshman classes. "When salary accelerates, enrollment accelerates, then backfires as supply again exceeds demand, like it did in the 1980s," he said.

"I think companies will continue to bump up salaries until the large classes begin to graduate," he added. "I think we will see full placement for the next 3 years."