So, where is the money in oil and gas?
Discussion
I posted in here a couple of weeks ago enquiring about jobs in Advertising/Marketing, and the general consensus was 'don't - use your Geography degree and head into oil and gas'.
Anyway, it's not something I'd ever properly looked into before, but I've done some research and it all seems a touch overwhelming - there's so many options...!
Judging by the way I'm going so far, I'm hopefully going to end up with a 1st in BSc Geography in summer 2014, and I would do a masters if it would help. But I don't really know what areas I should be looking at to wind up with the best career prospects and the best money (I'm not crazy materialistic but...money is always nice!).
Overseas is a possibility, though if possible I would rather like to stay in the UK; at least in the long-term anyway!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Ben
Anyway, it's not something I'd ever properly looked into before, but I've done some research and it all seems a touch overwhelming - there's so many options...!
Judging by the way I'm going so far, I'm hopefully going to end up with a 1st in BSc Geography in summer 2014, and I would do a masters if it would help. But I don't really know what areas I should be looking at to wind up with the best career prospects and the best money (I'm not crazy materialistic but...money is always nice!).
Overseas is a possibility, though if possible I would rather like to stay in the UK; at least in the long-term anyway!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Ben
Big News said:
I posted in here a couple of weeks ago enquiring about jobs in Advertising/Marketing, and the general consensus was 'don't - use your Geography degree and head into oil and gas'.
Anyway, it's not something I'd ever properly looked into before, but I've done some research and it all seems a touch overwhelming - there's so many options...!
Judging by the way I'm going so far, I'm hopefully going to end up with a 1st in BSc Geography in summer 2014, and I would do a masters if it would help. But I don't really know what areas I should be looking at to wind up with the best career prospects and the best money (I'm not crazy materialistic but...money is always nice!).
Overseas is a possibility, though if possible I would rather like to stay in the UK; at least in the long-term anyway!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Ben
I have a chemistry degree from 2004 & have worked in Procurement in oil & gas for the last 8 years. If you don't have an engineering degree there are plenty of other support roles in O&G including Procurement, Logistics, Finance, Marketing & Sales.Anyway, it's not something I'd ever properly looked into before, but I've done some research and it all seems a touch overwhelming - there's so many options...!
Judging by the way I'm going so far, I'm hopefully going to end up with a 1st in BSc Geography in summer 2014, and I would do a masters if it would help. But I don't really know what areas I should be looking at to wind up with the best career prospects and the best money (I'm not crazy materialistic but...money is always nice!).
Overseas is a possibility, though if possible I would rather like to stay in the UK; at least in the long-term anyway!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Ben
Companies such as Fluor, Foster Wheeler, KBR, Worley Parsons, Petrofac, Subsea 7, AMEC all offer graduates schemes you could apply to.
The money can be ok if you stay in the UK. I now earn around 3 times more then when I started out, but could still double my day rate if I took an overseas assignment in the middle east or Africa.
In the short term, if you are going to do a Masters I would strongly advise an Oil & Gas specific course if this is the path that you have set your mind to.
There are so many areas as someone has already mentioned above, but I tend to find Drilling is one of the higher paid. The routes in are either going Offshore and getting your hands dirty, or with an appropriate degree to get into an Engineering role, most likely via a Graduate scheme of which there are plenty out there.
Whatever you choose, you won't be short of jobs, employers are really struggling to find the best talent out there so you should be in a good position if you do get a 1st.
Good luck!
There are so many areas as someone has already mentioned above, but I tend to find Drilling is one of the higher paid. The routes in are either going Offshore and getting your hands dirty, or with an appropriate degree to get into an Engineering role, most likely via a Graduate scheme of which there are plenty out there.
Whatever you choose, you won't be short of jobs, employers are really struggling to find the best talent out there so you should be in a good position if you do get a 1st.
Good luck!
To give the OP some information on where my Geography Degree took me...
I graduated in 2006 from Aberdeen University when the job market was at an all time high. I got a job in a core lab and then I went offshore as a mudlogger. I did this for a year and a half in which time I went from the wet end to the dry end and became a data engineer.
Offshore life is ok if you're earning a mint but mud logging is very poorly paid and I quickly became fed up with earning less than the cleaners so I started to look elsewhere. I found out through a friend that Geological Data Management was starting to emerge as a career path so I applied for a job.
I joined a small consultancy in September 2008 as a trainee Data Manager working for a multi national oil company in Holland. Fast forward 5 1/2 years, I am now an Operations Manager for all projects being run out of Aberdeen which covers the majority of the oil companies in Aberdeen and the company has grown from 10 people when I joined to us knocking on 100 people worldwide, including new operations in Perth, Australia.
Data Management is a job I never expected to be in and it's certainly not something I would have thought about searching for but it's a well paid (21k ish + bonus starting salary), quite varied, and can provide the step up to doing interpretational Geology if that is where you want to be. Data Managent in a nutshell is collecting, sorting, merging and condensing geological data sets for oil companies allowing Geologists and Petrophysicists to do their work more efficiently rather than them spending their (expensive) time searching for the data.
If you imagine a well was drilled 20-30 years ago by company X and then plugged and abandoned, after a while the assets are sold or merged with another company. Company Y wants to investigate this area again today they have to find this data and find out exactly what happened all those years ago. They also have to make sure the data is available in such a format it can be used in todays modern programmes.
If you're still reading and think this type of work sounds interesting, feel free to drop me a PM. We are always looking to take on good graduates every year (Last year we took on 7, the year previously it was 5 and the year before that it was 6).
Thanks
Dan
I graduated in 2006 from Aberdeen University when the job market was at an all time high. I got a job in a core lab and then I went offshore as a mudlogger. I did this for a year and a half in which time I went from the wet end to the dry end and became a data engineer.
Offshore life is ok if you're earning a mint but mud logging is very poorly paid and I quickly became fed up with earning less than the cleaners so I started to look elsewhere. I found out through a friend that Geological Data Management was starting to emerge as a career path so I applied for a job.
I joined a small consultancy in September 2008 as a trainee Data Manager working for a multi national oil company in Holland. Fast forward 5 1/2 years, I am now an Operations Manager for all projects being run out of Aberdeen which covers the majority of the oil companies in Aberdeen and the company has grown from 10 people when I joined to us knocking on 100 people worldwide, including new operations in Perth, Australia.
Data Management is a job I never expected to be in and it's certainly not something I would have thought about searching for but it's a well paid (21k ish + bonus starting salary), quite varied, and can provide the step up to doing interpretational Geology if that is where you want to be. Data Managent in a nutshell is collecting, sorting, merging and condensing geological data sets for oil companies allowing Geologists and Petrophysicists to do their work more efficiently rather than them spending their (expensive) time searching for the data.
If you imagine a well was drilled 20-30 years ago by company X and then plugged and abandoned, after a while the assets are sold or merged with another company. Company Y wants to investigate this area again today they have to find this data and find out exactly what happened all those years ago. They also have to make sure the data is available in such a format it can be used in todays modern programmes.
If you're still reading and think this type of work sounds interesting, feel free to drop me a PM. We are always looking to take on good graduates every year (Last year we took on 7, the year previously it was 5 and the year before that it was 6).
Thanks
Dan
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