davev1977

We're going to visit Houston on the weekend before Thanksgiving, then take a five-day cruise from Galveston to Cozumel! We're very excited. While visting Houston we're going to drive out to Sugar Land and The Woodlands, as well as downtown, and get a feel for what each place is like and where we would like to live. We'll test drive the commutes to downtown while we're at it...

In addition to the November trip, I've added an October trip to attend the SEG meeting in Houston. While I'm there, I will visit the career placement center to meet representatives from multiple companies in hopes of landing a career with one of them. Exxon and Chevron will both be there (my top two), as well as Hess, BP, and Total. I have my resume and business cards, suit and tie, and I'm ready to do this!

We're going to visit Houston on the weekend before Thanksgiving, then take a five-day cruise from Galveston to Cozumel! We're very excited. While visting Houston we're going to drive out to Sugar Land and The Woodlands, as well as downtown, and get a feel for what each place is like and where we would like to live. We'll test drive the commutes to downtown while we're at it...

You should apply at Chevron. Great environment! Quite a few Engineers that i knew at Exxon went over to Chevron. They like it much better!

I've read up on Chevron, now, and really like what I see. Any fans of BP out there?

Let me make sure I understand your question:

You are asking which company to APPLY to?

Or have you received offers from these four companies and want to know which offer to accept?

If it is the first, I would recommend all of them (and every other one you can imagine)

If it is the latter, you are a very lucky man. I worked for Exxon right out of school (many years ago) and would agree with the assessments above. They are a great company. But so are Devon and Shell.

Th CEO of El Paso is a great guy, and those things tend to flow downward.

Sorry it took me awhile to get back on here. I'm just considering which to apply to. I understand it's not the best time, the economy being as it is. But perhaps by next spring things will be looking up. And that's when I hope to get my foot in the door. In the meantime, I'll be sharpening my skills and tailoring my resume!

You being a geologist you really can't go wrong with Exxon, Shell or El Paso. I would pass on Devon, because of some serious financial issues they are having currently, and sometimes it seems they make moves like their decision making process involves a Ouija board. At Exxon you would be working for a personal friend named Mike Zimmerman, really a nice guy, great rock man and very low keyed. He's been with Exxon for close to 30 years lives near me over on Lake Conroe. If you take a job at El Paso, you would be working for Rene Decou, (Pronounced Renny Day-Coo), and you could not work for a finer man on earth, I've know Rene for about 30 years. He is one of they best Rock guys I have ever had the pleasure to work with. Now when it comes to bells and whistles, in the rock department, Shell is it hands down. They have all the cool toys, Virtual Geo 4D, Virtual Source Monitoring, and many multi axis visual aids, Some very sharp people to work with, Jorge Lopez, Albena Mateeva, Audrey Bakulin and Rodney Calvert are some of the best out there, and a low key atmosphere to work in. They also are big on continued education and push for you to keep going in school. Weigh out your offers and pick your flavor.

Mr. Barnes, you have given me plenty of good advice in this thread. I really appreciate that! I hope one day to make the acquaintance of any or all of the gentlemen you've mentioned at each of these companies. I would be thrilled to work for any one of them.

Okay, so I'm looking at four companies and comparing them to each other, trying to figure out which would be the best to work for as a newcomer to the industry. Two are majors and two are mid-majors I think. The four I've identified so far are (in no particular order): Devon Energy, El Paso Corporation, Shell, and Exxon. Does anyone have any thoughts on any of these?

I'm getting closer to the time when I begin applying for a job with an oil company and I'm wondering what the situation is for new hires in the industry while oil prices are so much lower than the average over the last couple of years. Any thoughts?

I'm wondering what the mood is like for those of you working in the oil industry now that Obama has been elected. Is the general consensus that not much will change, things will get worse (layoffs, etc.), or things will get better? How do you all view this situation?

My new question is for those of you who commute to downtown Houston. Where do you commute from, how long does it take, what kind of car do you drive, and how much is it costing you on average per week? We're thinking about moving to Sugar Land and I wonder how expensive it will be. If my income increases by $20,000/year, I'm sure I'll still come out ahead, but I still want to factor this into the equation. Plus, my wife may end up staying home for a few years when we have kids, so I need to factor that in as well because that will represent a decrease of ~$40,000/year. Thanks for your help!

Does anyone here work for Devon Energy or know somebody who does? I was very impressed with the information on their website and was wondering if anyone could speak up about the company's reputation among the employees. I also noticed they offer 3 weeks of vacation to begin with...does it ever increase to 4 weeks? I plan to be employed as a geologist/geophysicist within the next year or two.

I consider traveling one of the perks of the job. Some people hate traveling, and refuse to do so, and tend to bring it up quite often. I find it kind of stupid to work in oil/gas and refuse to take an expense paid trip to Dubai. Sign me up! But some people do.

I've traveled to both coasts, Calgary, and Edmonton in my career so far. Ajob I recently interviewed for told me that travel overseas is a definite possibility, and needless to say the chance to go to Japan, or Korea, or Iceland on the companies dime is pretty damn sweet.

So yeah, travel. It's a great thing. A lot of people will tie a day or two of vacation, and stay over in say, Italy, and have some nice trips of their own.

I definitely see travel as a perk, too. I've had some international travel experience, including the Marshall Islands, where I went to high school, and Europe, where I was in the military stationed in Germany for 2 years. I can't wait to become mobile again!

This is great! There is one mentioned above I had great reservations about before considering. I will hope to PM if you can give your perspective. I knew it was just too good to be true.

As crazy as it sounds I am strongly considering going back to the Oil industry. Hell, at least I got to travel some.

Where have you travelled to with the oil companies? I had been wondering about this: how do you all who work in the petroleum industry enjoy traveling to other countries as part of your job? Where have you been, what's the work like, how long do you work somewhere before getting to go to let's say Brazil, etc.? I'd love to hear some stories from people who have been in the industry. Any kind of anecdote will do - doesn't have to be a travel story, just some memorable experiences. I'd especially like to hear from any geoscientists out there, but stories from everybody would be great!!

Unless you have a burning desire to take a vow of poverty and devote your existence for the next 4-5 years to doing research, I'd stick with the Master's. You'll probably come out ahead in the end, given student loans and career time lost to school. The Master's level hires I know are doing great.

My husband didn't start his PhD with the idea of working for an oil company (in fact, he came from a hard rock mining background). But as I mentioned earlier, his program had close ties with two of the majors, and when they came recruiting it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Use the connections you have, get your resume out there, and see what shakes out.

That sounds exactly like the train of thought I was on, thank you. I'd love to one day get a Phd and teach, but only later on as I head into retirement.

I don't want to burst your bubble, but I can tell you that new-hire PhD's with no previous oil experience are making 90K/year at the majors to start. I would guess that a Master's level hire would start lower. Unless you have some skills that are immediately applicable to exploration/production in the specific places that the majors are drilling I don't think you're that marketable yet.

And even the PhD's are still taking classes and training pretty regularly - no university degree trains you as well as the companies want. Which might work to your advantage - they're going to train you anyhow, so if they can pick you up "relatively" cheaply you'd get your training, start moving up the pay ladder and become more valuable in the industry.

Definitely get your resume out there through your contacts. Networking is your friend. Nothing is worse than having to get through the first level of paper-pushers in response to an ad on a job site.

No, that's fine. I had been hearing more along the lines of $80k for Master's degrees. Sometimes a little lower, but that's still an attractive number for me.

I don't want to burst your bubble, but I can tell you that new-hire PhD's with no previous oil experience are making 90K/year at the majors to start. I would guess that a Master's level hire would start lower. Unless you have some skills that are immediately applicable to exploration/production in the specific places that the majors are drilling I don't think you're that marketable yet.

And even the PhD's are still taking classes and training pretty regularly - no university degree trains you as well as the companies want. Which might work to your advantage - they're going to train you anyhow, so if they can pick you up "relatively" cheaply you'd get your training, start moving up the pay ladder and become more valuable in the industry.

Definitely get your resume out there through your contacts. Networking is your friend. Nothing is worse than having to get through the first level of paper-pushers in response to an ad on a job site.

I had also read that they hire more M.S. degrees than PHD. I wonder if it's a better idea to go get a PHD and get on a higher track or stick with the M.S. and do just fine that way...

My experience (just shy of 10 years in oil/gas/pipeline) is send it through a known friend/associate any chance you have. Lots of reasons for this. First, Houston oil and gas is a good ole boy industry, and knowing someone helps a ton. You'll always come across the same people, even when they move from company to company. Second, most companies have pretty nice recruiting bonuses, and you can split that with your friend. My small/medium engineering company currently offers $2500 for non-engineering recruits and $5000 for engineers. I am sure that larger companies offer more.

I saw earlier comments about hourly rates and such for contract workers. Contract workers make up a fairly big chunk of the workforce. There are also companies that you may work for direct that you get your insurance/401K etc through that will contract you out to their clients as needed. Nice compromise there. As far as hourly rates, different for each company. Smaller companies have lower hourly rates obviously. I'll use myself as an example. I currently work in procurement/inspection services. I was recently asked to come interview with a dedicated inspection firm that is familiar with my work. They did not blink to offer me 30-35% more starting salary, with an additional 10% bump in 6 months if the clients liked my work. If I was to go purely contract I could easily ask for 40-50% more per hour, but there is the lack of 401K, insurance etc that needs to be considered.

I am sure as a geologist with experience you could go to a mid/major and make somewhere in the ballpark of $90K without putting up a fight, granted that you have a bachelor's, which I'm sure you do. And if you tell them up front that you're interested in staying with a company and taking advantage of their scholarship/education programs it can boost their offer. Companies are desparate to keep their people these days, and someone telling them out front they are not interested in jumping around can go a long ways.

Thanks for all the good information. Sounds like you have a pretty sweet deal there for yourself. I've got a Master's degree but all my experience is in coal so far. I know that won't translate well, but would you expect that to help my case? If they're desperate enough I'm sure somebody would hire me!? I really like the sound of $90k. That would represent a $30k/year increase for me. I'm certainly agreeable to staying with one company as long as it was a good one. What kinds of reputations do some of the companies have for treating their employees? Sounds like all the benefits are first-class...

Chevron moved away from doing research years ago. The researchers generally manage research in universities and contracting companies rather than actually do it. The strategy is to leverage research under the practical guidance of those who actually need it, rather than the other way around.

It is difficult getting into oil companies these days. Teams hire rather than companies, except in recruiting efforts where the teams are encouraged to take on inewxperienced people from the universities. Those tend to get in the door through summer programs and they come from special schools, sponsored by folks who went to school at those special schools, e.g., Colorado School of Mines. The best ways of finding work in those companies are through networking and contracting, already covered in this thread.

Let me ask you this: If I know someone who works at Exxon, not necessarily in the geosciences, but someone who has worked there for 20+ years, would I be better off sending my resume through them or by applying on the company's website recruiting page? Or, what if I know some friends who work in the geosciences but have only been there for 2-3 years? Should I try going through them instead? They work at other companies, Schlumberger, Noble, and Pioneer.

Yup, it would be have to be in the Houston area and there are some decent options, but it takes a ton of dedication for no sure payoff, IMO.

As far as being happy with a co, it will all vary. A lot depends on the quality of people in your team and your manager. This can change drastically within organizations depending on which part of a company you go into (duh). Its a gamble - but as you interview try to feel around and focus on the most important thing - the type/quality of work. Since you are coming from Coal, research the variances in geological work as far as Onshore US vs. Deepwater GoM vs. Foreign projects. Seismic interpretation etc will be big in the newer exploration areas: Offshore Africa/Vietnam/Carribbean..the list goes on. If you are able to decipher a specific type of work within "Oil" it will help narrow your search quite a bit

Best of luck

Thank you, great advice. On another topic, do you think there is any reason to believe that pay rates, bonuses, or hiring might decrease with the election of our next president since both likely candidates, McCain and Obama, express concern about global warming and have indicated they might hold oil companies accountable in some way? I doubt either one would actually do much harm to the industry in light of the fact that we will continue to need oil and will need to further our exploration and development activities, and the hiring activities are more related to a shortage of geoscientists in general, but might there be any impact at all?

It was really only one of the majors. No one seems to get anything they do anyway.

Most companies are keeping everyone they possibly can and hiring more regularily.

As far as the education thing, most will help you 80-100% -IF- you do it outside of work hours. (night school, uggg) Usually with some sort of contract in place too, ie. you stay for 2 yrs after graduation. The majors often have programs for the tenured elite employees that will send them off the top schools and get a master's while still on the payroll. These are extremely difficult to get but do exist.

Night school doesn't sound appealing. Probably the only way it could be done would be to go to a school in Houston. No way could I go all the way out to TAMU or something like that. I'd rather take 2-3 years off and just get it all done at once, anyway. Which company do you work for? How do you like it? Any other oil company employees: how do you like working for your company? Do they treat you pretty well, other than giving good compensation/benefits?

I live closer to campus than I do down town. I commuted from BCS to Downtown for 7 years, (talk about getting old quick) before I built my home in Montgomery. It was a happy medium for me. It cut my commute in half and was still close to home. My family homestead is just outside of Bryan off of Dilly Shaw Tap near Kurten, technically Wixon Valley. I still have a home on 575 acres in Brazos County, but my primary home is on 83 acres in Montgomery County. I prefer not to live in the city by choice, the commute can be a pain, but we love our space, and horses are hard to raise in Bellaire or Memorial. Taxes are less out here, and we like our privacy. Just not a city kinda dude I reckon.

Man, that sounds like a good life! Very American. Congrats to you. That's a whole lot of land, too. I can appreciate the thing about horses, they're pretty popular here in Kentucky, as well. My sister loves horses and owned one up in Montana while she was in college. Made me want to do the same some day. Is there much land available down there still at a decent price?

Dave I completely APOLOGIZE to you and others. I am NOT hating on Bush either, in fact Mark F. will tell you, I am proably the most vocal supporter of him on here. I just needed a thread that pertained to oil, and I needed to be heard on it. I will happily remove my post as not to cause you any further pain my friend.

No, no, you're alright. In fact, your post was not as bad as I made it out to be. I just got the wrong idea I think. When I first created this topic I was afraid the first thing that would happen would be somebody would criticize me for wanting to work for an oil company, their reputations being what they are. I was very happy to get good advice and positive feedback about it. Thanks for the apology, though probably unnecessary.

quote name='TheNiche' date='Friday, May 9th, 2008 @ 6:07pm' post='248290']

I don't watch televised sports (unless I'm highly intoxicated), so no, I don't scream at the tube on a two-minute warning. And I don't purchase Rockets tickets or eat Big Macs, so that's not much of an issue, either.

Dude, Rockets tickets I can understand, but BIGMACS, who the hell doesn;t like a BIGMAC ??? FREAK !!!!

Anywho..... Price of gas should be consistent with the price of oil. Oil barells have doubled where as gas has TRIPLED ??? Does not make sense at all, at least not to me. Especially when there is NO OIL SHORTAGE !!!! Speculators are worried about Venezuela ? C'mon, Chavez's output is fifth in the world and they are buying from Russia in order to meet their numbers. Chavez's production has been cut drastically. He isn't saving up his resources, he is running out of them in that region. Someone at OPEC has their hands up these oil specualtors rear ends and these puppets are ruining our way of life right now.

A theory that has crossed my mind is that this could very possibly be a ploy by Bush, yes I said Bush, in order to push congress to open up ANWAR. Just a hunch.

I'm sorry, wrong thread, I know, but this is oil related and I didn't get to post this in Puma's thread because he requested to close it down. Boo Hoo !

I agree...wrong thread.

TAMU

How exactly did you manage that? It seems that would be a long commute every day. Did you work and take classes at the same time? Or did you live in College Station for awhile?

Actually most of the bigger companies have a continuing education program, built into their promptional standards. They also almost always pickup the tab if you continue on with them. Texaco repaid nearly all of my educational expenses, with my career with them. Shell assisted me with my DEng, and I was just a long-term contract engineer with them. Them sending Geos back to school is not unusual at all.

That is excellent. I really want to continue my education, too. I'd love more physics, math, and geophyisics, as well as other subjects like spanish, english, business, etc. ls "DEng" a "degree in English" or "doctorate in english" or something else?

Has anyone ever heard of an oil company sending their geoscientists back to school to earn a phd (at UT-Austin or Tex A&M for example) in order to move into the research and development side of the company?

Where did you take your courses, by the way? Also, I realized "DEng" is engineering, not english. duh.

Has anyone ever heard of an oil company sending their geoscientists back to school to earn a phd (at UT-Austin or Tex A&M for example) in order to move into the research and development side of the company?

Rockhound jobs in the petroleum field are mostly going to key on actual exploration experience. Coming from a coal background doesn't crossover much, unless you hookup with a group chasing coal-bed methane. One thing you may try is a placement or consulting firm, there are numerous in Houston, that can help you make the transition, because some of the better ones have support staff to lean on. El Paso could be a good place to hit up, the head rockhound there is Rene Decou, he's as nice a fella as you ever meet, known him over 30 years, and he's as good as the come. He does all the hiring and firing in the geology dept for EP. You might try www.rigzone.com and search the jobs in the geosciences there, a lot of recruiters work that pretty hard. You can start out contract through a firm, and wind up on full time after you prove your worth. Don't know how familiar you are with a lot of the new software that out now, but that is a big key now, you'll definitely be behind the curve if you aren't, but that is fixable. I've spent the last 40 years in the drilling end, and it's workable, you are just going to have to hustle, pick up quickly and sell yourself.

If I were giving my best guess for you to make the move as easy as possible, I'd say slip resumes to Cheryl Collarini, Susan Hughart, or Subsurface Consultants & Associates. All of these are always looking to staff people to fill your wishes.

Thank you for the information, I'll explore each of those avenues. I just looked at El Paso's website and was very impressed. They seem to offer everything I'm looking for and I was getting excited by the prospect. I certainly need to learn the software as quickly as possible, but I'm ready, willing, and able. Almost more than anything, working as part of a team appeals to me. Right now I work largely on my own as I'm responsible for overseeing our exploratory drilling and geological data management, drawing maps and cross-sections, etc. I do collaborate with our engineers, but I'm the only geologist for our Kentucky subsidiaries. I enjoy my job and the independence is good and all, but it would also be fun to be a part of some larger projects with several other geoscientists working together to solve problems and such.

Yeah...i don't blame him and know why. The hourly rates are way up there!

Do you know what the hourly rates are, approximately?