The COVID-19 pandemic caused increased uncertainty for students, especially petroleum engineers. Whether looking to start a college career or to enter the workforce, there are many challenges. In this article, which is an excerpt of the SPE Live held in July 2020, petroleum engineering (PE) department heads Jeff Spath and Jennifer Miskimins address the way ahead for prospective and current students of petroleum engineering.
Spath is a professor and department head for petroleum engineering at Texas A&M University. He was the 2014 SPE President, an SPE Distinguished Lecturer, and Distinguished and Honorary Member. Miskimins is a professor and department head for petroleum engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. She twice served as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer and was the first completions Technical Director on SPE’s board and is editor-in-chief of Hydraulic Fracturing: Fundamentals and Advancements.
[Readers are also encouraged to register for the SPE Virtual Career Pathways Fair which will be held 26-28 April. It is organized to give students and young professionals an opportunity to network and meet with experienced oil and professionals from all over the world. The event includes a career fair and company booths, skill development webinars, and quick-fire mentoring sessions to talk about the future of specific job roles and how you can prepare for them. Registration for this event is free.]
What advise do you have for students seeking internships? Are there adjustments that companies can be making [during COVID times] to better reach out to soon-to-be PE graduates?
Miskimins: I think it's both. We’re getting ready to do a virtual career fair, and I think a lot of people are probably looking to do that. Instead of having to wait in a really, really long line, [students] have got an equal opportunity to see different companies and to seek out these different companies that are coming and form a career path. From the company side of it, they're also realizing that [they] have to do things differently. They might have limitations on being able to travel or being able to get around campus to campus. There's going to be some definite, logistical changes.
Applying, networking, getting involved, and developing a good resume, I don't think any of that is going to change. It's just how we approach it and how we go through it.
Spath: Internships are very important. In fact, we require our seniors to have taken at least one internship before we let them register for senior courses. The companies can help by, for example, splitting the summer into two and hiring interns for the first half and half a dozen for the second half, to satisfy the requirement. What we're doing in the department to facilitate this [during COVID and the downturn], is we're [adjusting] traditional internships where you might go sit a rig, and we're combining research with workshops. So we've reached out to various software vendors and operators and service companies to deliver anywhere from a couple days to 2-week workshops. And the students have the option of picking workshops and combining it with a 2-week research project with professors, and that satisfies the requirement for an internship.
The only advice I can give students is don't wait until your junior year. You have to start early. Companies are [often] hiring full-time positions from their intern pools. You really have to think early, even as a freshman. This is the other thing I tell students: I don't care what your first job is—whether it's full time or over the summer, if it's painting the dog houses on the rig site, or driving around in a truck strapping tanks. I know that's an outdated example, but do whatever it is you can to get some kind of experience to get your foot in the door for the next one.
What skills can students and recent graduates focus on to ensure that they have longevity in their career?
Spath: Focus on what you need when you graduate. Like most programs around the world, we have been tweaking our [program] to include things that industry is asking for: The subjects around ESG, data analytics, and the application of machine learning to problem solving. I've got a very strong industry board that meet several times a year. They tell me what recruiters want in a graduate, so the curriculum is constantly changing.
I give advice to a lot of students who are hesitant to commit to a master's degree in petroleum engineering—take petroleum engineering as a minor, or take a related minor like finance, chemical engineering, data science to broaden your skills base.
But worry about those skills to get the first job rather than what you're going to need [in the future], because who knows what you're going to need. When I got out of school, it certainly wasn't data science. So don't try to predict what is going to be a required skill. Focus on doing as much as you can within petroleum engineering, and then make sure your electives are in something that interests you, but something that will add marketability to yourself, like data science, finance, chemistry, etc.
Miskimins, can you add to that and also discuss how what PE students learn can be applied to other fields?
Miskimins: We want to have people that are very, very well trained in petroleum engineering and have that base of petroleum engineering. Like Jeff said, taking the electives or taking minors in areas that you have an interest in can supplement your base education, but also provide you with that opportunity for diversification. Data analytics is a big one: We have a minor at Mines in data analytics, in midstream, and in engineering economics. Outside the petroleum side of things, there's some opportunities: We study fluid flow in porous media, things like geothermal energy options meet naturally with that. And we're seeing some increased interest. But we're a petroleum engineering department, we're going to be a petroleum engineering department for quite some time to come. We just want to provide students some of those outside opportunities also and things that they can look at to help strengthen those skills.
For someone who says they have extra time on their hands, how can they invest in themselves?
Miskimins: We have a lot more online opportunities. Whether they're formally pursuing a degree or not, there's a lot of places to learn. As you learn and you get that information, that's a great thing to put on a résumé. And that leads to future opportunities and improved opportunities.
Spath: It doesn't necessarily have to be formal in the sense of getting a MS or a PhD Just make sure you're continuously improving yourself and continuously educating yourself, whether it's an SPE short course or a distance learning master’s degree. We talked about how enrollment was going down physically, [but] our distance learning enrollment is going through the roof. [People] are working from home, they have time on their hands, and they're getting their master’s in engineering degree, in most cases in petroleum engineering. Whether or not you have time to spare, I have always encouraged employees and students both to [pursue] continuous education.
This is a popular question among students and prospective petroleum engineers: “Should I pursue this career?”
Spath: If you want a career that allows you to contribute to human-flourishing, to be proud of what you do, lifting people out of poverty, if you want a career that gives you an international exposure, worldwide travel, adventure, and let's not forget that it pays nicely when compared to other engineering graduates, then pick petroleum engineering. And if you're nervous, then hedge your bet, and take a minor in something that's either related or unrelated. But should you pursue a career in petroleum engineering? Yes.
Miskimins: 30 years ago, when I was kicking off my career, I was having this exact same conversation, but I was on the opposite side. Everybody was telling me that nobody in their right mind would go into petroleum engineering, because I wasn't going to have a career and that 5 years later I'd be unemployed and I'd have to go back to school and get a different degree. I'm glad I didn’t listen to those naysayers at that point in time.
We are back just having that same conversation because we're at the bottom half of a downturn. That downturn is going to come up. Sometimes the best time in the world to go into an industry, especially a cyclic industry, is when you're in a downturn. As you're going into it, you're going to be the person that's going to be there when it pops. I will second what Dr. Spath said: Yes, people should consider petroleum engineering as a career, and I have no hesitation whatsoever telling anybody that.