Petroleum engineering and job market! what are the opportunities? help me with jobs availabilities and salary?

I live in texas

Join an oil service company to gain some background. Then try going for the majors.

You might have heard about a little thing called "Peak Oil". It probably happened about two years ago. Right now we have, as the fallout of it, a phase of desperation drilling and digging for tar and really great job opportunities.

Five years down the road we will have a never ending series of layoffs of petroleum engineers which will have become obsolete in a post-peak energy economy.

Apart from that, good luck with your career choice.

Most of the time one would need to attend a unviersity, (which is pretty obviously for a position like this), to gain what you would like out of petroleum engineering. Usually you would go for some degree in science, like industrial, perhaps safety engineering, metallurgy-(pardon my spelling, I've been working all day), or a similar type of engineering that would encompass all the facets of mining, petroleum, etc. In order to gain a position as that type of engineer, you usually have to go through as that of an assistant first, entry-level. This usually requires at least a Bachelor's Degree, sometimes a Master's. The higher paid, that's obviously, you would need a Doctorate in engineering. Some get a degree in General Engineering, but I wouldn't recommend that. I don't know that much about this type of engineering. I know some of the courses are far different that that of what I ended up eventually choosing. I was originally going to become a mining engineering, and the encompassing was most biological and chemistry courses. But, that may have changed since then.

On average, at least accorrding to the Department of Labor, most engineers, excluding "naval" and "archiectural", safety, mining, petroleum, civil, mechanical engineers made $34,750 on average at entry-level in 2006. This includes having at least a Bachelor's Degree. Those with more authority, and with a Master's Degree made on average $65,550 a year. And finally, those with a Ph.D. made the highest salary, on average between $80,000 and $200,000. This also included those who were partners in major firms.

To remind you however, the Department of Labor only issues these as a general reference, and shouldn't be considered throughout the entire country, as each location is different and has different requirements. Also, each state has different licensing and examination procedures. In order to work as either an engineer or architect, you must be licensed.

Best wishes in your research.
Dr.J.G.F.