Want A Tech Job? Try Oil Tech

from the where-the-money-is dept

Mon, May 15th 2006 1:21am — Mike Masnick

Back in the 90s, interest in computer science soared, as everyone heard stories of computer science engineers in demand, with the opportunity to strike it rich quick. Of course, interest fell off after the bubble burst, but there's another industry desperately in need of skilled technicians, and it's making record profits. Apparently big oil is desperately looking for skilled petroleum engineers, but almost no one's interested. Very few people are studying to go into the field, and most of those who are in the field are getting up in age. Perhaps the field needs a new marketing campaign, redubbing the business as Oil 2.0, complete with AJAX-based oil rigs with pastel colors and rounded corners.

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10 Comments

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dorpus, 15 May 2006 @ 6:19am

If you can stand
Sure, if you don't mind getting crude oil on you, which doesn't come off for a month, and people (other than oil industry workers) wouldn't want to be within a block of you. Oh and, you don't mind spending a few years living in places like Saudi Arabia or Nigeria, do you? Beer, talking to women are against the law.
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angry dude, 15 May 2006 @ 7:01am

Re: If you can stand
Ha-ha-Ha-ah

How about flying first-class around the globe, living in a 5-star hotels all the time, driving compny BMW 7**, sheltering money in a tax-free account, not even seeing damn oil at all and retiring at 50 ?

Crude oil on your clothes ? I should tell this joke to some big oil engineers (not even managers) I know.
Techdirt is really clueless...
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dorpus, 15 May 2006 @ 7:13am

My uncle was a petroleum engineer. 5-star hotels throughout the world serve the same low quality cold catered food, first-class flying makes pepto bismol and sleeping pills your best friend, governments throughout the world are cracking down on tax shelter accounts,the funny colognes worn by Arabs or Texans will make you gag, the peer pressure to live and drive recklessly makes most of these guys lose their driving licenses, and they burn out by age 50. (Now he works in the more lucrative international construction industry, where Asian governments spend billions buildings things and tearing them back down to redo it.)
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Salangoran, 15 May 2006 @ 8:36am

Not on your life
There isn't enough money on this planet to convince me to go to Saudi Arabia again. First class planes, tons of cash, whatever you can dream up: it isn't enough. A bunch of nouveau riche bedouins who scream "sex = bad! alcohol = bad! gambling = bad!" and then speed off to Qatar, Bahrain or the U.A.E. on the weekend in their gold-plated BMWs to party down with the Russian prostitutes, play a few 'games,' and chug-a-lug a brewski or two. Meanwhile, the poor Saudis (which is everybody who isn't somehow related to the king) are living in the 3rd century.

Unreal. Never again.
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Howard, 15 May 2006 @ 9:13am

Hmmm... Bio-fuels, anyone?
Commerical biodiesel has been around $3/gallon for a long time, and now, all of a sudden, it's cost-competitive with dinodiesel. As dinofuels get progressively more expensive to produce, cleaner-burning alternatives are becoming viable, and I suspect we've recently hit a tipping point.
The main reason dinofuel is so expensive today is not (believe it or not) US consumption, but rapidly-rising Chinese (and other developing countries) demand. It looks to me like the future is not in petroleum engineering. BIG PLUS - a career in biofuel engineering probably would not involve trips to 14th-century theocracies.
--
Violins and Accessories
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Tim, 15 May 2006 @ 10:57am

Been There, Done That
Grew up as an oil field brat all over the world, even started my career in a oil company, and yes the money is good. Very good. But the places you find oil these days are the most off the charted path, armpits of the world who would want to live there? That even applies to places in the US - west Texas, Louisiana, middle of nowhere Alaska. The nice thing about the computer industry is I live where I want, and where my family wants, and heck, I enjoy the global competition that comes along with it.
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Muhammad Ismail, 11 Jun 2006 @ 10:31pm

worker Computer oprater
dear sir.
i hop you will be fine.
i have bachlare degry holder in university of pakistan
but no job please any vecency u r compney please adujust me.
thanks
ISMAIL
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charlie potatoes, 19 Jun 2006 @ 6:22am

Re: cologne
Fuck you, Doofus.
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charlie potatoes, 19 Jun 2006 @ 6:25am

everyone else
wait a sec...FUCK YOU, TOWEL HEAD...now i feel better.
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imran, 22 Aug 2006 @ 4:43am

needs to jobs
i nee to jobs.
hand work experance of computer hardware and computer software.
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