Masters of Petro Engineering with different undergrad?

[seadog]

I haven't been on beyond in a while... I was working overseas and got a little distracted from everything AB, but actually came back here to Edmonton late last Spring with a work transfer.

Anyways, after 7 years with SLB Wireline, me (and ~half the very experienced dept I was in) got let go, with possibly more coming since each week seems to bring 1-2 more.

Honestly half a blessing, because the life style was killing me, and the (very good) money was almost meaningless since I could never really enjoy it. Hard to walk away when you know for each 3-4 months you work, it's another year you don't have to. But also I kept hanging on since that cushy office job has been only "3-6 months away" for the last 3 years. Anyways, if you're familiar with SLB you're familiar with their half truths and full lies.

So grand plan now is to travel for maybe a year of so, then I'm tossing around the idea of going for a Masters of petroleum engineering. My background was Mech, but with over 7 years experience with SLB, I figure between that, a Masters, and hopefully if a couple years down the road things have recovered, I should be in good shape.

First off, has anyone done a masters in petro while having a different undergrad? Was the transition hard? I contacted U of C, and they basically said that since I don't have a petro or chem background, that I simply cannot do a course based masters. Seemed a little harsh. No other university I looked at had that restriction. At least not blatantly advertised on their website.

I'm also thinking about going abroad to the US, UK, or Australia, but the fees (Oz for instance is 36k/yr, 2 yr program) are nuts. Unless it was MIT or Oxford or something, I'm not sure you can justify spending 5x.

Finally, did a master's really help you much? I mean most of my Mech Eng degree I felt was simply going through the motions. Looks good on paper, but not sure how much it directly improved my abilities.

[riander5]

I wanted to do the same with the same problem as you. Fucking U of C cunts. Guess ill just get an MBA.

Had a friend at my work with chem bach / petro masters. He made the jump from my company to a US producer in houston. Got a massive pay bump. Like 50%. And he wasn't underpayed here either.

He was a smart guy, but he figured the masters set him apart and made him more attractive to the big boys.

Update if you find a viable alternative to U of C!

[ExtraSlow]

I guess it depends on what you want to do with that Masters. At lots of mid-small sized shops in Calgary, nobody is going to care if you have your masters. But at any of the multinationals, it could help set you apart.

Salaries in the US for some positions are amazing. I was trying to recruit a guy from OKC a while back, and he made about 15% more, before accounting for currency and cost of living. Factoring all that in, it was 50% more easily.

[seadog]

Yah I really can't understand the rationale behind U of C. I've spent more time working in the industry than most grad students have spent studying it, yet according to them it counts for nothing. Not that I'm bitter, more just bewildered why they're so insistent on a lose/lose.

U of A also offers it, also an interesting MBA/MEng combined degree, and on their admission requirements all they say is an engineering degree. On the other hand, I don't really have any ties to Edmonton, and I can't stand the cold. Dal also has it, but honestly is probably the lowest in terms of quality. I think it's just U of C, U of A, MUN, and Dal offering it.

The other thing is the job left me in a bit of a rut. I have no real friends outside the industry except for like High school/university friends who I see once or twice a year. That's why I was thinking US or Oz. I love the sun, would love to live in a world class city like Sydney. Have a normal life, not be on call always, be able to indulge in hobbies etc. I'm not sure if I'm leaning this way because I actually want to better my skills, or just do something which isn't a total waste of time but which still allows me to take it easy and relax.

Conversely, I need to ask myself if I even want to go down that path. Staying in the industry in some capacity seems like the natural progression given that I have 7 years already invested, but at the same time the work is tolerable/mildly amusing at best, down right miserable at worst. Mind you I only have one data point, and that's with a company renowned for using/abusing engineers and otherwise burning them out.

[kaput]

.

[My_name_is_Rob]

Originally posted by seadog
That's why I was thinking US or Oz. I love the sun, would love to live in a world class city like Sydney. Have a normal life, not be on call always, be able to indulge in hobbies etc. I'm not sure if I'm leaning this way because I actually want to better my skills, or just do something which isn't a total waste of time but which still allows me to take it easy and relax.

I looked into going to school in Aus a couple years back, and as long as you had a student visa/ permanent resident status (for the school year), you wouldn't get dinged with international student costs. At the time, I was just looking to finish off my undergrad there, so I'm not sure if the MBA program would fall under different regulations, but it might be something to look into.

[msommers]

Oxford is 50K/yr for PhDs.

Anyways for engineering, I think unless you want to work in Europe there isn't much point. It's really unfortunate that no one else in the world recognizes that an undergrad with a thesis here in Canada is basically the same as a Master's in many countries around the world, that's why having a Master's isn't as big of a deal as it is here. It's longer, more expensive and more research intensive.

If you're wanting to stay here I don't think that it will help you much. G+G is the only place where I would say otherwise but honestly in this town, it's all who you know.

[Perceptionist]

The combined MBA/M.Eng is no longer offered at the U of A. Not sure why, as it seemed like a good fit for engineers going back to university.

As for the course-based M.Eng programs in PetE, I am not sure whether the U of A will take outside disciplines or not. It seems strange to me that they don't allow this at the U of C, given the amount of MecE and ChemE grads that work directly in the industry.

[riander5]

Originally posted by Perceptionist
The combined MBA/M.Eng is no longer offered at the U of A. Not sure why, as it seemed like a good fit for engineers going back to university.

As for the course-based M.Eng programs in PetE, I am not sure whether the U of A will take outside disciplines or not. It seems strange to me that they don't allow this at the U of C, given the amount of MecE and ChemE grads that work directly in the industry.

Chem eng can do it. Petroleum and Chem only. No Mech

[ExtraSlow]

One reason why they allow Chem and not Mech is that the O&G undergraduate degree at UofC is an offshoot of the Chemical Engineering program, and shares many components.