Petroleum engineers design equipment that extracts oil from reservoirs, which are deep pockets of rock that contain oil and gas deposits. To do this, they spend a lot of time gathering and analyzing data to extract the oil in the safest and most cost-effective ways possible. They also do a lot of evaluating and refining of systems to make them better. A decent amount of the oil extracted by petroleum engineers in the U.S. comes from Texas.

As a kid growing up in West Texas, Russell Parker wanted nothing to do with oil. He saw what happened during the mid-1980s bust when the price of crude oil, or petroleum, plummeted, and more than 200,000 people lost their jobs.

But, while working on his bachelor’s degree at the University of Texas at Austin, Parker found himself bored in his aeronautical engineering classes. He wanted to work in an area of engineering that moved at a faster clip and pushed the envelope. As it turned out, petroleum engineering fit the bill.

Parker, now the CEO of Houston-based Phoenix Natural Resources, says the job includes a lot of science, data and technical know-how, but there’s always this exciting element of the unknown.

"You can’t put a human being two miles into the earth," Parker says. "You have to do all of your work with the data that you take – building models, observing the way the reservoir works – there are so many unknowns that you have to deal with."

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 2.5% employment growth for petroleum engineers between 2022 and 2032. In that period, an estimated 500 jobs should open up.

To obtain an entry-level job, prospective petroleum engineers will need to get a bachelor’s degree in engineering or petroleum engineering, preferably from an ABET-accredited program. Any programs that offer practical experience, or the opportunity to intern, are particularly valuable because employers highly value practical experience.

Although a Professional Engineering license or a Society of Petroleum Engineers certification aren’t necessities, they can be helpful when it comes to advancing in the field.