What Schools Do Large Oil Companies Look At I

How can I get a finance job in an oil and gas company?

As a background I work for both an energy hedge fund and a E&P company. What I am going to tell you probably isn't encouraging but needs to be heard to hone your process.The majority of financial positions in an oil and gas company related to finance are filled by individuals with 15+ years. In small companies senior management does the work. That or brokers that are bringing the management around are doing a good chunk of the junior work. I would recommend you avoid spending meaningful time applying to junior/small companies. This means companies below 500 million market cap. In slightly larger companies such as those between 500-2,000 million, I would suspect junior analysis roles are still fairly sparse. It isn't until you get to the 3 -10 billion market cap size companies that companies start to build out their financial support capabilities. Let me be clear, I am not saying no potential job opportunities exist sub 3 billion market cap. I am saying that those opportunities are few and far between. A single person is required to contributes more to a small company, as such junior roles tend to be an expensive use of resources.If your keen on jumping into a primary financial role with an actual E&P company I would recommend focusing your effort on large cap / majors and super majors. These companies have both the work load and capability to train junior resources. Likewise it's worth mentioning that they have advancement and career path opportunities available.Alternatively I would recommend trying to get into a brokerage firm or bank with an energy focus. These companies have both a need and capability to hire junior resources. Junior resource opportunities at these companies are rewarded with indepth financial market knowledge and company marketing skill. Likewise the jobs often require you to build relationships with many E&P management teams. Nothing like impressing a management team that is marketing with your capabilities for a résumé.Food for thought. P.S. This was written on a cell phone so please forgive my grammar and spelling!

How do oil companies determine in which areas to drill?

Geologists weave epic geologic histories based on hints from regional geography seismic data, core samples, well logs, and analogous petroleum systems.  Geologists are able to decipher geological clues  from the earth that tell the story of how, over millions of years, oil and gas was created, migrated, and trapped underground.Major petroleum systems are most commonly associated with shallow marine environments.  Here is where millions upon millions of marine organisms lived and died,  falling and accumulating on the sea floor where the were buried by sand and mud.  As this organic material is pushed deeper and deeper thousands of feet underground by subsidence and the accumulation of more and more sediment, it is put under extremely high pressure and tempurature.  This acts as a pressure cooker for all these dead critters, and turns them into hydrocarbons.  These hydrocarbons will migrate upwards through small holes and pathways in the rock until they become trapped and accumulate under an "impermeable" rock formation.Geologists look for this story by identifying 3  potential main types of rock:1. Source Rock2. Reservoir Rock3. Cap RockThe "Source Rock" is the sedimentary rock the ocean critters were initially buried and cooked in.  The "Reservoir Rock" is the rock that the petroleum migrated through and accumulated in.  The "Cap Rock" is rock that stopped the petroleum migration and trapped it.  Geologists identify these rocks by evaluating TOC (total organic content), porosity (how many holes are in the rock and how big are the holes), and permeability (how well connected those holes are) among many many other things.  They do this by shooting seismic surveys to see the layers of rock underground to look for faults and structural traps, drilling holes and pulling out core samples, running sophisticated tools down those holes which produce electric logs, and comparing similar geology in other petroleum producing regions.After interpreting all that data and putting together a plausible geological story, they recommend spots to drill where they believe they will strike oil and gas.

I am looking for a career in the upstream oil and gas industry as a petroleum engineer. What are some suggestions on how I should proceed?

I agree with Brandon in terms of US schools, but makes a huge difference whether you're a US citizen or an international student.If you're Canadian, University of Calgary is also a great choice (better than UofA in Edmonton) if you're used to city life. As long as you build your professional network, Calgary is a good jumping point for international assignments as many oil and gas companies are (were?) based there. Canada also has opportunities in the Montey and Duvernay so the oil sands aren't your only option.As an international (non-US) student, it is cheaper to go to a Canadian school than it is to go to a US school, particularly for a Bachelor's (4-year) degree. Obviously, US citizens qualify for financial aid at US institutions through FAFSA.If you're pursuing a graduate degree, I highly suggest reaching out to a professor in charge of a research consortium in which you're interested (TAMU, UT-Austin, OU, CSM, Standford, USC are all great research institutions). The research consortium will fund your education. My entire Master's degree was funded + stipend. This is very typical of MS and PhD programs. As research consortium at universities are generally sponsored by industry, you'll find that many are lacking funding and thus are not taking on more students at the moment, however, it does not hurt to ask.Reaching out to a professor is your best bet for admission to a graduate program. They will champion you if they like you and fast track your application through the admission process.Hope that helps! Good luck!

What kind of company should an ambitious, soon-to-graduate, small-school CS major look to join?

Hey there.Really depends on what sort of environment you're looking for and what kind of things you want to work on. Do you want to work for a big company? On a big team? Are you looking for a mentor? Do you enjoy building consumer products or do you want to take a more scientific approach? Do you want to live in The Valley?Hard to answer this question without more info. That said, the two largest buckets to consider are the startups and the well-established, public companies.Within the startup bucket, you can go for seed level/just starting out companies that are looking for or have recently acquired traction with customers. You'll find a lot of autonomy here and will have to learn how to work on all pieces of a software stack (typically learn the ability to bring a product from requirements phase all the way to deployment). There's also the more established "startups" which internally look more like public companies, but may offer some stock options that are a safer (if less fruitful) bet.You then also have the big companies (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, etc). They are much more structured, are a safer bet in terms of job security, and offer (most commonly) higher base salary.Anyways, it all depends on 1) what environment you want to work in, 2) what sort of product/software you want to work on, and 3) what you're looking for in compensation/benefits.