 Is a petroleum engineering major or petroleum engineering degree worth it? That's what we're going to be talking about today and let's jump right into it. What is petroleum engineering? This one is going to be all about designing and developing methods to extract natural gases from below the earth's surface. Now, along with a lot of engineering, there's going to be quite a bit of mathematics, science, and specifically chemistry. And every year around 2,000 people graduate with a bachelor's in this degree. So first, we're going to go ahead and talk about earning potential or salary. Now, petroleum engineering is actually the highest paying bachelor level degree out there. According to pay scale, on average, you start off around $92,000 a year and mid-career pay is 182,000. You can compare that to a very high and a very low paying degree and you see that it is the number one paying degree by a mile. Now, if you become a petroleum engineer, you're going to make around $137,000 a year, which is $66 an hour. Another career path you might go down is becoming a mining engineer and they make around $91,000 a year or $43 an hour. And there are some careers that are relatively similar to petroleum engineering. Some of them are at the bachelor level. Some of them are at the associate level and I'll have those pop up on the screen right now. So if you're just interested in the field in general, but you're not sure you want to get that specific degree, these might be some other careers you can look into. And as you can see, they're all relatively high paying. I always recommend going for a degree where you can make around $75,000 a year because studies have shown that that's where your happiness max is out. So basically your happiness does increase up to a certain amount and then past that, it doesn't really matter. So I always recommend just to maximize your happiness to try to make around $75,000 to $80,000 a year. Now, of course, that'll be different for everyone based on what your goals are and where you live and a bunch of other different factors, but I always say shoot for that at least. Now engineering degrees in general over a lifetime make more than any other type of degree around $3.5 million versus $2.4 million for all of the other ones. And petroleum engineering is the highest paying type of degree. I mean, it is absolutely ridiculous how much money you can make with this degree. And so it's going to have to get an 11 out of 10 when it comes to salary. Next, we're going to be talking about satisfaction. And this section is honestly extremely subjective. So just take it with a grain of salt for one person. This could be a 10 out of 10. And for another, it could be like a negative 10 out of 10. So first, we're going to talk about meaning and petroleum engineering actually has a 69% meaning score. And you can compare that to the highest rated one and one of the lowest rated ones. And you'll see that it's definitely on the higher side. To be honest with you guys, when I was researching this one, I was extremely surprised when I saw that that's really high, especially for an engineering degree. When you look at petroleum engineer specifically, you're going to see the meaning score is 66%. So still really high and job satisfaction is 80%. Again, you can compare that to a high and a low ranked one. And you'll see that it's on the higher side as well. And again, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this on top of that engineering degrees are the third least regretted type of degree only around 15% of people who get engineering majors regret them. And the reason is because some of the best jobs require advanced degrees like a masters. Now, one thing I will say here is none of these statistics are ever perfect. There might be some variables that we're not taking into account. So for instance, when I was researching this one, a lot of people who get this degree end up working on an oil rig or out in the middle of nowhere and some, you know, tiny town in Texas or something like that. And so that might not necessarily be the lifestyle that all of us want to live. But with this one, you'll very likely have to move somewhere especially to get your first job. There also could be some bias here because a lot of people who get petroleum engineering degrees don't necessarily become petroleum engineers as well. Petroleum engineering as a career and really just as an industry in general, natural gas is extremely unstable. And so a lot of the time, you know, the economy is doing really well, gas prices are doing well, and there's tons of jobs, lots of work, you're getting paid great, and then all of a sudden something happens and a bunch of people get laid off. So there's going to be a lot of volatility there as well. So it's kind of a high risk, high reward type of degree. Overall with this one, there's a lot of uncertainty in my opinion. So when it comes to satisfaction, I'm going to give it a 7.5 out of 10. Next, we're going to be talking about demand. And if you become a petroleum engineer, there's 33,000 of them, and it's growing at 3%, which is average, meaning over the next decade, around 1100 new jobs will be created. But again, like I said, there's a lot of fluctuation there and a ton of uncertainty. Mining engineer is similar, around 6,300 jobs available and growing at 4%, which is slightly faster, meaning over the next 10 years, there's going to be 300 jobs that open up. Now, another thing I'll mention here is I always like doing the test where I type in the degree name onto monster or indeed.com and see how many job listings have that degree listed in their description. And so when you type in petroleum engineering degree, you're going to see that only 166 jobs pop up. That is really bad. You can compare that to a really good one and a bad one, and you'll see that's actually below the bad one. And I think that's a little bit of an issue with petroleum engineering is you sort of pigeonhole yourself, okay? So not a lot of demand for petroleum engineering, the skill set outside of the natural gas industry. And so if you get this degree, and for whatever reason, petroleum engineering doesn't work out. Let's say you don't want to live in the middle of nowhere, you decide that you don't want to do it. It's going to be a little tougher for you to transition into a different career versus getting a mechanical engineering degree or maybe chemical engineering. So keep in mind that you could potentially get a chemical or mechanical engineering degree and still become a petroleum engineer, whereas doing the opposite might be quite a bit harder. But at the same time, engineering degrees in general are pretty well respected. So it's not like you're going to be jobless. You probably will just have to get a different job that doesn't pay anywhere near as well. So overall here, when it comes to demand, I'm going to give this one a 6.5 out of 10. Next, we're going to be talking about X factors, and this is anything that I didn't talk about before that's still important. Now, one thing I like to mention with engineering degrees is besides the fact that you earn the most over a lifetime, at least according to the latest census. So the last 40 years or so, you know, who knows what's going to happen in the next 40 years, but you earn 3.5 million over a lifetime versus 2.4 million normally. And not only that, but it's pretty consistent across all kinds of different careers. So for instance, if you become an engineer and you get an art degree, you're still going to make around $3 million over a lifetime, which is much higher than just about any other type of degree. So there's something really magical about engineering degrees when it comes to earning a lot of money. Now, it could just be because they're really smart, but I mean, hey, you look at physics majors and they're really smart as well, and they're not earning nearly as much. And it's also not as broad and widespread over different types of careers. Now, when it comes to skills and how valuable the skills are, ZipRecruiter does have a skills index. They don't have petroleum engineering on there. I guess that's a little bit too niche to be listed on their index. However, they have chemical engineering at 59 out of 100. And you can compare that to a really good one and a really bad one. And you do see that it's on the higher side slightly. When it comes to the question of automation, very unlikely that any engineering degree is going to be automated. And even if the job itself is automated, the skills that you learn from that job will very easily transfer into other types of careers. So automation is not something you have to worry about generally, when it comes to an engineering job. Now outsourcing, on the other hand, is a little bit more of an issue. It's very difficult to outsource something over the internet, for instance, because you do have to be on the job site generally. However, it would be relatively easy for them to hire a bunch of people from overseas that might have the same skill set. At least, it could potentially be in the future. Who knows when it comes to regulations and stuff. But overall, the skills that you learn are not going to be able to be outsourced very easily. Another magical thing about engineering degrees is they are the most common type of degree to create millionaires and billionaires. Now that's not only because of the fact that they pay really well in terms of salary, but a lot of people end up becoming entrepreneurs and starting their own businesses. And they have a very good chance of being successful because if you think about it, engineering is basically practical problem solving and entrepreneurship at its most basic level is just solving problems. And you can definitely become a millionaire with a really good salary by having good personal finance skills and investing. But the easiest way to do it and pretty much the only way to become a billionaire is to start your own business. Now when it comes to difficulty, this is something you really want to keep in mind. Engineering degrees are no joke. Make sure you know what you're getting yourself into there. But overall, when it comes to X factors, I'm going to give this one a score of nine out of 10. When you take all those scores, divide them by four. This one comes out to be 8.5 out of 10. That's really good in the grand scheme of things. If this is a degree where you're passionate about it, you're really, you know, something that is very interesting to you, I would definitely go for it. I do recommend looking into chemical engineering and mechanical engineering as well, just so that you can be a little bit careful, especially if you want to stay on the safe side. The reason for that is like I said before, you can become a petroleum engineer with a chemical engineering or a mechanical engineering degree. However, vice versa isn't necessarily true. So if you want to stay on the safe side just in case, you know, something could happen in the market, some regulation happens, and then all of a sudden, you know, there's a ton of petroleum engineers that are out of the job. So if you want to stay on the safe side might be a good idea to get a chemical or mechanical engineering degree and then just take extra classes in petroleum. Now, if you're one of those people who has been requesting that I do a degree for the longest time, I will eventually get to it. But if you don't want to wait for it, check out my college degree ranker down in the description below in my Patreon. If you haven't done it already, gently tap the like button, hit the subscribe button, ring the notification bell, and comment down below any thoughts, comments, criticisms, etc. that you have on the video. Share the video. That actually helps a lot. And don't leave. Check out my other videos right here. I made them just for you.