Best Opportunity to Transition as Engineer?
Question to fellow WSO’ers - 2 Year Petroleum Engineer in Houston working for a Large E&P. Over the past year or so, I have decided that I want to start making my move to finance earlier than I initially anticipated as day-to-day engineering and my forward looking career path does not excite me.
I have some close contacts in Energy Private Equity, and at this point that sounds like the ideal landing spot (seems to be a common thought). From what I’ve learned from talking to these contacts it sounds like IB before PE is pretty much required unless I want to spend 10+ more years working as an engineer before moving, so I’ve accepted the fact that I will likely have to move laterally as an IB analyst in hopes of getting picked up by a PE firm after 2-3 years as an analyst. My question is, what do you think is the best route for someone like myself?
Over the past couple of months, I have put in a decent amount of “networking” around the Houston Energy IB scene and have managed to get an offer from a well-known bank in Houston for an analyst role with their O&G team. My only hesitation with this is I’m not sure how PE firms recruit analysts out of technical teams vs. more traditional “banker” teams doing the deals and financial modeling...
Would I be better off trying to get a more traditional IB Analyst role where I am doing more finance related tasks than engineering like I would in this role? Thanks for any thoughts
Very interested in the answer to this as well. I'm going into Junior year in Petroleum Engineering and often when I tell a contact that I'd prefer to work as a traditional analyst instead of an analyst on the technical team, it seems like they're less interested in me. I'm definitely curious as to what the progression is for the technical staff vs. the finance guys, if anyone on here has a good answer.
Bump
Anyone have any insight in to this?
a28,
I thought I wanted to make the same decision 3 - 4 years ago. I'd been an EE for ~ 20 years and was just burned out with all of the travel, stress, deadlines, etc. I went out and got the requisite FINRA and NASAA certifications to become a FA. I understand it's not the same as an IB analyst, but ironically, that is the position for which I signed up to accept when I first got hired on by one of the big B-Ds on the street.
Don't know your age but I'm 50. Starting a new career that is nothing even remotely similar to what I'd been doing for my entire career ended up being a poor choice. After ~ 2 years as a FA, I turned it in and took a job as an EE Department Manager. The stress is all I remember, but at least it's stress I understand and can control. As a 49-year old newbie, the stressors I had in my position was not only palpable, but there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.
The position was really nothing more than a glorified marketer. However, if one is not on track to bring in $36,000,000 in new assets within 3-years, then at the 18-month mark you are given a warning. If you're still not on track at 24-months, they just cut you loose. Period!
I prefer to fight the enemy I know to an enemy I don't know. So, back to engineering I went. Perhaps you're young enough to make this happen. I can tell you I had this same banter with another member on here about 6-months ago and they told me they made the career change at 30. He also stated that doing so at 30 damned near killed him. So there is that. Good luck.
Petrol engineers make pretty good jack, but at least some of the guys I knew who went into that field were less than excited after a few years. Best wishes. It's all a grind so you may as well find the grind that makes you the most happy (or at least does NOT make you miserable).
I will preface this by noting that my main focus is not O&G; but I have been staffed on a few transactions recently.
I think a good fit for you would be the more technical upstream boutiques focusing on A&D and the like: Jefferies has a concrete reputation in this space, have seen RBC Rundle (not sure if they are very good, but I was impressed by their people), and generalist players like Evercore and TPH. These firms will build on your already strong O&G skills.
It depends on what you would like to exit to - some PE firms are very technical (e.g. Arena) and would very much value this expertise.
My impression is the "further" downstream you go; the less technical the work becomes unless you are redrilling or squeezing the last drop of oil from a field, and more about competitively cutting costs and getting the price right.
I would also note that at the end of the day; you will need to be a finance professional first and an O&G technical guy second, so I would aim for an analyst experience that gives you more of the first as you seem to have the second down pat.
Thanks for the response. A lot of what you said hits the questions I’ve been having. As you mentioned, being a finance professional comes first and is what I am most concerned about getting exposed to since I do have some solid technical skills from previous work experience.
With that being said, if I were to have the opportunity to work on a technical team doing more classic engineering-ish banking work versus some of the financial modeling you would be doing on the “finance” banking team, do you think there is a better option for exit opps after 2-3 years as analyst? I’ve been told that pairing a couple of years of “banker” analyst experience with my previous technical experience would look good for Energy PE placement, but am trying to gauge what others think that have been in the industry.
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