It was ultimately a combination of life events that led me to the oil and gas industry, but it all started with my work with Rose-Hulman’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders. I developed a passion for overseeing the development of projects from beginning to end.

Mechanical Engineering is the jack-of-all-trades of engineering, so it’s more valuable to have broad knowledge. Essential classes for me have been fluid dynamics, thermodynamics and heat transfer, machine component design and all structural and electrical classes. Other career-valuable knowledge for me includes classes in control systems, materials and statistics/quality. In addition, my experiences outside the classroom, such as my international trips with EWB and planning Rose’s first TEDx event, have been just as important of a contributor to my career skill set as my engineering knowledge.

Halliburton, Resolute Energy, Saudi Aramco and Apache Corporation. There are lots of opportunities with thousands of companies in oil-field services, operations and drilling. A few of the big ones hiring now are Shell, Chevron, CNX, and of course, ourselves. RigZone.com is a great resource for job postings in the oil and gas industry.

All of the technology I’m involved with is innovative and has a huge impact on our oil rigs. With each project, I’m proud of the goals that it accomplished such as making our rigs more efficient or safer, or reducing environmental impacts. It’s also very exciting to have the freedom to try new things to keep us on the front lines of innovation.