All week in San Antonio I've been hearing from geology professors stories about their graduate students getting job offers of $100,000 or more to work in the petroleum industry. Every where I went in the meeting, there was evidence of the frantic bidding wars to grab hold of professional talent. A lot of the exhibitors in the convention center posted signs saying they are hiring. A fair number of my colleagues have taken new jobs in recent months, presumably finding better postings, better opportunities, better locations, and I suspect, bigger salaries, bonuses, and over-rides.
Geologists with Blackberries in hand would announce the price of oil ("$117!" "$119!") to whoever was in listening range.
I had lunch with a professor colleague and a recently graduated student who took a job with a large independent in Oklahoma. She described the campus-like setting of their new building, the company teams (rowing, bowling, etc) that she joined, and it started sounding like the Silicon Valley start-up environments.
Some profs are describing huge influxes of grad students into geology, but most are not. They are not seeing the undergrad populations rising either. But given the barrage of news stories around the country, I imagine the word is starting to sink in. The anecdotal stories we are all bringing back from the AAPG meeting will help spread the word about this latest boom.
A few of my seasoned colleagues who went through at least one of the industry downturns of the past few decades are offering cautionary notes to their alma maters. But with offers of $80-100K, how many are worrying about that?