What is the difference between career growth of a software engineer and a petroleum engineer?

I think there is more variation of the career growth for software engineers. For example, life for software engineers at a local firms is very different compared to the big company like Apple or Facebook or Google. Meanwhile for Oil and Gas, you'll not find many differences over few different oil companies, as there aren't too many oil and gas & service companies in the world. At least not as much as software engineering firms. Given this fact and looking at your numbers, the statistics is not misleading in any sense. Here's my suggestion for you. As you're asking about the possibilities of a career growth, I'm gonna assume you're (or you'll become) a top notch software engineer / petroleum engineer. If you value things like working in a startup, get a stock options from this startup, dealing with high tech environment that can affect people's life, then you should consider working in software engineering firm. If you value things like work-life balance, possibility of expatriation for several years, traveling around the world, then you should opt for a career in oil companies. In terms on income, Looking at my friends who works in a giant software -engineering firm and compared to my own experiences in the oil company, they're pretty much comparable. If you're gonna be an average software engineer / petroleum engineer, then I'd choose a career in oil and gas company. The job is more secure and you'd get more income as has already said, the demand for more petroleum engineers far exceeding the supply to the job market itself. Hope this helps.

The numbers aren't useful because there is way too much variation. If you're a software engineer that has a few years of experience, you can make ~150-160k at places like Microsoft or Google. At startups, it's closer to ~100-110k but you'll get equity so if you believe in the company and are within the first 50 or so employees you may get compensated in a few years off that as well. Lastly, there's more mobility in software dev. There are thousands of companies that need good developers. Developers at HFT firms make 200-300k. Honestly, I would worry way less about salaries and way more about what you enjoy doing. In software engineering, you can work in EVERY industry (finance, oil/gas, energy, biotech, regular software products, advertising, etc) and do all kinds of different roles (front end engineer, back end engineer, technical sales, developer relations / evangelist, full stack engineer, data engineer, engineering manager, product manager, etc) and you get to work on building products, which is exciting for a lot of people. In most oil/gas companies, you're a small keg in a giant operation and the work isn't rewarding (for many people). No matter what, you'll make 100-150k doing either if you're somewhat talented so I would focus on other attributes. In my opinion, software engineering is a MUCH better field. There's just way way more opportunities and it's a fast growing area that won't slow down (computers are being used in EVERYTHING from agriculture to stock trading) versus a petroleum engineer has a very narrow set of skills and industries they can work for.

I wrote some thoughts on the differences in lifestyle between a software and petroleum engineer which I think you may find to be of interest. See Overall I think a career in software is kind of like the "Wild West" where the programmer can potentially forge or write his own story, whereas the career path for a Petroleum engineer is much better established and there is a "typical" career path or ladder you can climb. Technology changes very quickly and the career trajectory of "old" programmers is oftentimes irrelevant and obsolete like the machines we program. For example mobile development is a relatively new phenomenon and while iOS developers are currently in demand, but Blackberry and Palm Pre programmers not so much...... Salary is based on a number of factors such as location and the market but generally petroleum engineers will win hands down. Here in Alberta, Canada APEGA runs a salary survey which can be used as a guideline. http://www.apega.ca/SalarySurvey/13/FINAL-2013%20APEGA%20Salary%20Survey%20Instruction%20Manual.pdf Take these numbers with a grain of salt. An American software engineer can make 2-3 times more than a Canadian engineer due to the forces of supply and demand despite having the equivalent skillset and experience...... Software is often a winner-take-all competition where the real money is made not working as a regular employee, and wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few key employees.

Petroleum engineers can actually earn between $65,215 - $190,215, see http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Petroleum_Engineer/Salary while software engineers earn between $50,353 - $110,837, see http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Software_Engineer/Salary.

Hi, see software and petroleum industry are two different ends of a ocean. I don't think you can compare them only on the basis of salary. Still, if you want to choose between these two then I would advise you to go for the field in which you are willing to work even at 12am. This will tell you your interest and please do follow only that field as your interest and curiosity can take you to heights. I hope you understood what I meant! Having said that, if you choose Petroleum field then I would advise you to go for UPES,Dehradun, you must have heard about it. It is the only university in India offering core sector programs and has experienced faculty from the industry itself, to guide students. So, choose wisely its your life!! Best of luck!