The US oil and gas industry has seen tremendous growth over the past several years, following a period of low oil prices and declining production. And job growth in the sector reflects a robust and growing need to both replace retiring workers and fill new positions.

Forbes’ latest rankings of the 15 most valuable college majors includes geology at #7 and petroleum engineering at #9. Environmental engineering, physics and finance – also integral to the US oil and gas industries – appear on the list as well.

There are job opportunities in oil and gas all across the country, as new unconventional finds have popped up in places like Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.  But a good deal of the activity underway is in the Gulf Coast, home to the vast majority of US refining infrastructure, as well as a number of onshore and offshore oil and gas fields. And oil and gas activity in the region suffers from less of the “dirty oil” stigma common on the East and West Coasts. “It’s part of the culture here,” Dr. Jayathi Murthy, Chair of UT Austin’s Mechanical Engineering Department, told Breaking Energy.

“It’s always an attractive option, not least because it pays much better than other specialities,” Murthy said. “Obviously there are ups and downs, but the industry has been doing really well in the last 5-10 years.”

Among the region’s best petroleum engineering programs, University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M feature at or near the top of many of the lists we found, with other Gulf Coast region schools including Louisiana State University’s A&M College, University of Houston and Texas Tech.

Of ExxonMobil’s $2 million awarded to 83 colleges and universities globally last year, $175,000 went to UT Austin, according to the website of its Cockrell Engineering School. The Cockrell School says it has been the largest supplier of engineers to ExxonMobil over the last five years, and oilfield services giant Schlumberger gave the school $500,000 in October to upgrade facilities at its Engineering Education and Research Center. Roughly half of UT Austin graduates with mechanical engineering degrees go into the oil and gas field, Murthy said.

There are many other schools in the Gulf Coast whose engineering programs feed students into the oil and gas field, including Louisiana State University, University of Alabama and Mississippi State. Chevron recruits from over 90 schools in the US – mostly schools with strong engineering programs – through its University Partnership Program, which furnishes universities with scholarships, grants, laboratory upgrades and other funding and gifts.

ExxonMobil has launched a Community College Petrochemical Interactive program, under which interested students can receive training for work in the petrochemical industry at community colleges along the Texas Gulf Coast. The company estimates that a planned expansion to its Baytown, Texas facility will require workers for 350 new permanent jobs. CP Chem, a joint chemicals venture of Chevron and ConocoPhillips, anticipates hiring 2,800 people over the next decade to support growth, according to an article in IHS Chemical Week.

Oil companies’ recruitment targets are not limited to petroleum engineers. They are also hiring people in business and finance, information technology and public and government affairs. And recruitment pushes sometimes take unusual forms. ExxonMobil gave away free jambalaya lunches, “complete with salad, cookies and drinks”, to students of Louisiana State University’s business, computer science and computer engineering majors in April.

“For intern and bachelor’s/master’s degree college hire positions, we primarily focus on engineering degrees. Petroleum, Mechanical, Chemical, Electrical, Civil and Environmental Engineering are the central majors.  We also hire a number of IT positions for which we are looking at MIS [Management Information Systems] and Computer Science degrees. In comparison to Engineering, we hire just a handful of positions for more business oriented degrees like Accounting and Communications. We also hire for several MBA programs which focus on specializations in areas such as Supply Chain Management, Finance and Human Resources. For PhD’s our focus primarily falls in the fields of Earth Sciences as well as Petroleum and Chemical Engineering.” – Chevron spokesman Justin Higgs

Some oil and gas companies are even involved in programs to foster interest in science and engineering  at the pre-university level. Chesapeake Energy has been a repeat sponsor of the Future Scientists Program banquet at the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts, a secondary school in northern Louisiana (and, for full disclosure, the author’s alma mater). Chevron partners with Project Lead the Way, which provides STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics] curricula for middle and high school students in the US, with contributions helping the program to expand in states where Chevron has significant operations. BP hosts an engineering day for select high school students at its Houston campus, complete with tours, demonstrations and activities.

The following schools appeared on major oil companies’ campus recruitment calendar for 2013:

• Alabama: University of Alabama, Tuskeegee University, University of South Alabama
• Florida: University of Florida, Florida A&M
• Louisiana: Louisiana State University, Xavier College, Louisiana Tech, University of Louisiana Lafayette, University of New Orleans, Southeastern Louisiana University
• Mississippi: Mississippi State
• Texas: University of Texas at Austin, Texas Agricultural and Mechanical, Rice, Texas Christian University, Texas State University, Baylor, Texas Tech, University of Houston