Yes, there are oil and gas jobs for CS majors / tech people. I went to school at UT Austin, which as you might imagine, has a nontrivial number of these compani

Yes, there are oil and gas jobs for CS majors / tech people. I went to school at UT Austin, which as you might imagine, has a nontrivial number of these companies recruiting. However, my takeaways from these companies: - You'll most likely be working in Houston / San Antonio (probably not where you want to be working) - They pay well by general, non-tech, new grad standards, but don't expect the "standard" 100K salary + 50K signing bonus + 30K/year stock that's become standard fare in the Valley. That said, the cost of living in Texas is significantly lower than the Valley (plus, no state income tax!), so you might come out ahead here. - Not a ton of startups in the space, due to the large amount of capital required. You're basically working for the big guys. This means that there isn't much upside. WYSIWYG, you aren't going to become an overnight millionaire. - Culture is much more corporate than Valley companies. So don't expect free food / drink / laundry / massages / gym memberships / rail passes. And you may have to wear clothing other than jeans + flipflops to work. Major companies in this space recruiting CS people: Valero, Schlumberger, ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66. All the above said, there are some pretty cool technical challenges that these companies face. Where do you drill? How do you analyze seismic data to figure out on a macro level where to explore? What about when you start drilling and find oil, what's the best way to extract it? These companies have massive quantities of data gathered from sensors as they're drilling / exploring, and they need to crunch through it to minimize waste and maximize the possibility of hitting large amounts of easily extractable oil. The oil/gas space is definitely gratifying from a solving-real-problems-instead-of-social-media-BS perspective.