With new innovations constantly entering the marketplace, the demand for energy has continued to soar. Think about all the things that you use on a regular basis that require energy – your computer, cell phone, iPod, car, and much more. On a larger scale, energy enables transportation, facilitates communication, runs businesses, and powers homes. Ensuring that supply continues to meet this demand presents exciting challenges for engineers.

Energy is produced in many ways, but in every case, natural resources are harvested one way or another. For example, companies extract and process crude oil and natural gas, harvest wind and water power, collect solar energy, and capture the energy released by nuclear reactions. Once converted into a useable form, that energy can be distributed and delivered to the consumer marketplace.

Oil companies and the oil service sector that supports it are central players in the energy field, heavily covered by the media and prominent in the public consciousness. But there are many other robust sectors in the industry. There are electrical utilities, nuclear fuel suppliers, natural gas companies, an expanding coal trade, EPC (Engineering, Procurement & Construction) companies developing large turnkey projects across the industry, and growing opportunities in the alternative energy field. With an industry as vast and diverse as this, you can bet that there are plenty of career opportunities for engineers.

Many energy companies have operations all over the world, especially companies like ExxonMobil, BP, and Royal Dutch Shell. In the U.S., many of the petroleum companies keep at least an office presence in major coastal cities and the oil services firms, companies that supply infrastructure and subcontract support to the major oil companies, tend to locate themselves near their primary clients. Coal producers tend to cluster in heavy coal-producing states, while electrical utilities are everywhere – more than 3,000 utilities deliver power to homes and businesses across the U.S. With 104 nuclear generators currently in operation and infrastructure rebuilding underway, nuclear engineers will find careers opportunities across the country.

The energy industry also offers an international choice of job locations to choose from. Thanks to the global network of oil jobs and the re-emergence of coal as a market leader in developing economies, fossil fuel careers can take you almost anywhere in the world that you can imagine. Nuclear energy career paths can also be global in scope. You might consider places with well-established nuclear infrastructures like France – which uses nuclear energy to generate most of its electricity – or the nuclear expansion and construction in Japan, Korea, and South Africa may appeal to you. Those with an interest in working with alternative fuel sources might want to check out Brazil's robust ethanol production sector or Germany's growing commitment to solar and wind power. If China appeals to you, its booming economy and industrial growth are creating such a demand for greater and new energy supplies it's difficult to list just how many different energy-related opportunities you can find there.

So, let's break the industry down and take a closer look at some of the specific paths you might take in this expansive, evolving, global field.