**Vote with your head, not your heart—or you lose.**¹ Calculations, risks, and comfortable conditions. Final case selection.
«Glory, Glory to the Hero Doctors!
But enough of the tributes they’ve been paid.
Now let’s talk about the drilling fluid engineers,
And the money that follows them like a shade!»
—With apologies to Mayakovsky
My website was conceived as a place to gather information about Russian and foreign medical education.
After delving deeper into the topic and realizing just how much one needs to know to get a state-funded spot at a top (Moscow) medical university, I became interested in competitive chemistry and biology.
I joined clubs (a huge thank you to all the teachers at the Gaidar Palace and Vorobyovy Gory), I switched schools (wishing all the best to my teachers at 1208, 1501, and my beloved 2107), and eventually, I was ready for the Olympiads.
Illustration 1. A screenshot from my official student electronic diary, showing just a few of the academic Olympiads I competed in this year.
The qualifying rounds of the «Moscow Pre-professional Olympiad» (the first and last entries on this list) are what ultimately led to the case study described in this article.
In November 2023, my classmates and I took part in the first qualifying stage of the Moscow Pre-professional Olympiad. This is a complex, multi-subject competition, but the rewards are significant.
Eight universities, all in the top 20, offer great admission benefits, and even BVI (guaranteed admission without entrance exams)!
Our school has a wide variety of academic tracks, and I heard that many of our students advanced to the second round across all profiles, especially in computer science.
I competed in the Chemical-Biological track, solving problems in Chemistry, Physics, and Biology.
About 10 of us from the school made it to the second qualifying stage in this area.
At first glance, that doesn’t seem like many, but it’s understandable—we don’t have specialized Chem-Bio classes, and I’m in the school’s one and only Medical class.
Teams were formed from those who advanced, and I was appointed captain. My team included Sergey and Olga from my class.
The second stage of the Olympiad is a theoretical and practical case study. A huge plus is that you get to choose your own topic from a list provided by the organizers. This year, there were 7 cases.
Illustration 2. The official list of the seven case studies we could choose from for the second round.
This was the moment of choice I mentioned. Instead of following my heart, I had to be pragmatic.
After weighing all the factors, I settled on Case #6, «Defoamer.»
I’ll explain the right way to choose a case later, but I’ll start my story with a table.
Vote with your head, not your heart—or you lose
«For matters of the heart, choose any pursuit in life. For money—go into Oil and Gas or Bridge Construction!» — Valery Semenovich Kugno,
inventor of Flat-Profiled Piles, Ph.D. in Engineering, a brilliant foundation engineer, and my grandfather 🙂
This advice isn’t theoretical—my grandfather is an outstanding practitioner. Back in 1972-1974, he worked at the Laboratory of Mountain Slope Dynamics at Gidroingeo in Tashkent.
The lab designed and supervised the construction of anti-landslide structures in the Chatkal and Chimgan mountains.
Through his work, my grandfather often crossed paths with Drilling Engineers who ran their calculations in the adjacent lab.
According to him, it was the only time in his life he seriously considered changing professions.
As a young, promising engineer with a top-tier mathematics education, he earned a maximum of 180 rubles a month (a good salary back then), while a driller’s assistant made 300, and a lead driller made 700!
Calculations, risks, and comfortable conditions
Let’s imagine the life path of two young people: one chooses to become a Doctor, and the other, a Drilling Fluid Specialist.
Let’s assume they are two different people, as these professions seem worlds apart (at first, inexperienced glance).
We’ll map out their financial journeys from age 18 to 32, crudely calculating their income and expenses.
We’ll assume the Doctor pays for 6 years of university and 2 years of residency, then starts working in an average Moscow hospital or clinic.
The Drilling Fluid Specialist pays for a bachelor’s degree at Gubkin University and then starts working (with small but regular salary increases).
The calculations are in thousands of rubles per year, with prices based on today’s rates.
Of course, in 7 years, residency won’t cost 350,000 rubles a year but more like 700,000 to 1,000,000, but salaries will likely rise too.
Probably. 🙁
Let’s start with the Doctor:
Illustration 3. The financial trajectory for a doctor in their early career.
This table illustrates the long «investment» period: eight years of expenses for education and residency with no income.
The cumulative earnings only turn positive at age 30, marking the slow start to financial stability
And now, the Drilling Fluid Specialist:
Illustration 4. The financial trajectory for a Drilling Fluids Engineer.
In sharp contrast to the medical career path, the engineer’s «investment» period is only four years. Income starts immediately after graduation at age 22,
and the financial situation turns positive by age 24, creating a significant long-term financial advantage
Salaries are taken from the official websites of the respective companies, for example:
Illustration 5. An example of a real job posting for an entry-level position.
Note that this is for a trainee role, and the posting explicitly states that no prior experience is required.
Even at this starting level, the salary is 80,000 rubles per month,
which supports the calculations in my table and demonstrates the high entry-level income in this industry.
Illustration 6. The next step on the career ladder: a position for a specialist with some experience.
This role requires 1-3 years of experience, and the salary is correspondingly higher.
It demonstrates the predictable and rapid income growth available in the first few years of this career
Illustration 7. And here we have a posting for an experienced engineer.
With 3-6 years of experience, the salary range jumps to 160,000 — 350,000 rubles per month.
This clearly demonstrates the high earning potential in this profession for those willing to develop their skills and work in demanding environments
What’s the bottom line? At age 30, when the junior doctor with a «1st category» certification treats himself to a meal at the prestigious Burger King for the first time in his life, the Drilling Fluid Engineer will have already paid off a third of his mortgage and be taking vacations to the Maldives, or at least cruising around Nadym in a Land Cruiser 200.
Ultimately, it’s clear: the average doctor will forever lag behind the average drilling fluid engineer in terms of income.
I haven’t even considered the risks. Are there any? Yes. The main risks for an engineer are the harsh conditions of shift work on a drilling rig and contact with hazardous chemicals. It’s a male-dominated environment; women don’t tend to stick around on the rigs for long. If you were to compare them to modern movie heroes, the average drilling fluid engineer on a shift in Urengoy is basically Hugh Glass from The Revenant.
But doctors risk just as much. Even in a clinic, an ordinary doctor is under the daily threat of catching any imaginable virus from any of their patients. So on that front, it’s a tie. And let’s be real, a doctor’s work isn’t like a cheerful TV show. It’s grime. Sweat, pus, the decay of old age. And let’s not forget about proctologists. Plus, it’s a well-known fact that dentists have one of the highest suicide rates among all professions.
Of course, comfort matters too. There’s a difference between sitting in a warm Moscow clinic earning 90,000 rubles a month (roughly $1,000 USD) as a junior doctor and turning valves with your bare hands in -45°C weather, surrounded by hissing pneumatic equipment ready to blow up in your face.
But to be fair, not all doctors work in Moscow. And comparisons can be tricky. What’s better: rushing to save an alcoholic in a provincial town, banging your head on the rusty roof of a ‘Bukhanka’² on a road that hasn’t been fixed since the days of the Tsars, or stepping out, cool and unhurried, from a Bell helicopter onto a Shell oil rig?
Now, let’s think about prospects. Eventually, you have to get serious. What can a Drilling Fluid Engineer become over the years? A drilling fluid specialist can build a very successful career in the oil and oilfield services industries. At the start, they can work as a drilling fluid engineer on a rig, responsible for preparing and maintaining the drilling fluid. After 2-4 years of experience, they can become a lead engineer or the head of a drilling fluid laboratory, supervising other specialists.
Further career growth could be in the technical or R&D department of an oilfield services company, developing new fluid formulas and technologies. After 5-7 years, they could become a chief drilling fluid technologist or a head of the entire division. Within major oil companies, they can also advance to the role of chief specialist for drilling fluids, overseeing this area for the entire corporation. In chemical conglomerates, a specialist might become a technical manager or a sales manager for drilling fluid chemical reagents.
And do you know the salaries for such specialists with 10+ years of experience in Europe? An average of €7,000. Per month. And in the USA? From $15,000 per month.
What about the threat of computerization that everyone fears now? How are doctors faring? For anyone familiar with the work of radiologists, for example, it’s clear that this profession has about 10 years left to live. And that’s a narrow specialization. Just try retraining at 40, say, from a radiologist to a geneticist, and going through the whole path again from scratch.
And what about computerization for Drilling Fluid Engineers? The profession is unlikely to be fully automated because it requires a human approach to analyze situations and make decisions on adjusting the drilling fluid’s composition. Someone needs to physically monitor the fluid cleaning systems, check the availability of chemicals, and so on. However, some routine monitoring and reagent selection tasks might be performed by AI systems.
Final case selection
Of course, medicine has its examples of people who achieved both fame and fortune. (Not to mention that they helped thousands of people—but that’s not what I’m focusing on right now.) A perfect example is the great Mark Arkadyevich Kurtser. But even his income and influence, while enormous in their own right, cannot compare to the income and influence of, for example, Vagit Yusufovich Alekperov.
In short, using a purely pragmatic approach, I decided to take on Case No. 6: Defoamer.
¹Translator’s note: This is a twist on the famous 1996 Russian presidential campaign slogan «Vote with your heart, or you will lose.»
²Translator’s note: A ‘Bukhanka’ (literally «loaf of bread») is the slang name for a notoriously uncomfortable, boxy van from the Soviet era, still used in rural areas.
Foam suppressants in drilling fluids. Moscow Pre-Professional Olympiad for Schoolchildren.
1. Vote with your head, not your heart—or you lose. Calculations, risks, and comfortable conditions. Final case selection→
2. Hello, Defoamers: a case study on accessing foreign resources, Moscow libraries, and teamwork→
3. Oil drilling for dummies. Cyberleninka is here to help.
Bloomberg vs. Rosnedra. Calculating the drilling fluid volume for all of Russia→
4. Foam and its formation processes.
Composition of drilling fluid and the causes of foaming→
5. Drilling fluid components→
6. Types of defoamers and their impact on foam formation in drilling fluids.
An analysis of silicone defoamer components→
7. Performance requirements for silicone defoamers in drilling fluids: selecting fillers and emulsifiers→
8. Optimal component ratio and process parameters for the production of a polydimethylsiloxane-based defoamer→
9. Manufacturing process for a polydimethylsiloxane-based antifoam.
Trial formulations for stability testing→
10. Physical and chemical operating conditions for drilling fluids.
Featuring alkyl sulfates and lignosulfonates→
11. Unused material from a case study: a collection of online Info on defoamers→
Other articles about my school projects→
This article in Russian→