Few professions can offer such great career rewards as one in the oil and gas industry. In general, working for the oil and gas industry will come with a fat salary, great bonuses and opportunities for career growth, travels, work abroad, work with and around amazing experts, work on multi billion projects that can truly change lives. But all of these, don’t come cheap! Being a commodity market, it’s well known that when the price for the barrel of crude oil is high, things are great, but when price of crude oil falls, things can get pretty ugly with massive spending cuts and layoffs. To help navigate the industry successfully, professionals in oil and gas have to understand the global oil and gas market, invest in their education (hint hint: on Petrolessons.com) and plan their careers and financials ahead.
In this article we will discuss a few things one can do to get into the oil and gas industry.
The oil and gas industry hires over 10 million professionals directly worldwide plus many more millions of people indirectly. There are roles for both technical and non technical professionals. Yes, the obvious and on top of the chain we have Engineering Degrees that can prepare you for a job in the oil and gas industry. This is not limited to petroleum engineering but many disciplines within engineering such as mechanical engineering, civil engineering, chemical engineering and electrical engineering, will be able to find pretty good opportunities in the oil and gas industry. But there are plenty of options for those without an engineering degree. Let’s take a quick look at the types of jobs in the oil and gas industry.
Types of Jobs in the Oil and Gas Industry
As discussed before, the obvious jobs that come to mind are those for professionals with an engineering degree specially those with Petroleum Engineering degrees. And while that is true, it doesn’t mean that folks with other degrees can’t land a good job in the oil and gas industry. For engineers, you’ve got to start thinking if you wish to be mostly in an office environment or in the field. If you wish to work onshore or offshore. If you wish to work for an operator, a service company or a supporting company. reservoir engineering, drilling engineering, subsea engineering, facilities, midstream, operations, downstream, petrochemical etc. And even zooming into each of these areas there are more specialties you can focus on to become THE technical specialist. For those looking for a technical job, even without an engineering degree, you should look into entry level jobs on the field, such as floorhand, deck hand, roustabout, site laborer, welders assistant, operator assistant etc. Now for those without a tchnical degree or with a technical degree but want to work in a non-technical job, there are plenty of other options as well. Doing a quick job search you will find that there are oil and gas job vacancies for Project Management, Procurement, Finance, Strategy, Project Coordination, Accounting, Human Resources, Buyers, Traders, IT, Communications, Graphic Designers, Schedulers, Admin Assistants, Consultants and the list goes on and on. All kids of jobs that are available for non-technical professionals as well as for technical professionals who decide to go the non-technical path.
How to get into the oil and gas industry
Now that you know the different roles within the industry, how to actually get in?
Location location location… are you in one of the many O&G hubs around the world? If you are, then you are in luck! Because even in times of downturn, the industry is still hiring! Hopefully you chose an in-demand role and you can find work directly or as a consultant through a company already hired to do a job for the oil company.You may eventually be hired directly by the oil and gas company or service company if they like your performance.
You can also apply directly to either the operator or to the service company. Most companies in the industry will have a career page on their website, some use job placement agencies or headhunters. There are several sites specialized in oil and gas job listings as well as groups.
You increase your chances of finding a job, if you do some research on “hot”producing areas and are able to relocate to those areas. Then if you invest in yourself getting some basic knowledge through affordable online courses that you can show you are ahead of the next guy will also help you to not only gain a better visibility of the job you are looking to take on, but it will signal to recruiters that you are taking the steps to educate yourself, which is paramount in the oil and gas industry.
In-demand Careers within Oil and Gas
The industry is going digital! Kind of funny because while it’s one of the most technically advanced industries in the world, there has always been a resistance for innovation or doing things different. As of lately the talk in the industry is Digital Transformation. So if you are at all involved with anything digital, this is your time. Also Cyber Security, Cryptocurrency, IoT, Datascience in general are HOT!
Being a project manager myself and having had such an amazing career, I’ve advised many people to study Project Management or Change Management whether you have a technical degree or not. It can open tons of doors worldwide. PM skills are global and create a framework that you can always adapt to projects.
Salaries
Salaries in the industry are generally pretty high. Operators pay the most. And within operators you will have project groups ( it’s where the money is), you will have the trading group (also huge salaries) because like stock traders, they are smart, tech savvy, and sell the oil produced. Then you have leadership and those involved in the strategy of the company and then everything else which can be considered Shared Services or Support groups. These are the least paid. But for reference, someone starting working for an operator in the US can expect a starting salary of around $60-80K/ year for support functions and for Project $80-100K. Within a couple of years most O&G professionals are earning around $90-120K and then 5-10 years it’s not uncommon to see professionals earning around $180-200K/year. If you are a subject matter expert (SME) you might make around 250-400K/year or more. As a consultant rates are around $50-80/hour for non technical and as much as $200-400/hr for technical. No bad right?
Planning your career
Because the industry goes up and down with a lot of layoffs during downturns, you ought to get an understanding for the entire oil and gas value chain and who the players are in order to plan where and who you will want to work for. There are a few interesting courses that will help you understand the industry and plan your career on Petrolessons.
