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  by Tornyie konne 4 months ago

  Thanks! I stand to gain from your experiences and I hope that other viewers are benefiting as well.
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  by Richard Brown 4 months ago

  Temporary work or short term contracts to cover illness or gaps between recruitment are a common way to gain experience in the industry. It also allows employers to "try before they buy", to see your mettle so to speak.
  
  I hope I haven't been too pesimistic, but would hope I have left you more informed. If you want to move in to the oil & gas field then go for it, but be prepared to have to try and try again.
  
  The potential upside is that the world is your oyster as oil & gas exploration and production is conducted worldwide.
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  by Tornyie konne 4 months ago

  Thanks Richard!
  Your explanation is quite understood, but you will agree with me that following that route does not encourage continuation in our occupation. Can there be interns or temporary hire programs as a way to foster continuity in the industry?
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  by Richard Brown 4 months ago

  Tornyie
  
  I wouldn't say that you are wrong, but I was telling you the reality of the oil & gas industry.
  
  A couple of other points, offshore you will work 12 hour days (maybe 16 hour days) for between 14 and 21 days straight. I am a consultant occupational hygienist who works a lot with the oil & gas industry and my longest trip offshore is 11 days and it is hard going.
  
  Secondly you will not be a manager, you will be an HSE Advisor, you will have no staff, you are it. It tends to be an admin role collating stats for the head office, auditing permits, safety inductions for new starts, monitoring behavioural safety programmes, running committees (welfare, environment, safety reps) and so on.
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  by Tornyie konne 4 months ago

  Thanks Richard for your response, my duties as EHS personnel are more of mental than physical in my opinion. I shall not directly be involved in production line like the various skill workers on duty. So if I am mentally prepared, I think that getting the ground running will definitely be my expectation.
  Take for instance, a trained high teacher with his/her advance degree in Physics for example, will always hit the ground running regardless of the posting locality, because he is mentally ready. On the teacher’s account, he can prepare any lesson on any subject matter in his course that is required by the school curriculum.
  Based on my analysis above I will suggest that employers should be asking for what you know as well what you have done, before they ran out of the “experienced few.” Who will be training whom? Where will they be getting their so call experience from? The only experienced person is someone occupying the same position on transfer, any other person must learn few things on the new job regardless of years of his experiences. There must be a pathway to continuation in some fields like ours.
  The Occupational Health and Safety manager observes and made recommendation where necessary making sure safety standards are strictly followed.
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  by Richard Brown 4 months ago

  Tornyie
  
  It depends on what part of the world you want to work in. For example in the North Sea we require survival training, medical fitness examination & MIST (minimum industry safety training) just for starters. Similar requirements are in place in the various oil provinces around the world, but I am not sure what the US requirements are (Gulf of Mexico).
  
  The there is your speciality, in your case Health & Safety. This is where it can be difficult to cross from one industry to another. There are factors in oil & gas that you may well be unfamiliar with from your experience and then there is the remote aspect of the working environment as well. There is usually only one HSE Advisor offshore so the oil companies want someone who can hit the ground running and therefore industry experience is important to them.
  
  If you really want to more into oil & gas contact some of the companies. Don't just go for the production companies, but check out drilling companies and other oil service companies as these can be a route into the industry.

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