Energy and utilities: Case studies

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James, field engineer and graduate recruiter

James knew since he was a child that he was going to work in oil and gas. He grew up with a passion for geology and the outdoors, and loves the risk and unknowns in the business. As far as he is concerned, there is no greater challenge than being a field engineer – so that's where he started.

James works for Schlumberger and he feels that in the service industry their reputation is unrivalled. Schlumberger operates in an inherently changeable environment – so workforce flexibility is required. Once this is understood, the process is easy. The orientation process is very thorough, but the aim is to prepare standalone engineers for their work as fast as possible.

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The training is essential and dedicated learning centres are designed to create service delivery engineers in months, not years. People, technology and profit are highly valued in the company.

Having recently moved into a recruiting role, James is primarily responsible for the recruiting of graduate engineers in the UK. He also works to maintain, expand and improve relationships between Schlumberger and UK and Irish universities. James works as part of a team of four people and between them they cover 12 countries. His work also involves spending considerable time supporting efforts overseas.

Working for Schlumberger forces James to combine personal and business challenges. His greatest challenge is to staff the company for the huge upturn in business they are experiencing, without dropping standards.

James values diversity and trust highly, and cannot imagine a career where he wasn't able to move across different functions, jobs and locations. He feels that his job is his life, and a fun one!

The company is results oriented and James has the autonomy to use his own methods and approach. His role is very diverse. He is at a university one day, travelling the next, having meetings in Paris on another and conducting phone interviews on another. Every day is different, although the unifying factor is usually high pressure and the need to get things done quickly.

James always remembers that recruiting affects people’s lives, so being slow and ineffective is not an option.

James expects to spend about 18 months in his human resources recruiting role before he moves back to operations.

Jonathan, team leader in high throughput technology

Jonathan always had an interest in chemistry and science, so studying chemistry at university was a natural choice. After he graduated in 1991 with a choice of jobs, Jonathan chose to work for BP because they paid a little more than the other major recruiters. They were also local to Edinburgh, and they seemed to offer a broader range of job opportunities.

Experience of early personal development within BP was good: whilst there were some ‘standard’ courses, much of the development was customised to his own needs and included statistics, chemical engineering and negotiating skills.

BP takes pride in its approach to health and safety, and this has been a core part of Jonathan’s training. There are also events that bring together the newly recruited graduates and allow them to learn more about the company. The continuous development of all employees, not just the new graduates, is encouraged at BP. For example, Jonathan has been actively encouraged to gain professional body membership and BP supported him through his MBA studies.

In his current role, Jonathan leads a team of 15 scientists and engineers in the research centre working on catalyst testing. However, he is transitioning to a project manager role looking after the construction (and then operation) of a multi-million dollar pilot plant in the Hull Research and Technology Centre. Both these roles involve a lot of time talking to people – team members, and those inside and outside of BP – to understand, communicate and help resolve key issues.

Jonathan is rarely at his desk for long. He enjoys the networking parts of the job and representing the company externally.

Jonathan has budgetary responsibility for his team, and he takes a keen interest in ensuring safe operations at all levels. He particularly enjoys working with team members to help them reach their full potential.

Ultimately, Jonathan would like to combine his technical, communication and business skills that he has aquired to help define the role of technology within BP as a whole.

Julia, mudlogger

After a degree in geology at Manchester University, Julia started work as a mudlogger with Halliburton in Aberdeen in April 2005. She is currently working offshore on North Sea oil rigs.

Like most mudloggers, Julia works 12-hour shifts partnered with another mudlogger who covers the other half of the day. This ensures that there is a mudlogger at their post on the rig at all times, day and night.

A typical shift involves Julia catching and bagging samples of rock cuttings, which come out of the well during drilling. These cuttings are boxed and their contents recorded. Julia analyses some of these specimens separately in her 'unit' – a cabin on the deck of the rig equipped with computers and lab equipment used for testing and examining samples. She describes the rock cuttings recovered (their type, percentage of type in each specimen and physical properties) and looks for any evidence of hydrocarbons in the rocks.

The information obtained from the cuttings is then recorded on the mudlog – a document produced by loggers for the oil company that displays information about the well on a depth-based scale. Julia says that the only way to ensure that she can answer any question asked of her is to follow the routine and make sure everything is examined, logged and reported – and no corners are cut.

Julia's 12-hour shift is spent working alongside another, more experienced logger – the data engineer. Mudloggers often become data engineers before they move into other oil industry jobs.

Julia would eventually like to be a wellsite geologist after she has gained the necessary knowledge and expertise that comes from mudlogging. Wellsite geologists study the cuttings from the well to determine what rock formations are being drilled into and advise the drill crew on what kind of rocks they may encounter while drilling. They then report their findings to the office-based 'operations' geologist.

Julia states that most mudloggers are young – she doesn't know many who are in their forties.

Mudloggers typically work two weeks offshore followed by two weeks at home. Julia states that although when onshore they are not actually 'at work', they can be called offshore at any time, even at weekends. The only time they can't be called back offshore is when they are on booked annual leave. As Julia says:

'It's a bit like being on-call as, even though I might be at home, I still have to be prepared to go back offshore if required. It is not uncommon for this to happen at the moment when there is so much drilling activity in the North Sea.'

That said, Julia is happy with this set-up as it suits her current lifestyle:

'One way to look at it is that even though fourteen 12-hour shifts in two weeks sounds like a lot, once I'm off the rig, I've got heaps of free time to enjoy myself.'