Tips for Finding Work in the Oil and Gas Industry
Go with experience first
More and more these days, people in many industries, including the gas and oil industry, are looking for experience over anything else. This means that anything you can find that will give you experience will be a boon.
As a result, you should try to find an apprenticeship or internship with major oil companies whenever possible. This will include local companies like BP, but also places like ExxonMobil, Shell, and Chevron as well. There are many programs out there that you can enter to see if you like the potential job you could be doing with that company.
Focus on your studies
You’ll have a difficult time finding internships or apprenticeships if you don’t pass through all of your schooling with good grades, so if you’re still in the early years of school it’s important to focus on subjects in STEM, for example. You’re going to need an engineering degree at the very least to get into most jobs in this industry.
Find an insider
If possible, you should see if you can locate someone who has already been in the industry before, especially if they are in the sector now. Having contacts in the industry will be exceptionally useful, for one thing.
But, even beyond that, it will also be useful to get some inside information about what’s needed to succeed. There are various groups and fairs where you can find people like this in the UK such as the one called ‘The Big Bang’. Your college will probably have a lot of information about fairs like this and you can pick up a lot of useful information this way, as well as leads on potential mentors.
Develop your CV and network
It’s important to fill out your CV as much as possible since you will be going up against quite a lot of competition for jobs in some cases. It helps to focus in on a particular niche within the oil and gas industry if at all possible, and then build your CV around this. You’re going to want to show people that your set of experience, skills, and training is perfect for the job that you’re going after.
A secondary part of this which is also very important is networking. If you don’t have any contacts already, it’s important to try and develop some as much as you possibly can. It helps to connect through social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on in order to put the word out there through your networks that you’re actively seeking work.
This is a thoroughly interconnected age that we’re currently living in, so it makes sense to take advantage of it as much as you can. After all, it’ll be those that can leverage their contacts and networks the most that end up with the best jobs in the shortest amount of time.
Overall, a career in oil and gas can be very fulfilling and lucrative, but it takes some planning to set up.
