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Recipe for success
There's no single way to succeed in the oil industry. It takes people with a variety of skills, interests and qualifications. Here, four experienced people with very different jobs give their personal recipes for success. Which one would most suit you?
The researcher
Lisa Oakes (27) is a research assistant at the School of Mechanical and Offshore Engineering, The Robert Gordon University.
Ingredients
Method
I
was brought up on the coast in North Devon, which is why I've always been interested
in the sea. Most people on my degree course were all geared up for a career
in the oil and gas industry. I didn't really want to go straight into industry
because I had lots of other things I wanted to do, like travelling to Israel
and Egypt. After a year as an assistant marine ranger in Devon, I took a masters
degree at Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh and the Orkney Islands). Having
taken the long way around, I've ended up in the oil and gas industry.
I guess most people get into research by doing a PhD, but I didn't. I think that if you're really determined then you can do it. You have to be committed to your project and believe in its worth. I think that one of the most common misconceptions about research is that people think they'll be working on one very narrow thing. Once you delve into it the broader and more interesting your subject becomes.
I often collaborate with other universities and the industry. This university also does consultancy work so I'm not isolated in academia. I'm not always stuck in front of a computer, either, because a lot of my project involves field surveys to check and validate the theory. You hire a vessel and do experiments in the ocean, then collate the results and compare them with what you originally expected. I'm lucky to be looking at wave action in my project, as I'm a surfer!
You need to be good at working on your own, but I'm also part of a team when I'm working on a collaborative project. You also have to be creative - thinking of new ideas and new directions within the project all the time. I'm further removed from cost considerations than the engineers in the industry, so I can be more creative in a way - but I still have to sit in front of a computer filled with equations!
