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Your Training – Your Responsibility

I remember the good ole days. An intern at Exxon’s research labs at one of Houston’s fanciest restaurants

“today’s special is rabbit-stuffed cabbage in a peanut sauce with a side of quail eggs and…”

This is how our industry works. When its good we splurge like no one else, as if money will continue raining with no end in sight. Mid-sized companies handed ipads to interns and small-sized companies flew their G&G staff in helicopters with a TV crew.

When things get bad, you arrive at your desk and find an envelope on your keyboard, maybe your security badge stopped working all of a sudden, one company in Oklahoma had the local police department show up before the massacre of lay-offs began.

Free in-house training – the best kind, courtesy of United Energy Pakistan

It’s feast or famine – but for those of us who have been laid off or watched friends who were exceptional geoscientists become pre-school teachers and uber drivers one thing was super clear. We are all expendable. What makes us valuable is our skill-set and developing that skill-set may or may not be a priority for your company.

I graduated and worked for one the top oil and gas companies in the world. They too had a fancy term for their training program “the horizons program.” In 5 years they promised to turn you into a lean-mean-oil-finding-machine. Yet six months in I was started questioning when “the horizon program” would start for me? Did my boss not get the memo? Anytime I approached my boss it was the same story “yea, right now I need you to focus on our drilling program.” So the horizon program skipped me!!!

Dirt cheap training – PTTC course in Golden, USA

That was one hell of a lesson to learn. In my next gig I took every training course possible because I finally learned that my professional development was my own responsibility and no one else’s.

If you read an ad for a geoscientist these days they want you to be superman/superwoman:

“Must have a strong understanding of sequence stratigraphy, geosteering background preferred, must be able to handle geochemical datasets, geomodeling experience and AVO and attribute analysis required, proficient in Petrel, Petra, Seisworks, Kingdom, Arc GIS….”

You get the picture.

So how is it humanly possible to know everything there is to know out there? Well you can begin by taking courses. Now if you’re thinking “well no shit, you’re a training provider trying to generate some business” – that’s only partially correct. My motto is to find what you need wherever you can get it. Which means if the Houston Geological Society is offering a crash course on AVO go take it! it doesn’t need to be the 4500 dollar version by Petroskills. Training opportunities are everywhere, but you have to look for them.

Exclusive Training – join a consortium and we’ll tell you all the secrets

Here’s the hardest part, sometimes you have to pay for your own training. Maybe you work at a company that only has assets in sandstone reservoirs. You know how important it is to understand carbonates – so go take a carbonate course and maybe in the course you meet others working carbonates for another company and they recommend you send your CV in.

Luxury Training – Join the Nautilus Alliance

As a consultant I always have to pay for my own training, and no matter how bad business gets the rule is three training courses a year so I can stay current and competitive. Can you say the same?