Pipeline Engineers Wanted

The rising world oil price has some good effects for people like me. Oil companies want to produce more oil and transport it to their customers. Every barrel sells at higher price and they make better margin. The big oil companies all report hefty profits. The company I work for also is expected to announce bigger profits. More fields that were not economically viable may now become more attractive for exploration and production. More development activities need more engineers.

It’s the supply and demand thing. The supply of engineers, especially those with experience, is fixed while the demand suddenly jumps. It’s not a surprise therefore a mainstream newspaper today advertises posts for pipeline engineers for two international companies – one big US company and one Middle East operator. They must be paying handsome amount of money to those qualified. I am not sure if I am qualified but the offer looks really interesting. It’s going to be a big change from my daily routine if I decide to take the plunge. A friend took the challenge more than a year ago and is now glad that he made the choice. But, on the other hand, I know many people are willing to give the world just to work for my current employer. It seems so nice looking from outside. But from within the other pasture appears greener. It’s probably normal human nature.

They say separating with your first company is like, well … your first wife. It’s difficult going from one to two, but any number after that is no sweat. The embarrassing thing later is probably when you are desperate to get back with your first wife after she has improved her figure and by then is married to your ex-gardener!

Being in this company for so long has created so huge a “comfort zone” that is almost impossible for me to leave. Yet I feel the need to make some major decisions about my career now that I have been here for more than a decade. I need to learn something new and increase the breadth and depth of knowledge in my chosen field. My learning curve here is almost flat. And with that so is my career development. I need to get involved in doing something fresh, make more contacts and see the whole wide world. I cannot let others or circumstances decide what my future is going to be. I don’t want to look back ten years from now and find myself still in the same place, with more hair on the floor than on top of my head! With so many questions demanding difficult answers in my mind it’s no wonder why the ads caught the attention of my casual browsing. Suddenly the words printed on the low quality brown paper appeared unusually attractive.


Saturday
14 May 2005