Start Your Career in Oil and Gas: SME Jobs Available for All Education Backgrounds
Publié le 4 February 2013
If small and medium-sized oil and gas companies aren’t already on your job watch list, they should be. In such a broad industry, the career possibilities arevirtually endless. Jobs vary in their scope, locationand required education—there’s something for everyone!
Whether you’re graduating high school and thinking about entering the workforce, or leaving university wondering where to put your degree to use, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the oil and gas industry have a place for you.
As long as people around the world continue to heat their houses and drive cars, you can be fairly certain the industry—and the jobs it creates—will be around for a while. Within the next few years, the industry in Canada will face a labour shortage, according to the Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada. The Council says that by 2015, Canada’s oil and gas companies will need a minimum of 9,500 additional workers. Emerging and existing SMEs will help fill this need.
What types of jobs are available?
SMEs partner with larger corporations to ensure that all aspects of the industry are covered, from planning to drilling to producing.
Jobs in the industry fall into two main categories. Some companies engineer and design projects, while oilfield service companies employ skilled workers that run the equipment needed to execute these plans.
In this sector, you could be working as anything from a rig technician, to a geophysicist, to an engineer, to a human resources professional. The beauty of SMEs is that they are so diverse.
These companies work in a variety of fields that deal with different aspects of the industry. For example, service companies deal with drilling or maintaining rigs. Some companies work exclusively in consulting or communications, while others might specialize in water transport or off-shore projects.
Vista Projects Limited is a medium-sized enterprise based in Calgary that designs projects focused mainly on oil recovery. Queen’s University School of Business recently named Vista one of Canada’s Top 50 Best Small and Medium Employers for the fourth year in a row.
“We have many career opportunities in a variety of disciplines,” says Leah Eggen, human resources manager at Vista. “They include engineering, project controls, project management, procurement, document control, accounting, human resources and piping design.”
Vista is part of the EPC sector, which covers engineering, procurement and construction. Almost all of Vista’s job opportunities require a professional engineering certification, which involves either a bachelor’s or master’s degree in engineering.
However, there are many careers in the oilfield service side of the industry that don’t require a university education. These jobs emphasize training instead.
Can I advance?
Cindy Soderstrom at the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors said one of the best places to enter the services side of the industry is as a junior crew member on a rig. Then, you can work your way up to higher positions. Crew positions are open to anyone over the age of 18—you don’t even need a high school diploma. (However, the organization recommends finishing high school to help with advancing to operations, corporate or sales positions later in your career.)
“A lot of the executives that run drilling and service rig companies started on a rig. There’s a lot of experience that you take with you as you move into senior positions,” Soderstrom says.
Beginning your career on a rig is also a good way to keep future opportunities open. Soderstrom explains that companies fill senior positions by looking to junior members working on rigs.
“We know we have a retirement issue coming up, we’re going to lose a lot of that senior workforce,” she says. “We’re trying to pull more people in because we’ve got to be promoting the entry-level positions to fill that hole.”
Most of the job opportunities available as a result of retirement are with oilfield service companies. At SMEs on the planning side of the industry, job progression happens a bit differently.
Eggen says that while smaller companies like Vista sometimes have less room for career advancement because the organization is “flatter,” it can still happen within particular job areas.
“We have opportunities for internal progression in the organization. For example, if you start off as a junior mechanical engineer within the company, you can progress to an intermediate and then senior or lead position, which involves leading a small team,” Eggen says.
So where are the jobs?
Careers in the oil and gas industry are not just in Alberta! Jobs are centralized in four main locations across Canada:
- Alberta: The oil sands obviously create a large number of jobs, but they also create a “hub” for the industry. With companies of all sizes and specialties operating out of Alberta, SMEs are able to grow and sustain themselves quite well there. This offers a variety of careers: physical, hands-on jobs in the oil sands, as well as a wealth of professional positions that operate outside the sphere of trucks and rigs.
- Southern Saskatchewan: The Bakken region, which includes southern Saskatchewan and parts of Manitoba, and extends into the northern United States, is a hot area for oil production.
- Northern British Columbia: Different types of natural gas in B.C. require different methods of extraction. Some naturally rise to the ground’s surface, while others like shale gas are buried within rock formations. This variety of gas and extraction techniques provides jobs in the area.
- Newfoundland: Both on- and offshore operations create jobs in eastern Canada. Off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador is a key area for drilling operations, while on-shore projects have been discovered around the Port au Port Peninsula, Deer Lake and Parson’s Pond.
Oil and gas companies provide a wealth of job prospects across the country. If you’re looking to find a job in the industry out of high school, companies that run equipment in the field are your best bet. But if you already have a university degree or want to work on planning and engineering projects, smaller investment organizations may have a place for you.
The diversity of the industry will continue to help provide opportunities in future years as well. As Eggen says, “Yes, this industry is here to stay.”
By Megan Stacey
Megan Stacey is a journalism student at Carleton University.
For more information, please visit:
careeroptionsmagazine.com
