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Lead Story: Career Strategies For Surviving Pandemics and Industry Crashes
LEAD STORY PANDEMICS &INDUSTRY CRASHES CAREER STRATEGIES FOR SURVIVING
BY DR. STEVEN M. GOOLSBY
Loss of employment during oil industry crashes can be devastating, and the current industry downturn has been particularly bad due to the pandemic. I know this event has been rough for almost everyone in the industry, but it may have come as a shock for young professionals who are relatively new to their careers. I have seen several downturns in the industry, with some almost as severe. For example, in the mid-1980s, most of the exploration drilling in the Rocky Mountain Region was for natural gas. No major cold front hit the high-population east coast region before Christmas in 1985, which led the futures traders to decide there was enough natural gas in storage to last through the highuse cold months ahead. Natural gas prices crashed and the drilling rig count quickly followed. The wellsite geological supervision firm that my brother and I run turned down five jobs in December with 16 geologists in the field because we had everyone on a job and no one to send out.
After the first of the new year we received no more wellsite jobs for over eight months. Talk about a shock! But we did survive. OUTCROP | September 2020 » 12 CONTINUED ON PAGE 14
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There is no crystal ball that will lead you through these types of events, but there are several strategies that you can use to help you survive. If you work in a natural resource industry which undergoes cyclic supply and demand fluctuations such as the oil industry, then you should expect that you will lose your job at some point during your career. I have had some friends who worked for major oil companies in the past, and their attitude was that they would work for that major until retirement. When they were suddenly laid off despite working for a large company, they were shocked and unprepared. Many had a hard time finding jobs even after the industry recovered. The time to prepare is prior to a downturn, not when it occurs.
So, if you love the industry and want to stay in it, how do you survive in it? The number one thing you can do to survive is to network, network, and network some more. Networking should be something that you do no matter how secure you think your current job is. When times get tough many employers do not advertise job openings because they do not want to be inundated with responses. Word of mouth from friends and associates is often the best method with which to find job opportunities.
It is hard to network if you only stay in your office or at home. If you want to network with knowledgeable industry associates you need to attend industry meetings. Joining national and regional scientific or industry societies is the best way to do this. If you are not a member of several scientific societies such as RMAG, AAPG, SEPM, DIPS, SIPES, DWLS or many others then you probably are not networking enough and you are doing your career no favors. Not only do you need to join some of these organizations, but you also need to participate in them by attending meetings and by volunteering to help them. You might be surprised at the number of close friendships you develop while serving in these organizations, and that is the very best way to network.
Another important strategy to help with industry fluctuations is to never quit educating yourself. Educating yourself only within your current job duties is not enough. You should take every opportunity to broaden your knowledge base in every aspect of your industry. I worked as a coalbed methane geologist before there were any commercial wells producing from coalbeds. I knew some of the best coalbed methane geologists in the business after it became a boom industry. Now the coalbed methane industry has gone the way of the buggy whip in most of the world. If you only focused on coalbed geoscience while working in the field then you had a hard time finding work after all of the coalbed targets were drilled out.
Please note that the same thing happened after the tight gas sands play collapsed, and it will eventually do the same at the end of the horizontal multistage stimulation resource plays. Educate yourself within a broad range of topics using short courses, additional college classes, and industry courses so that you are qualified in a broad range of skills when jobs are tough to find. Again, scientific societies such as RMAG, AAPG, and others often provide the least costly opportunities for educational advancement that allow you to broaden your expertise into other fields. The broader your education, the larger the number of job openings you will be qualified for during downturns. Obtaining professional certification is another great career strategy that can help you during a downturn. Certification demonstrates that your peers have attested that you have the education and expertise in your field to be an expert, and that you have high moral and ethical standards. Certification through the Division of Professional Affairs of the American Association of Geologists requires eight years of experience (or slightly less with a graduate degree) and will assure any potential employer that your peers feel you are well qualified for work as a petroleum geoscientist. In addition, certification provides other opportunities to network, and it looks great on a vitae or resume if you decide to do consulting work between jobs or as a career. Often consulting requires expert testimony either before an oil and gas commission or in court, and certification helps ensure that your testimony will be admitted and recognized. Some states additionally require that » CONTINUED ON PAGE 15
»CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 testimony only be provided by an expert registered as a professional in that state, so if you plan to provide expert testimony check the requirements for the states you will be working in. Many states such as Colorado do not have registration requirements, and I have never been disqualified for expert testimony with my AAPG/DPA certification as a Professional Petroleum Geologist.
Perhaps the most important strategy to help with surviving in the industry is knowing that there will always be another downturn coming. It does not take a crystal ball, in this industry as well as many others there will always be boom and bust cycles. Don’t forget this while the industry is booming. I have heard repeatedly that “oil will never drop below $90.00 per barrel again” or other such quotes, only to see the next bust quickly follow. Stay conservative and don’t live beyond your means. Instead, keep your overhead expenses low and save for the downturn that you know will be coming. There are no silver bullets that will allow you to survive the downturns, but there are strategies that will allow you to weather them and prosper.
USEFUL LINKS
Certifications:
• AAPG Division of Professional Affairs: aapg.org/divisions/dpa • AAPG Professional Certifications: aapg.org/divisions/dpa/certification • National Association of State Boards of Geology: asbog.org/
Professional Scientific Societies:
• American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG): aapg.org/ • Rocky Mountain Section of the Society for Sedimentary Geology (RMS-SEPM): rmssepm.org • Denver International Petroleum Society (DIPS): dipsdenver.org • Society of Independent Professional
Earth Scientists (SIPES): sipes-denver.org • Denver Well Logging Society (DWLS): dwls.spwla.org
Providing geoscience expertise and technology to the field and office since 1981
