青年职场成功的必备技能

Y oung Professionals’ Skill Sets for Success青年职业成功的必备技能By Bob Barba, Lupo Guerrera24 Feb 2016An Energy Career CompassBob Barba, Integrated Energy ServicesAfter graduating from the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, I spent 6 years in the US Navy and decided to move on when my obligation was over. After finishing my MBA, I began to look for a job. With an Annapolis degree, 6 years of management experience, and an MBA, I had numerous job offers from a wide variety of companies. In 1981, the oil and gas business was in full swing and many firms were hiring. The process of searching for and producing oil and gas was fascinating, and it called on a lot of the skill sets that I had acquired in my career.从美国Naval毕业后，我花了六年时间在美国海军服役，服役期满，仍然选择继续。

当完成了我的MBA，我开始寻找工作。

凭借一个学位，六年的管理经验，一个MBA学历，我拿到了很多公司的职位offer。

1981年，正式油气行业的繁荣时期，许多公司都在招人。

在油气行业求职是非常的诱人的，其要求很多技能，而这些恰恰是我在之前的职业生涯中所获得的。

The job Schlumberger offered me provided a unique work environment and paid better than most of the jobs I was being offered by other industries. The position came with my own logging truck and crew of two operators. Each job was a technical and logistical challenge to accomplish successfully. I was able to work with oil and gas operators directly andreceived an excellent education in how a critical portion of the business ran.Going the Extra MileOver the course of my career, I have found that the traffic on the extra mile is pretty thin. It is possible to survive most of the time without going the extra mile, however, your chances increase significantly if you constantly strive to be the best at what you do. The ―only‖ constant I have observed in the industry is change, and adapting to change requires a constant effort. This involves attending a lot of conferences and staying current with new technology. When you are self-employed, this often requires a significant investment of time and money.As an employee, it is often difficult when management cuts back on―nonessential‖ expenses during slow periods. The attendance at the 2015 SPE Annual Meeting was a good example as many firms did not allow their people to go even though the conference was in Houston, where travel expenses would be minimal. These events are critical to maintaining technical momentum, and I would submit that engineers should strive to attend even when their short-sighted companies refuse to pay their expenses. The best investment you can make is in yourself.I often see an attitude among many students in my classes that they need to be familiar with only the job they currently have. But when trends in the industry change, if you do not have an appreciation of the technologies involved outside the current job, it is easy to get caught fat-footed. It often requires effort above and beyond what is required for your job to maintain relevancy when things change.The last 10 years have been one of the most challenging periods in the industry to date. When I started teaching fracturing schools in 1993, a significant effort was needed to create the first school. During the 2009 downturn, the industry was focused on more economical methods to maintain profitability and I retooled the fracturing schools to focus on refracturing. This did not last long though, as the shale boom got into full swing within the next 2 years. To maintain relevance, it required a significant effort to retool the course to focus on unconventional reservoirs. One major client hired me full time to optimize their fracture treatments in the Marcellus, and the first order of business was to get the company up to speed on the technology. Even though this was an important project for my client involving several billion dollars, they would not cover my relatively minor expenses to attend unconventional conferences. Nonetheless, I choseto bear the expenses myself in order to stay relevant. The value these conferences provided was instrumental in maintaining my consulting and teaching ventures, but if I had taken the short-term view that these expenses were not my responsibility, growth would not have occurred. You are always self-employed regardless of where your paycheck comes from.When evaluating a new job opportunity, it is important to do as much homework as possible about the company and the job requirements. Make sure it is a good fit or, at least, it is a position that can result in further career growth. For example, a former petroleum engineering colleague of mine left a major in the mid-1990s. Jobs were scarce and he took a job as a help desk engineer for a decline curve software firm with a mediocre compensation package. It allowed him to transition from a production engineering background to an economic analysis position, and he was shortly hired by one of the software firm’s clients to evaluate all of its properties. His compensation package has not been limited since then, but if he had not bitten the bullet by taking the help desk position, it is uncertain whether the outcome would have been the same.The Industry TodayWhen I weigh-in on the industry today, I believe the unconventional game will continue but on a reduced basis. A lot of the unconventional projects I worked on were not consistently working even at higher prices, and costs can only go so low for service companies. There are also only a handful of companies that can afford the huge capital investment necessary, and there will certainly be further consolidation creating fewer opportunities for engineers.While conventional reservoirs have been out of favor, there are still a lot of opportunities out there in the conventional world. In my fracturing schools, we still present a fair amount of material on conventional reservoirs, and I often see an unenthusiastic attitude toward covering conventional rocks. I saw the same attitude in my last round of teaching refracturing optimization in 2009. A comment I often heard was ―Why are we covering this? Nobody is doing refracs.‖ It is now one of the hottest topics in the industry and has the potential to improve bottom lines across the board.A review of the current activity suggests there are significant opportunities to improve refracturing results and that it would be prudent for engineers to have a better understanding of the process. This is a good example of how most engineers know of fractures, while only a small subset of engineers understand the mechanics of how they work. Fracture treatments are not―reserve-seeking missiles,‖ yet the majority of the refracture treatments seem to assume that.With all of the above said, becoming a refracture expert for both conventional and unconventional reservoirs would be prudent today. That is certainly not the only potential high-growth area in the industry, but it helps reinforce the benefit of being on the cutting edge.The most significant event in my early career was when I was transitioning from the openholewireline world to the hydraulic fracturing world in 1984–85. There were not many engineers that specialized in petrophysics and hydraulic fracturing, and I had been picked to be the product champion for Schlumberger’s ―FracHite‖ log because of my general field engineer study on fracturing the Spraberry/Dean/ Wolfcamp play. I got the opportunity to take a course at one of the SPE conferences taught by Steve Holditch that brought me to the next level with regard to fracturing. He reinforced the importance of using wireline logs to optimize fracture treatments at a time I was not certain that there was going to be traction there. Based on his endorsement of the process, I dove into the opportunity at that point and did everything I could to integrate the two disciplines.I saw the value in integrating wireline, testing, and pumping and left Schlumberger in early 1992 to consult on that topic. The trend in the industry was too strong to ignore, and I chose to go where my customers were telling me to go.One of the best lessons I learned in the navy was that most, if not all, of your limitations are self-imposed. This was very helpful in my early career with Schlumberger and in the subsequent years in the often highly volatile oil and gas industry.The long-term outlook is certainly bullish; all of the forecasts for worldwide demand show we will need increasing supplies of fossil fuels. The cyclic nature of the business is a challenge, and unless you are consistently striving to be the best at what you do, the chair may not always be there when the music stops during price downturns.When rough seas hit a ship, the first things the captain throws overboard are those that are nonessential. Strive to be essential in your jobs and your chances of staying on board improve substantially. You will also have a lot more fun in the process to boot.Bob Barba is the president and chief executive officer of Integrated Energy Services. He spent the first 10 years of his career with Schlumberger as anopenhole field engineer, sales engineer, and product development manager. While at Schlumberger, Barba was a pioneer in integrating wireline, testing, and pumping inputs to optimize hydraulic fracture treatments. He has since spent 24 years consulting on petrophysics and completion optimization. He served as a SPE Distinguished Lecturer on integrating petrophysics with the hydraulic fracture treatment optimization process. His recent projects have integrated petrophysics with completions in organic shale reservoirs in the Wolfcamp, Bone Springs, Marcellus, Utica, Cline, Eagle Ford, and Bakken. Barba holds a BS from the US Naval Academy and an MBA from the University of Florida.What Inspires Me in My Career in Oil and Gas LupoGuerrera, Woodside EnergyIt is actually quite humbling to think about the scales that we deal with in the oil and gas industry. At the most fundamental level, we are making something dynamic that has been static for eons of time, unleashing the energy harnessed from ancient sunshine captured by trillions of simple versions of the earliest forms of life. But think, too, of the industry in its complex current configuration. It is probably the most pervasive human endeavor of our time, involving staggering quantities of human, industrial, and financial capital, across all continents and their waters. It all points to huge responsibilities for those of us who work in and aspire to have an influence in this industry. We need to respect the resources that are at our disposal and understand the potential impact of exploiting them. This continues to inspire me in my career in oil and gas. As a reservoir engineer, I am passionate about the stewardship of hydrocarbons that ancient processes have provided us, and am driven to working with others to use more efficient ways of recovering them.Challenges for the IndustryThe key challenge in our industry remains managing its complexity. On the technical level, complexity arises from the uncertainty in the description of the underground assets and the need to make decisions with certainty based on these descriptions. This is a source of reward, too, as integrated teams are needed, formed to bring diversity of experience and technical expertise to analyzing every piece of data. When all the pieces ft together for an―elegant‖ resolution to technical complexity, this can deliver the satisfaction of a ―eureka‖ moment. The industry continues to need and develop people with the skills to provide this integration.But there is a broader interconnectedness that the integrators need to manage in the wider commercial and societal context of the industry. There are multitudes of elements that need to be considered when allocating the huge, but still finite, resources to support developing petroleum resources. The best integrators develop and nurture relationships through a combination of authentic communication, and a personal awareness of their behaviors and their impact, and when change is needed in them. Managing the Crew ChangeThe petroleum industry needs to keep challenging itself to remain relevant and understand the needs of the society and all the stakeholders. Having a diverse workforce and embracing generational differences can provide an edge. We hear about Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. What is Generation Next? The challenge is that no one group can be expected to know what will remain relevant. But each group has a role in setting, spotting, and taking advantage of what will trend. For the younger, it means not being scared to question. For the older, it is acknowledging that one can never know all that the young know. Yet their necessary art is being able to provide perspective and to draw out unique contributions from those with different viewpoints and talents.This fundamental skill of coaching will become more and more important as we seek to involve all the players in the understanding and shaping of the changing requirements of our industry. At Woodside, coaching is recognized as a core tool for supporting capability development in young professionals and is central to the organization’s continued hiring of graduates, despite currently being in a trough in the commodity price cycle. The development of young professionals is seen as an ongoing priority investment even at a time when there is scrutiny of all discretionary expenditure.Managing a Career TransitionI have now been in the petroleum industry long enough to remember a time when a mail room boy could rise to the top. When I first joined Esso Australia, the chief executive officer was Jim Kirk, who had joined Esso at the age of 16. Despite a humble beginning, Kirk took personal responsibility to improve himself (through further business studies) and embraced the opportunities offered by change. His rise also demonstrated that respect for every colleague is a fundamental value. If nothing else, he showed anyone can be your boss in the future. In accepting the mail room job, and taking 42 years to reach the highest office in the same company,he did not focus on any one particular assignment. Rather he would make every posting a winner.Learning is not always easy; in fact, it sometimes comes through hard lessons. When I look back on my periods of highest stress, it was generally when I had to take decisions in situations of incomplete information. Yet, this is when I learned the most.One way to learn quickly is to seek out postings that offer the most diverse experience. I have been lucky enough to have been on cross-postings to other companies and countries, but I have also sought roles in nontraditional subsurface areas, like audit. Such diversity can open you to understanding a different way of thinking, exposing you to different languages or jargon, and different cultures or mind-set.It is worthwhile developing an expertise or a niche, and to know when to move forward. For a period at Esso, I had the role of developing the monthly production forecasts. The forecasts soon gained prominence within the organization, based on my name as an acronym—the ―Least Unlikely Production Outlook.‖ While one could argue this was more fun than genuine labeling, everyone knew who to approach for forecasts. The forecast no longer exists by this name, as I looked for new opportunities outside this niche and I actively coached others to take on the role of the short-term forecaster. The new forecasters brought new elements to the role, improving the product and making their own name in the role, so to speak. However, the story does show that one can underestimate the impact one has on others and also the value of change.Lastly, I come back to personal awareness and its importance in tackling the interconnected issues that the industry places before us. To be successful as an integrator, seek feedback, establish and nurture relationships, and respect your coworkers by being authentic with them. Change is a fundamental part of our industry, as fundamental as energy is to human existence. The professionals in the indu stry’s future have a responsibility to integrate, partner, and adapt to take advantage of whatever form is taken by this energy and how it is delivered.LupoGuerrera is the chief reservoir engineer at Woodside Energy. Guerrera has been a part of the petroleum industry for almost 30 years, firstly at Esso Australia and then, for the last 19 years, at Woodside in a variety of subsurface technical and managerial roles. During his career, he has worked on resources in all major petroleum basins in Australia aswell as on assets throughout North Africa. He holds a BE and a BS from the University of Sydney.The Way Ahead is generated by SPE young professional members. TWA editors for this article are David Sturgess, Dane Gregoris, Muhammad Taha, and Kyle Griep. For more,visit TWA.。