Social science in the oil and gas industry November 21, 2011
Posted by Jeff Riley in : Graduate recruitment, Industry Information , trackback
Piers Moffatt graduated with a BA from the War Studies department in 2007. He came back to meet some of our students to talk about his subsequent career in the oil and gas industry.
Piers, how did you get started in the sector? I hadn’t considered what I was going to do that much while I was studying but in 2007 it became pretty clear that the job market was going to get very tight. I basically got on the phone and chased down everyone in my network – I’d been to an international school so I had a fairly wide reach. Eventually I got into what I thought was a conversation with an oil and gas startup company who one of my friend’s family had a connection with. It turned out it was more of a job interview than a conversation. The job offer though was dependent on me preparing an executive briefing situation report on the Angolan Oil industry. Having said that I have to admit I had misheard them and they were expecting a piece on the Algerian oil industry but I guess they were convinced I had something to offer. At the same time I was also preparing my dissertation and choose to focus my paper on something relevant to the potential job. In the end I decided to look at the geopolitical and social implications of oil and gas exploration and production activities within the Kurdistan region of Iraq. At the end of the day, the fact that the company was a startup worked very much in my favour as the most important part of my role was to be flexible and hard working as well as demonstrating a good fit into the company’s organisational chemistry.
That was a very strategic approach to your dissertation. Well it was a good way to demonstrate an ability to conduct research and analysis relevant to the type of work I wanted to pursue. I think I’d recommend not just using a dissertation to write about what you just happen to be interested in but think of a way it can align you with the job market.
What else did you bring to help you land the job? I think it is worth stressing that getting a real grounding in some of the practical skills that we take for granted can go a long way. In my case I had to become pretty good with things like Access and Excel in my spare time. These are fairly standard things that lots of students know a little about but I was able to demonstrate that I was fairly fluent – for example knowing about VBA Macros in Excel. Very early on I was concerned to get across my capacity to work. Someone asked me what my distinctive quality was and I told them that I simply worked my a** off! Actually though, I do. I love my work. Another important thing to stress is always be curious. When you hear something go off and do some independent research so that you can contribute at a later stage.
You then moved to Wood Mackenzie your current employer? Yes, the first company was a startup during a very difficult time. The massive rise in oil and gas prices in 2007 followed by the subsequent collapse in the financial industry put a lot of strain on the industry. It become increasingly difficult to access financing and the markets became very uneasy around oil and gas companies because it’s a highly capital intensive industry with long lead times. At the same time, it is also extremely risky with huge capital outlays and no guarantee of financial pay-off, particularly around exploration. Typical drilling success rates are around 30% and it you assume that most offshore wells will cost upwards of $20 million dollars smaller companies can run out of money very quickly.
Was that a formal recruitment process? Absolutely, I knew the company and they knew me through my work in the industry but given the difficulties in the job market everyone needs to go through the same type of process to ensure that you have the fundamentals. I had to make sure I prepared myself for the recruitment and assessment centre. They conducted a numerical and psychological reasoning test early on followed by a case study interview and a final discussion with the head of the unit. While the maths wasn’t particularly difficult, GCSE level, it was necessary to brush up because the questions are designed to test your numerical reasoning. Two or three days of locking yourself away with a calculator is what is needed and you have to be prepared to put in the effort.
What do you do for Wood Mackenzie? I’m a consultant. The kinds of work I do varies. For example one oil company wanted to know how quickly they could move from discovery to extraction in Kazakhstan and how they could then monetise their resources. Now they thought about 5 to 6 years but we were able to provide a more realistic estimate 11-15 years and this was evaluated in terms of new transit routes that could likely be developed in that timeframe. I was also recently in Singapore advising an oil company about how they can benchmark themselves against other oil companies in terms of their exploration processes. Our role was to do an internal diagnostics of the company that hired us, find where their process were weak and then use our networks in the industry and previous experience to provide best practice solutions from some of the world’s most successful companies. Outside the skills and experience of our team, we also rely heavily on the company’s proprietary database. This is one of the most comprehensive data sources in the industry and captures everything from licensing awards to wells drilled as well as different industries that allow us to forecast energy pricing and demand. We are then able to leverage this knowledge and provide holistic interpretations about what is happening in the industry and how it could possibly develop.
We don’t find many of our students going into this sector. Well, if history is anything to go by you typically need to be an engineer, geologist or geoscientist to get into it. Once you have the grounding, you are then trained up in commercial aspects and can either follow a more technical or managerial position. However my belief is that the industry has so much to offer and I aim to make sure we don’t exclude people just because they come with a social science background. I have to say I think it’s a great sector to work in. So many people have opinions and make judgements on the industry, but once you get exposure you can truly appreciate it for what it is.
So Wood Mackenzie has a graduate programme? Yes, and an internship programme as well. The graduate programme goes on year round. While it doesn’t pay as well as, say investment banking, you can earn pretty good money. On top of this you can earn up to 30% of your salary as a bonus. As well as consultants we recruit researchers. No matter what role you have you will need good personal interaction skills. If you are a data genius but can’t get along with people it’s not going to work. This is something that has become increasingly important during the hiring process. Finding the right people is key.
http://www.woodmacresearch.com Wood Mackenzie is the most comprehensive source of knowledge about the world’s energy and metals industries. They analyse and advise on every stage along the value chain – from discovery to delivery, and beyond – to provide clients with the commercial insight that makes them stronger.
Comments»
This was a very interesting and encouraging piece of reading. I am currently in my final year of my PhD in International HRM looking at career development experiences of Angolans working in the oil industry. My background before entering our business school was in anthropology, and my current project leans heavily towards the social sciences rather than business in the traditional sense. In the next year I will be looking for work and for a veriety of reasons, I’m very interested in the oil industry. However, as you point out there is this preconceived idea out there that to establish a career in the oil and gas sector, people usually come from a science background as opposed to social science. As a non-science or MBA graduate, it seems harder to visualise a place for yourself within the industry. Hence it was great to see an example showing us otherwise!
Hi Raisa, thanks so much for that positive response. It’s great to get this kind of feedback and I’ll be sure to pass it on to Piers.