Faster, Deeper and Splat!
As I'm down with the flu (along with the rest in Miri) and my general inability to comprehend anything to do with equations worsen, I sat at my desk with google as my yellow brick road and started my little adventure. As life would have it, I was back to reality reading articles on Young Professionals in the oil industry.
Within the company, most of the people I've met are your average Malaysian from very Malaysian backgrounds, ie. they like to know what you're doing, how much you're earning and if you're actually seeing sombody. Within this last 7 days, I've been told more than I could count that I should think of getting married. Porque?
Digressing back to the original point here, yet on the other hand there are always that handful of overachievers jumping from one country to another, living on a nomadic time schedule, from rig to platform and another 2 weeks somewhere else (the typical Malaysian would just stay at home and count their allowances) like Tahiti.
As much as we'd like to think of the oil industry as fast paced, technologically packed and as manic as it gets, environmentally distructive, massive machines, high powered political wrangling and damn petrol prices, that's not quite the whole truth.
"I really hate to be the pioneer, that'll mean if all fails my head will be the first on the block"
As singular personel, the phrase "who dares wins" doesn't really hold true. Truth to be told, there's a lot to lose when a multi million dollar line is lost. Failure is compounded each day and well, someone has to pay eventually. In various light, the oil industry does seem archaic at times, a little slow to react with each action having wider implications as it progresses up each level.
Yet, on the other hand... there's just so much to learn. It's a different world where things exist both in water and on land, compromises made and when it comes down to the buck, the job has to be done. Materials used here are exotic at times (only other time I heard about Inconel was in a McLaren F1 roadcar engine bay). Now things are moving deepwater which is a totally different ball game. The structures are different, the parameters are different and how it affects the design remains generally new. Who knew welding could be so complicated, and that sea bed mapping can be so tedious and crucial.
Hanging on a basket 10m in the air and hoping the crane operator doesn't make a mistake or a sudden gust of wind is pretty scary (and that's just training, I've not even gone offshore yet). Strange, how I look back 10 years ago and decided energy, weapons and vehicles were the places to be.
If the new CEO is right "play big money, big technology" it's going to be an interesting ride, hopefully. As for me, payday's just arrived and yes, there's a streak of the boring ol' Malaysian lurking in the corner.
I do apologize that this post seemed to snake all around the place. I blame the 4 kinds of drugs I'm on to sort out the cold.
Cheers!
Within the company, most of the people I've met are your average Malaysian from very Malaysian backgrounds, ie. they like to know what you're doing, how much you're earning and if you're actually seeing sombody. Within this last 7 days, I've been told more than I could count that I should think of getting married. Porque?
Digressing back to the original point here, yet on the other hand there are always that handful of overachievers jumping from one country to another, living on a nomadic time schedule, from rig to platform and another 2 weeks somewhere else (the typical Malaysian would just stay at home and count their allowances) like Tahiti.
As much as we'd like to think of the oil industry as fast paced, technologically packed and as manic as it gets, environmentally distructive, massive machines, high powered political wrangling and damn petrol prices, that's not quite the whole truth.
"I really hate to be the pioneer, that'll mean if all fails my head will be the first on the block"
As singular personel, the phrase "who dares wins" doesn't really hold true. Truth to be told, there's a lot to lose when a multi million dollar line is lost. Failure is compounded each day and well, someone has to pay eventually. In various light, the oil industry does seem archaic at times, a little slow to react with each action having wider implications as it progresses up each level.
Yet, on the other hand... there's just so much to learn. It's a different world where things exist both in water and on land, compromises made and when it comes down to the buck, the job has to be done. Materials used here are exotic at times (only other time I heard about Inconel was in a McLaren F1 roadcar engine bay). Now things are moving deepwater which is a totally different ball game. The structures are different, the parameters are different and how it affects the design remains generally new. Who knew welding could be so complicated, and that sea bed mapping can be so tedious and crucial.
Hanging on a basket 10m in the air and hoping the crane operator doesn't make a mistake or a sudden gust of wind is pretty scary (and that's just training, I've not even gone offshore yet). Strange, how I look back 10 years ago and decided energy, weapons and vehicles were the places to be.
If the new CEO is right "play big money, big technology" it's going to be an interesting ride, hopefully. As for me, payday's just arrived and yes, there's a streak of the boring ol' Malaysian lurking in the corner.
I do apologize that this post seemed to snake all around the place. I blame the 4 kinds of drugs I'm on to sort out the cold.
Cheers!
Comments