Slogging through the oil and gas industry

Are you considering a client change?  Maybe you're contemplating a world of fresh perspectives and innovative technology?  70 % of your colleagues are and I say, by all means do it -  but think twice before saying yes to the seemingly lucrative field of Energy Communications.

I was once you, trying to escape the mundane, thinking outside the career box I had made for myself in the newspaper industry.  I applied, interviewed and power-lunched until I finally made my decision - I was moving to the dark side (tar sands).  Yes, that's me, the liberal arts grad going along to get along with an executive management team who believe scientific evidence of climate change is just liberal propaganda.

But onto more important things, like money.  As you may already be aware, oil and gas jobs, even in the communications department, pay more than most.  You have a base salary, generous vacation time and nice retirement packages (although, given market fluctuations, you may not be there long enough to open one).  But if you can put aside your guilt over environmental issues, the your reward will be the annual shareholders cheque.  Yes readers, I'm here to testify, all of those moments spent biting your tongue, rolling your eyes and thinking your head was going to implode due to the intellectual vacuum you slave in day-in and day-out - God love it - here comes the bonus cheque! 

At my alma mater they're quite proud of their students ability upon graduation to stand-up to authority.  I believe our commencement speaker, Brian Lamb of C-Span, beseeched us to go forth and "speak truth to power".  While I love my alma mater and the passion for which Mr. Lamb spoke, I personally wouldn't recommend it.  If you're in oil and gas, you may be looking for a new career sooner than you think.  The energy field promotes from within, generally speaking it's men who started out as boys working 'in the patch' they know hard, awful, stinky, work from the ground up.  The boys who last become the men of management; vice presidents of operations and the like.  Along the way to picking up their grandiose titles they've grown large egos accompanied by shallow mentalities and short tempers all this with nary a day of higher education (some never finished high school - which they will proudly tell you has not affected their ability to earn an income that is completely disproportionate to their education).  So imagine when you have to go into their corner office and speak your truth "well, Mr. Moneybags, I'm unable to send out this internal communication they way it is, uh - huh ...yes, we need to fix your poor sentence structure, grammar and punctuation to say nothing of your inability to frame an argument - honestly Mr. M, we need to re-write this whole thing - and what is it you're trying to say? Because frankly, I don't understand " - I dare you.

That day, should you decide to come to the 'dark side', will either be the day your alma mater will be proud of you or you really, really earn that bonus!

References:

Vivian G.  (2012, Oct. 10) 70 Percent of Your Colleagues are Looking for a New Job [Web blog post].  Retrieved from:  http://www.businessinsider.com/70-percent-of-your-colleagues-are-looking-for-a-new-job-2012-10

DiChristopher ( 2015, July 22) Oil and gas jobs' pay is still big, but not booming retrieved from:  http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/22/