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I am an Instrument Engineer for a Oil Service Company in the UK. My first two year grades were poo poo - but I managed to turn it around and graduate with an Upper Second Class Masters (Atilla or Trevor (2:1)). I love my job, I get to design Instrumentation for offshore platforms. Offshore 4 times in the past year in the North Sea. But the company I work for has cut down the number of graduates it hired over the past 2 years due to the downturn in the oil price. The way our company works is that the Operators (Shell, Exxon, Chevron, Conoco, BP) pay us to do their construction offshore.  Click here for the full 1023x655 image. Where I started, Ninian Central - the firebreathing beast of the West Coast of Scotland. /edit - I loved that platform
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Nov 7, 2009 12:45
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Kippling posted:What exactly does that involve? What's your day to day routine? Typical Day; Get in at 7:30 (we work flexi-time, and that time co-incides with when my train is). Boot up the Computer to see if there are any emails which have come in from the platforms over night. Because the platforms work 24/7 there could be issues arising during the night which we would need to provide clarification on. But the usual channel is through the Onshore Construction Manager. If there are no screamers from the night before, its usually a case of marking up drawings (Loop Drawings, Termination Details, Piping and Instrumentation) and giving them to the designer who puts them into CAD, so they boys offshore don't have to interpret my scribbles. If there was any screamers, then it would be a case of looking out the drawing that is causing them problems, and phoning them up to find out where the confusion lies. The problem with my job is that if I am doing a design I simply can't "walk into the plant" because it takes 6-12 weeks just to go through the planners - which is a pisstake anyway, last time they just forgot to book me onto the chopper. Arses! Sometimes there is fun meetings with the client, like last week I had a meeting because one of the projects shut the platform down - so it was a lessons learned into why it broke, what could be done next time to prevent that happening. Its a fun, and not stressful job. The people in the office make it fun - as they are mostly ex-offshore tech's who did a degree they are very sarcastic - its ace. But the downsides are the politics, so-and-so kissing up to such-and-such business manager, bloody bollocks stopping the jobs from going out the door on time. Its mostly the planners, all they do is move a bar along a screen. Job would be easier without them!
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Nov 8, 2009 10:12
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A Jew in Manhattan posted:I got a call yesterday from one of the places I applied to for a summer internship. I only talked with her for a few minutes on the phone but she seemed very eager to just send over my info to HR to hire me on. I opted to go in on Monday and take a tour of the facility and meet the people I would be working with first though. Opting to go in for an for a tour puts you above the guys that didn't. Try and get on with the guys that you might be working with, as they will no doubt be asked their opinion of guys at the end of the tour. Worried? No, just make sure you know what kind of facility it is your going in to see, and try and have a basic idea of what it does. So if you do get asked any questions you might have a better chance of answering.
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Apr 2, 2011 08:06
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I start a new job on Monday, I have a promotion to Senior Instrument Engineer. Which is pretty drat scary, I don't think I'm senior!! The project I am working on is a brand new topside for an oil rig. 8 new gas compressors, 3 new separators and 3 new MOL pumps. Complete with it's own control room, and tie ins to the existing platform. Also with tie ins to the sub-sea production wells. I'm scared, but really excited about getting to do Greenfield work, rather than having to do Brownfield engineering.
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Aug 14, 2011 08:32
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I'm an instrument engineer, my background is brownfield design so I know about speccing transmitters and doing loop diagrams. I've recently moved companies to an instrument operations engineer (so asset support) and I'm finding I'm wanting to learn more about the Process side of things. As in my old job, I was given a P&ID from the process engineer and told to buy valves and the like. However, in my new job it's a lot more of examining the plant and seeing how we can optimise it. And I've not really got any process knowledge. I'm booked in on a Campbell's course, but what I'd really want to learn, is a holistic view of things. I.e how does increasing the pressure set point here, affect the pressure on the other side of the compressor for example. Am I wanting a process for dummies course, or is it more a process control course I need?
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Oct 10, 2013 17:21
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I need help. I work for a boss who I struggle to respect. He micromanages, overreacts, constantly knee-jerks. He's so out of his depth, it's unreal. I've had to do an appraisal of him, and I have him 3 out of 10 and that was being generous. Don't get me wrong, I don't want his job. I've had a raging alcoholic as a boss before, and he was easier to deal with than this guy. Help me, how do I deal with a horrible boss?
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Jul 13, 2014 12:39
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Jesus, I thought engineers all had the same sense of humour. Someone asked on r/engineering about what a girl should wear for an interview. I said nothing, to show she didn't have anything to hide. Holy crap, they really can't take trolling over there. It's turning into tumblr
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Mar 21, 2015 20:06
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Frinkahedron posted:I hope you don't make the same jokes at work. Of course, I work in engineering. It's a man's industry. Tits, Beer, laaaaaaaaaads. Of course not, don't be stupid. That's why I save my trolling and offensive statements for the Internet. But for fucks sake, what kind of child asks what to wear for an interview. In a shocking on topic post, I've got my interview today for Chartership. I've got my 15 minute presentation, but I'm not looking forward to the 45 minutes of questions on my career. Oodles fucked around with this message at 11:22 on Mar 26, 2015 |
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Mar 26, 2015 11:19
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Not a Children posted:You're right, gently caress 'em for not intuitively knowing what to wear for a work environment they've never been in you've done an engineering degree for between 3-5 years, you'll have a general idea of what lecturers/visiting industry people wear. Let alone what you've seen parents/general people around town wearing.
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Mar 26, 2015 19:44
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Vaporware posted:Definitely, you can easily underestimate benefits if you're not looking at what they are worth. And sometimes magic gets thrown into the mix and produce performance bonuses and at that point you might as well just guess a number that makes you feel good. And you've got to subsidise all the overheads like HR, Accounts and corporate.
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May 23, 2015 07:38
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I've been deemed competent. I've just been made a Chartered Engineer by the IET. Thank goodness I won't have to go through that rigamarole again! I'll now have to get new business cards made (only joking, I'm not one of those guys).
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May 28, 2015 11:39
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I've recently started a new job, and it's in the public sector. So there's no fancy coffee machines or Starbucks in the office. And when you've got people coming in for a meeting, custom dictates that you put a pot of coffee on. Which I'm more than happy to do, and prep the room for my meeting. At what point, and I'm not condoning this behaviour, does it become OK to ask the office admin to do that for you? The Chief Executive gets her to put the coffee on and biscuits out, but he's happy to stand shooting the poo poo with us for 20 minutes. I couldn't ever imagine getting into a position of asking someone else to prep a room for my meeting, maybe I'm not as busy as them? But 5 minutes to fill a pot of water and put filter paper in. If someone hasn't got 5 minutes, then they don't have time to poo poo, let alone think.
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Jun 3, 2015 16:58
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The Chairman posted:I would expect setting up meeting rooms, including providing coffee, to be part of the office administrator's job description. She's more the Cheif's PA. But, at what point is my time more valuable working than putting water in a filter. You could argue that right from the get go, it's better for me to be working than doing that.
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Jun 3, 2015 18:20
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Heliosicle posted:I just finished an MEng in Electrical and Electronic engineering, I've had a couple of offers from places I did placements at but I'd really prefer to go into more academic things at this point. I did my degree and masters in the UK but would like to go somewhere in Europe for a PhD. Do people in the thread have experience of engineering PhD's around Europe? Specifically electrical/electronic I guess. Is your heart set on research? Just asking as I had a friend that went and did a PhD and after the 3 or 4 years however long it was, she came back to where we lived and worked in the oil industry.
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Jun 17, 2015 07:52
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It does seem low, when I got my first job 8 years ago, albeit in oil, my starting salary was £24k. Plus, I wasn't in London.
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Jul 30, 2015 22:11
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Thoguh posted:Is there just a huge surplus of engineers in the UK driving down wages or something? That's psych major type pay. There's a bit of a glut of engineers in the Oil industry just now in the UK. But that might have trickled down into the number of graduates they're taking, which in turn could allow them to lower their starting salary as there's still lots of engineering graduates wanting to work in oil, as they started their degrees 5 years ago when it was looking healthy(er). As the majority of the majors are looking at the North Sea and trying to sell their assets.
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Aug 2, 2015 12:41
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On a positive note, at least you wont have to pay much tax.
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Aug 17, 2015 21:02
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Oil! posted:So, does anyone have any leads on jobs for a PE in petroleum engineering for some consulting? What country are you looking in?
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Aug 22, 2015 08:13
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Zero Gravitas posted:Start new job last Tuesday, internationally known, multiple fatality plane crash on Saturday at the same airfield. Looking at your last posts, it seem you went for a walkabout through the hangers as well. Did you see the plane that crashed?
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Aug 25, 2015 15:27
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Tnuctip posted:Becoming an engineer v0.1 I'm at 4: have 10 years of experience, and now wonder do I want to to the management thing or stay technical.
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Oct 10, 2017 12:50
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I’m trying to get a couple of chats with directors in my organisation to see how they got where they did. I’ve also been working with a career coach to find out what I enjoy about my current job. We’ve also done the Insights personality profile, and I’m a Green/Yellow Helper. So trying to figure out how to expand on what I enjoy. I’m quite fortunate in the role I’m in I get exposed to varied work, and senior people. So I need to As the career coach says “build my brand” which I can’t stand. I’m also trying to find suitable training courses which would help me develop. I’m ok on the technical front, but my commercial skills are lacking and I also need to work on my presentation skills. I’m ok with technical presentations, but need to work on presenting to management, being succinct.
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Oct 19, 2017 13:08
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The best part of my uni degree was when I found the past papers from previous years in the library. I don’t think I gained much from lectures as I did from tutorials. You also sound keener than me, doing extra learning. I was to busy chasing girls, getting pissed and failing exams in 2nd Year.
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Oct 26, 2017 12:12
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I used nothing that I learned in my graduate job in Oil. They wanted the ability problem solve and be logical and methodical in my approach. Whom I kidding, they just wanted someone who could copy and paste the last time we did this job.
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Oct 27, 2017 06:06
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Wolfy posted:So I had an interview today to be a project engineer for a construction company. I'm going to be a fresh graduate. I know it's not really engineering, but close enough. One, that's usually a good sign right? Two, how the hell do I figure out how much to ask for? They’re asking you for a graduate post to specify a salary? What region/country are you in?
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Nov 7, 2017 23:18
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Sunny Side Up posted:Thanks---I spent ~6 months in refinery capital projects as a process engineer direct hire for Shell. It is definitely way more stable than working at an EPC firm. Besides the annual reorganisation and reapply for your job, making 6 months out of the year fruitless as you’re stressing out about your job status. I went from an EPC to a Major, and really enjoyed it as it was what I wanted. However, at the Major I realised how tied I was to this part of the world and in a heartbeat someone in the HQ could sell up and then I wouldn’t know what was going on. (See Maersk selling to Total). Whereas with an EPC you can do work for all around the world from that one location. It’s swings and roundabouts. It depends on your personal situation, as I have young kids and don’t want to a) travel or b) relocate.
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Dec 14, 2017 11:43
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spwrozek posted:If you live in a city and can't bike, walk, or scooter to work you are doing it wrong. Can confirm, when I tell people from our London office that I have a 20 minute walk to work they get jealous. I’d hate to sit on public transport for 4 hours a day.
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Jan 5, 2018 08:12
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As a lurker and occasional poster, my interpretation was that your dad was a good dude.
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Mar 15, 2018 08:15
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Pander posted:2 to 6% so far. I got a 30% going from Engineer to Senior. But that was because I left my company I joined as a graduate. Then another 30% when I went back as an Engineer to another company. Oil’s weird. v0v
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Apr 11, 2018 21:28
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It’s that time of the year where we need to do our development goals for the next year. I’ve realised that I’m not going to use this as skills to develop my current role, but how to develop for the next role I see. I’m getting more requests to do reports and proposals to the board. I’ve realised that I’m trying to present my data as an engineer, and they want brief succinct information. I’m terrible at that, any of you know what kind of course or training would be good at distilling information down to salient points?
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May 11, 2018 13:49
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I’m normally in a shirt and smart trousers. If I’ve got a meeting with external VIP’s then I’ll wear a tie and jacket. But I’m not in manufacturing, I’m in Oil but pretty removed from the people actually drilling or producing the oil.
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Jun 11, 2018 17:09
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I’m in the U.K. I don’t know what else to call them. Dress trousers?
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Jun 11, 2018 22:50
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Murgos posted:Although, I guess women do have formal underwear come to think of it. Ive got dress pants if I think I’m going to get lucky. They’ve got penguins on them.
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Jun 13, 2018 17:48
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Anyone got advice on how be better at preempting decisions or outcomes? I’ve come from 8 years in operations, which is so reactionary. Now I need to be more “strategic” in my planning, and I need to try and condition myself to change my thinking? I’ve spent a lifetime of dealing with the crocodiles closet to the boat, now I need to deal with the further away ones.
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Jun 22, 2018 12:49
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CarForumPoster posted:Plan to make operations really easy. DevOps is this applied to software. What industry are you in? Oil and Gas. I’ve moved out of ops and into a more projects/corporate role. I’m struggling with the forward planning, I.e more than just a 1 week look ahead, more like 1 month/6 month what decisions need to be made now, so we don’t get in bad situations then.
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Jun 22, 2018 17:15
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shame on an IGA posted:I'm a machinist who was plucked off the floor and made a controls technician a couple years ago, is there any particular focus where I can turn broad but relatively shallow experience in multiple areas into stacks of moneys? Do design work on CAD then do less drawing, more telling others what to draw.
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Jul 14, 2018 20:32
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Figured this thread might have some disposable income, and may not frequent GBS ‘Taxman isn’t in a good way. And if you’re like me and spent most of your formative years shitposting here you’ll have an attachment to this dumb forum. Lowtax posted:I've always said I'd absolutely NEVER do recurring charges on the forums, and I will always stand by that. If you would like to donate in a recurring charge way, my Patreon is https://www.patreon.com/GamingGarbage It’s also up at 9k/mo, which is 
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Mar 13, 2019 08:54
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:Past $10.5K already. I’m really enjoying reading that thread. That’s why we post on this dumb forum.
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Mar 13, 2019 20:16
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It’s annual appraisal time. My boss has told me I need to work on my planning. Which I know I’m crap at, but when you’ve spent 10 years working in operations you get good at firefighting, and not so good at long term planning. Anyone got any good books / advice on how to get better at foreseeing issues and mitigating them?
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Mar 29, 2019 08:31
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CarForumPoster posted:Some context would be helpful. What level are you at (IC, Manager, Company size) also type of planning (completing tasks, strategic business decisions, reducing schedule risk due to technical issues, developing a roadmap for a product) I should have clarified. Energy Industry, no direct reports, 170 people. Strategic business decisions, so if we’ve got a 3rd party doing a project what do I need to do between now and then to ensure it gets delivered, also being aware of their risks and how to mitigate them so they don’t impact is. It’s an unusual situation in that we’re not spending the money, we’re helping them with their project. I guess it’s more akin to a consultancy.
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Mar 30, 2019 12:02
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Cheers, I’ve not done project management in my career. So that’s hopefully why I’m struggling with it!
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Mar 30, 2019 12:43
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