Another giant went bankrupt.. anyone work with OGX before?

Being a Mechy Eng student from UTM still no call for work or interview. Sigh T_T

I guess there is something wrong with the individual or the way they market themselves especially for the fresh grads.

I saw A LOT of openings either from BIG service companies, local companies as well as the operating companies. In the newspapers or in the internet.

Maybe it is not your rezeki yet BUT I guess it is good to listen to the senior's advise in this forum..look back at your CV and yourself, are you being too choosy?

Or maybe you're proactive enough. I know from my x-colleague that the fresh grads from his university used to walk in to the companies and hand over their CV..but I believe not all companies we can just walk in.

Good luck guys...

can anyone help me review and comment on my cv please? anyone?

Well said. This is one fact some fresh grads fails to understand. Sending more than 10 applications and not getting a job means you have a problem with your CV. Sending 300+ is useless, it just shows the person does not know what career he/she looking for.

In my case I secured a job from Intern host company but applied for 3 others as contingency and was offered in 2 of them. Many of my friends did the same. I can't imagine tailoring a CV for > 10 companies!

agreed, couldnt emphasize more on tailoring your CV and understanding what the company does and what you can do to contribute to it.
my current job i sent my cv in and got a reply within an hour.

This post has been edited by echobrainproject: Nov 4 2013, 08:05 AM

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This post has been edited by camel_active: Nov 4 2013, 09:37 AM

fresh graduates nowadays aiming for big companies only, and never paid attention to other so-called small companies. Some of them even reject offers from this small companies, and wait for big companies to call and etc.

i'm working with vendor/supplier in ong currently, and of course the pay is not as big as the client. but in term of career advancement, i believe you'll learn more in this side, rather than the another. that's good for you experience and knowledge. you can jump ships after 3-4 years, and maybe at the end, you'll end up at client side too, who knows?

my advice is work your way up. dont just jump straightaway. yes, you can do that but dont ever underestimates the other companies as well..

I graduated recently with a degree in petroleum engineering, but with below average grades (the basis of rejection from big companies, and therefore an underlying assumption for the rest of the post). I have no hesitation starting with smaller, lesser-known companies, and even agree with your opinion that one may learn more (though this depends highly on the individual's motivation).

But see my dilemma here: for MechE, EE, ChemE etc. there are many small-scale companies offering work relevant to their degree. But for petroleum engineers, as far as I know there isn't a single small, local company hiring petroleum engineers to work as a reservoir/drilling/production engineer, at least not one that will overlook my grades (grades aren't exactly failing, a 2.8/4.0). Even Petronas's G.E.E.S program requires a 3.0. Hence I don't know where my "work from bottom" lies at. Unless it means foregoing a reservoir engineering career forever and working with service companies. This is a leading question to...if I work for a service company for 2-3 years, coming out of it will I be able to land an entry-level reservoir/production engineer job with operator companies? Working as a driller for a service company is fun, I agree, but if I had to choose between drilling and reservoir/production I would go with the latter due to the cyclical nature of the O&G industry. During times of less exploration, reservoir/production engineers stay employed, not so for drilling engineers

And would you advise against working non-engineering jobs (e.g. drilling technical assistant, field technician) for 1-2 yrs experience v.s waiting longer for more engineering opportunities? Again, would this affect my hiring chances as an entry-level drilling/production/reservoir engineer? I truly appreciate any advice you guys could provide.

This post has been edited by heliosi: Nov 4 2013, 04:32 PM

yup, i agreed with you. compared to EE, ME and EE, PE graduates quite hard to land a job due to its scope of study, companies and etc. but its good for you that you have set your goals and targets, and you knows how to achieve them.

I'm not really familiar with PE-related companies and etc, but if its really hard for you to get your dream path, you might need to take those non-engineering jobs. if its relatively similar to what you're looking for, its a bonus. of course, you in the mean time you can always finding your dream position elsewhere. at least you have some working valuable experience in OnG and you have some income. I jumped companies few times in couples of months time to get to this position, but not really a high position lah . my point is, unless you have the luxury of sitting at home for months waiting for uncertainties, better for you to get a job, eventhough it is not your first choice.

my 2 cents.

any chance you will be able to do a masters degree in petroleum engineering with your 2.80 CGPA?

if you can, then you should consider doing a masters degree and study like hell to get 4.00 CGPA when you graduate. that way will increase your chance of being offered a job as a petroleum engineer working as reservoir engineer. you can explain to the would be employer that you were having too much fun partying during your undergraduate days that it affected your studies and hence your low CGPA, and you have since "repented" and have worked hard for your masters degree and hence you manage to score a perfect CGPA (or near there).

recently i gave the same advice to two fresh graduates with 3.10 CGPA to take up a masters degree in their field. they were unsuccessful to obtain employment in the companies of their choices. now they working their asses off to get their masters degrees with flying colours.

This post has been edited by Stamp: Nov 4 2013, 05:27 PM

will u consider service company like technip, aker or schlumberger?

hi. just a random question? besides engineering any other major involves in this job prospect?

If by "job prospect" you mean the "oil and gas industry", then yes. Remember, like any other company they function on multiple levels: the operations level, the corporate level, the business level, etc. In a tiny oil and gas firm, it is possible that engineers make up the majority of the staff, but in a typical oil and gas MNC you will find a broad spectrum of workers e.g. accountants, financial analysts, technicians. Here, this job opening list for Baker Hughes, an oilfield service company, should give you a better idea of what I mean.

http://jobs.bakerhughes.com/my/malaysia-jobs

There's probably a lot of unfamiliar industry terms in use there, but if you click on each job link you'll be able to see the exact academic qualification needed e.g. Billing Analyst - Candidate must possess a Bachelor Degree in Accountancy/Finance or equivalent professional qualification (ACCA/CPA).

This post has been edited by heliosi: Nov 5 2013, 12:58 AM

I just want to avoid making an early career mistake while I still have time. But you're right, I don't have that luxury, and I do hate the feeling of being unemployed, so much. If I don't get an engineer position interview within 2 weeks I'll go for non-engineering jobs within the oil and gas industry.

Ah I totally forgot about the alternate route of grad school. The earliest I could finish at UTP (they don't seem to specify a minimum CGPA requirement) would be 1.5 years, but who knows how industry employment will be like then? People keep talking about an economy bubble burst. Our national oil reserves are falling faster than it's being replenished. Other MNCs may follow Newfield in exiting Malaysia to concentrate on their shale assets elsewhere. All this combined with the generally agreed on fact that Masters' holders have less job opportunities than degree holders (the "overqualified applicant" argument), I think I'll take my chances gaining valuable O&G experience during the 1.5 years, even if it's non-engineering related.

Oh yes, of course. With no replies from the E&P companies my next best would be oil service companies. Engineering/ construction companies like Technip and Aker seem to only want MechEs, and CivilEs. Basically my preference: E&P jobs > industry-related engineering jobs > industry-related non-engineering job.

Local or MNC, low (but not too low lah) pay or high pay doesn't matter much to me for my first real job. As long as the company provides a good platform to self-learn and decent mentorship I will take it.

This post has been edited by heliosi: Nov 5 2013, 12:49 AM

is there any place for language major wanna get involve in oil and gas? my guess might be falls under HR i think.. sorry.. im only have the rough idea for this industry

Ah are you majoring in a language or linguistics? I'm guessing language right? As far as I know, I don't think O&G companies hire language majors (or linguistic majors) for their skill set alone, but being a polyglot is definitely an added advantage for job applications. Almost every O&G company I applied to wanted to know how many languages I could speak/read/write. And I never thought I would see the day, but one company even described the ability to converse in a Sarawakian native language as an advantage (note to self: learn your native tongue already!!!).

That being said, and also bearing in mind that I'm not familiar with typical job prospects of language majors in Malaysia, maybe you should consider double-majoring to increase your marketability. And for god's sake save yourself some trouble and graduate with at least a 3.0 :-(

This post has been edited by heliosi: Nov 5 2013, 03:55 AM

Where do you hear this? Most international players have preference to hire MSc and PhD students only... especially in the US....