Brinkman

I believe brinkman asked some us here on the forum in regards to his job opportunities.

Sorry for the late reply but didn't have much time to write a detailed explanation.

Break it down it looks like he has an option of between being in a general job role versus a specialist.

Everyone in every industry faces the same problem but since this is an oil and gas thread so will focus more on oil and gas.

Break down every career in the company into two roles

1. The general roles (mostly major companies)

2. The specialist roles (often smaller companies)

First, what is your career objective? If you have a specific career objective then it would make your choice easier.

If you want to be in the Management/CEO of an Oil and Gas company, your focus will need more general skills on business units and handling business aspects within your company. You yourself don't need specific skills on oil and gas but general knowledge and application of those general knowledge and main ---costing. Whatever anyone tells you, everything in this side boils down to cost and profits, especially in public listed companies because shareholders will chase the directors for more profits and the shit falls down to the management.

If you want to be a specialist say inspectors, metalwork, drilling, rotating equipment then tailor yourself to all possible knowledge and development to the said skills.

Secondly,

Is it possible to move between the two, say from general skill to specialist skill or vice-versa

The answer is yes.

It just depends on how you put in continual improvement to yourself just like your companies do with themselves. Take professional certs to verify your career progress.

Third,

Benefits

Like companies, employees also need monetary or equivalent rewards......

Fact of life = we work for money.

To earn more money you need to make more money!

Say if you start at RM 3000 and after 3 years experience at say a rate of 10%? increment a year your salary is about 3993. After you jump normally you can request rarely anything higher than 20-30%. Don't be surprised someone at your same position who have jumped every 2 years and in the same position as you is earning higher.

Always look at the total package including healthcare coverage and benefits, training cost reimbursement and benefits, professional development programs, company claims for travel etc.... look at both intrinsic and extrinsic values of your jobs benefits this could include etc. potential skills in new technology.

Some people factor in job security, company profile/brand name, project profile, position etc.. into benefit consideration.

Specialist often make more money than than most executives in general (source: refer to all salary statistics).

I am sure the other experts here will be able to add further to any of the above.