What Do Oil and Gas Companies Look for When Hiring?
by Andreas Exarheas
Rigzone Staff
| Monday, July 29, 2024 | 4:39 AM EST
In an exclusive interview, partners of OneSource Professional Search outlined to Rigzone what oil and gas companies look for when hiring for professional/technical positions.
Image by Nadzeya Haroshka via iStock
In an exclusive interview, Dave Mount and Henry Shurlds, partners of Louisiana-based energy recruitment firm OneSource Professional Search, have outlined to Rigzone what oil and gas companies look for when hiring for professional/technical positions.
“Large companies/major exploration/production companies typically look for candidates with the highest level of academic performance, i.e. top 25 percent of their classes, or having minimum GPAs of 3.3-3.5 or better with summer internship experience at oil and gas operating companies,” the OneSource partners told Rigzone.
“Degrees typically sought out include engineering degrees in petroleum, mechanical, chemical, electrical and civil engineering. Geoscience degrees minimum typically are master’s degrees in geology or geophysics,” they added.
“On the financial side other degree programs would include land management, accounting, economics, finance, and logistics/supply chain,” they continued.
Mount and Shurlds told Rigzone that independent exploration/production companies typically look for talent with either other independent oil and gas operating company experience or major oil and gas company experience.
“We typically see demand for technical and finance professionals with a minimum of five years’ experience, with the ideal experience range, depending on position, of 10-20 years’ experience for staff level and 15- 30 years’ experience for leadership roles,” they added.
The OneSource representatives said operating companies like to hire people from other operating companies and less from service companies “unless the industry is in a big growth business cycle”.
“In addition to technical degrees and work experience, all companies are looking for intangible positive characteristics as well including work ethic/initiative, intelligence/problem solving, and good communication skills,” Mount and Shurlds said.
“We’ve found over the years that the larger or more technically specialized the role that they prefer lesser experienced, but highly intelligent candidates to train their way, and in certain positions can lower the bar on communication skills if the technical proficiency is more highly valued,” they added.
“Smaller companies prefer more broad experience and higher level of communication skills as work teams are typically smaller and more intimate and require team members to communicate better and have higher level social interaction skills,” they continued.
Why companies seek these attributes in candidates varies from company to company, the OneSource partners told Rigzone.
“In general, larger companies prefer to train top of the class candidates their way as they have more people and systems to somewhat uniformly train new graduates, whereas smaller companies have less in-house training infrastructure and rely on the training and experience gained at other companies prior to joining their company,” they said.
OneSource describes itself as an executive and technical search firm that emphasizes strategic placement of accomplished professionals with client partners. The company serves the oil and gas, midstream, oil refining, petrochemical, engineering services, and accounting/finance industries, its website highlights.
Mount has over 20 years in professional recruiting following a successful operating company career primarily with LL&E/ConocoPhillips in oil and gas and oil refining and trading, OneSource’s site states, adding that he was instrumental in growing the engineering niche of a regional recruiting firm, then forming OneSource Professional Search in 2003.
Shurlds is a trusted and proven executive recruiter with over 25 years as a leader with Mobil Oil, Tulane University, Entergy Corporation, the OneSource site notes. Earning a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Mississippi State & Tulane MBA, he joined OneSource in 2005, and is a key contributor to the firm’s significant growth and practice diversification, it adds.
To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com
