I’m in my early 30’s and am considering the jump (if I am retained come September). What’s everyone else’s plan? O&G feels like it will never be the same and the current process has been anything but transparent.
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It has been 15 years since theTexas City Refinery explosion. A total of 16 people were vaporized. BP
Spent $16 billion reconstructing the largest refinery in North America. Then they sold the refinery to Marathon Oil for $4 billion. Marathon had to sue BP for breach of contract. A very classy company indeed.
https://youtu.be/goSEyGNfiPM
Jump while you can. BP is in a death spiral.
Jump. Jump fast before you too end up “too far down the road”. Better now than being laid off in your 40’s.
100% speculation but if you're connected to former upstream, I'd be concerned. I think some of the digital and data skills will be transferrable to industries like tech. That's what I'd be focused on.
BP is great company when you have a good manager you report to. Otherwise, it can be a toxic environment.
O&G demand was predicted to fall over the next 2 decades anyway, the pandemic has accelerated the timeline a little. I think it's unlikely that the industry will ever fully recover, so if you're in your 30s then it's a great time to try something new.
You will probably have developed some really useful skills that you can transfer to another industry, it's just a matter of recognising them and then thinking about where you could apply them.
I agree with the comment about finding a gov job. I did so myself at the age of 43, after almost 20 years in O&G as a reservoir engineer, business development coordinator, business planner, etc. The federal government is an amazing employer: nice people, GS15 salaries exceeding $160k, good pension, no layoffs, interesting work, matching thrift contributions, and outstanding health insurance.
BP is still a great company to work for
If you have options jump, I am too far down the road (29 years) there is no turning back for me.
Anything tech or healthcare will be solid for a while. Any government job should be (relatively) stable with decent benfits (pay is not that bad too).
O&G is depressed now and will be for a while (my gut tells me 5 to 10 years)