BANKING EXPERIENCE, PROJECT MANAGEMENT QUALIFICATION & OIL & GAS DREAM
Good day Jarus,My name is GE. I have a 1st degree in Quantity Surveying. I worked briefly in a private QS firm and left to work in the bank for 5 years. I left the bank 2 years ago. I am rounding up an MBA in Strategic and Project Management. I’m not interested in pursuing QS for a lot of reasons.I’ve been looking up a lot of schools online as I want to further my studies after my MBA program. I am interested in the business aspect of Oil and Gas and as a result of this,looking up schools offering Oil,Gas and Energy Management. A lot of these schools offer Oil and Gas courses with different criteria. One of which is to have an Oil and Gas job experience. I have no job experience in Oil and Gas.I have seen two (2) schools which offer my intended course; however I will obtain a certificate (one is an Advanced Diploma) and not a degree. I do not intend to stop at this course as I want to really learn a lot more of the Oil and Gas industry.Is this wise? Considering I will paying a substantial amount for the Advanced Diploma/Certificate course. Secondly, what are the chances of being gainfully employed after taking all these courses? What do you advise? Or do I just stick to the Project Management Path?Thank you.GE
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A tough one. There are two routes for entering oil and gas industry: the technical route (engineers, geologists, Health & safety etc) and the non-technical route (accountants, HR personnel, Admin etc). You’re obviously not qualified for technical route since you don’t have technical background. I’m also finding it difficult to figure where you fit in the non-technical route.
Advanced Diploma in Oil & Gas is not bad, at least it puts something “oil and gas” on your CV. However, in all honesty, it far from guarantees oil and gas job. Oil and gas certification without experience doesn’t make significant difference.
My honest advice is for you to stick to Project Management. But if the fee for the O&G programme is not going to hit your purse too much, there is no harm in going for it. Since you already have PM certificate, it at least widens your options.
Another important issue is, what job were you doing in bank? The experience may match somewhere in O&G industry. I have a couple of friends that moved from bank to O&G industry because what they did in bank was related to the advertised position in O&G company, like Treasury.
So you have to take a holistic look and expand your options.
All the best.
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