In other words how do SMEs or subject matter experts evaluate the suitability of a candidate for the job? Having an insight into the mind of an interviewer could easily tip the results in your favour.
Before I proceed any further let me point out that for the purpose of this article I have grouped mudlogging geologists, data engineers and wellsite geologists under the head of petroleum geologists. Therefore my examples will come from these three job positions on oilrigs. However, the design and structure of interview as laid out, will also benefit geologists from many other streams.
Hiring process starts either when you send your resume’ to a company, or the company HR picks up your profile from LinkedIn and calls you to enquire your availability. At this stage the caller may also request a few extra information needed to complete their database. Thereafter a technical interview is arranged with a subject matter expert. Once a technical interview is done successfully, HR will get back to you to complete the legal formalities of a contract, which also include a discussion on salary.
Now let’s move to the critical part of hiring process, that is technical interview. It is here you will be assessed and evaluated if you’re the best fit for the job among many candidates in the queue. Understanding how you are probed and judged by an expert during the course of interview and preparing accordingly will give you huge advantage over your competition.
During the interview all geologists, no matter what stream they come from, will be probed on multiple dimensions of their professional assets, namely:
- Educational Qualification
- Quality of Experience
- Subject knowledge and concepts
- Technical Skills
- Soft skills like communication etc.
- Knowledge and awareness of QHSE
For experienced candidates the most important attributes are technical skills and subject knowledge, together these two carry more than two-third marks. All other attributes are assigned one-third marks. However, for fresh graduates the marking pattern will differ. It should be noted that a technical interview ideally takes more or less an hour to complete.
Now let’s examine the above attributes from the perspective of an interviewer:
Educational Qualification: A graduation degree in geology is must. Post graduation will get you a few more marks. Educational qualification and quality of institute matter a lot for fresh candidates but these tend to lose sheen as one grows in experience.
Quality of Experience: When an interviewer looks at your resume he does not just look at the number of years you have worked on a position but also on the quality of clients you have worked with. He also needs to know where your experience comes from? Does it come from working on offshore rigs or onshore rigs alone or both? What type of wells have you drilled? Wildcat, exploratory or development wells? Vertical, directional or horizontal wells? What challenges have you faced in drilling those wells? HPHT, H2S, severely depleted reservoirs etc. The more varied your experience the more valuable it is.
Subject knowledge and concepts: This part of the interview deals with the core knowledge and clarity of concepts needed to perform the job independently. For example a mudlogging geologist not only needs to have knowledge of various sedimentary rocks but also a clear concept of depositional environments and compaction process. So that, in an overpressure environment he can correlate a drill break to changes in lithology and compaction and warn driller to flow check to avoid any influx. Mudlogger level questions on this, could be something like: why do we usually flow check right after a drill break? or Why do drill breaks are often associated with kicks? A right answer will tell about your understanding as well as conceptual clarity of a parameter that you monitor so closely.
Technical Skills: Theseskills can be regarded as the practical part of your knowledge that you need to perform your job efficiently and accurately. Quality skills come with training and experience. Trouble shooting mudlogging sensor and equipment is a skill, assessing thickness of a bed based on mudlogging parameters and showing it on the lithology interpretation column of mudlog is a skill, describing fluorescence is a skill, estimating formation pressure through D’exponent or sonic log is a valuable skill for data engineers and wellsite geologists. Examples of skill based questions that may be asked are: How do you set trend line on d’exponent plot? Or how do you set isodensity lines on a sonic log to estimate formation pressure? Or If you do not see SPP on your screen what steps will you take to isolate the problem? Please bear in mind this is the most critical part of your interview, also the questions in this category carry maximum weightage. If you do badly here you may not be able to recover in the eyes of an interviewer.
Soft Skills: Your communication skills, interpersonal skills, problem solving skills your attitude etc. are grouped under soft skills. These skills are always in demand because they help you not only in doing your job smoothly but also in creating a positive environment at work place. Remember an interviewer is a keen observer, he will be watching you closely from the very first question “tell me about your self”. From your answer to this seemingly innocent question he will assess how you communicate information, how do you organize your thoughts? How confident and comfortable you feel when speaking? Are you being natural or fake? Your organizational skills may be assessed by questions like: What is the shortest time you have been asked to rig up your unit? And how did you do it? You can also be tested for your interpersonal skills for example by asking: How would you deal if your counterpart in the other shift was not doing his share of work? The answers of these types of questions should be well thought out as these give a great insight into your personality.
Knowledge and awareness of QHSE: Quality, Health, Safety and environment are very important matters in today’s industries, more so in oil industry. Oil companies and service companies are committed to provide safe and healthy work environment to all crewmembers. They invest time and money in training the staff on safe work practices and expect people to strictly adhere to safety norms on rig. This also pays them back by way of reducing or eliminating incidents and accidents on the rig as well as maintaining well being of their employees. Today no interview for oil industry job is complete without assessing the candidate’s knowledge and awareness on safe work practices. Therefore it is advisable to go through your safety training material prior to attending an interview. Examples of a few questions may be cited here: What is work permit system? What authority does STOP card program gives you on the rig? What do you understand by hazard hunt?
A common flaw that may be pointed out in the concluding remarks is poor preparation by candidates for the interview. In most of my interviews it would appear that the candidate was expecting a casual conversation. Unprepared to handle probing and follow up questions, he loses confidence and more often than not ends up missing the opportunity. Preparation, therefore, is a key requirement to get through the interviews.