While competency on the job comes from your subject knowledge and experience; It is your soft skills that enhance your performance on the job and showcase your talents.
Hard skills are your subject knowledge, based on which you do your job. Soft skills are complementary skills that help you do your job effectually. There are many types of soft skills, like positive thinking, managing your time, setting and achieving goals etc. all these and many other soft skills do help you in your professional growth. However, based on my extensive experience on oil rigs, I have identified a few soft skills that need to be sharpen by geologists to fast forward their careers. These are:
Effective Communication Skills: It is not speaking fluently or having good vocabulary. Effective communication is an art to convey the message accurately and getting the desired results. Having good vocabulary or speaking fluently are only the tools for effective communication. A new born baby does not speak any language but he communicates with his mother effectively. If he is hungry, wet or needs attention, he cries until mother gets the right message and do what is needed. That is the essence of effective communication. To carry out effective communication you should have good vocabulary of the language. Right words at the right place make the message loud and clear. Use of inappropriate words may diminish the urgency or importance of the message. Another component of effective communication is passing the message directly to the right person. If you as a mudlogger have detected a kick in its early stage, its vital to inform the driller first. If the mudlogger decides to call company man first who may not happen to be in his office; mudlogger is losing precious moments in controlling the kick and thus, being ineffective in communication. Ensuring that message has been conveyed clearly further enhances the effectiveness of communication. How do you do that? In long conversations, you can summarize the main points or in an emergency situation ask questions. For example, when you informed the driller that mud level in flowline and active pit is increasing you can test his understanding by asking; are you also getting indications of a kick? or do you want to flow check now? Bear in mind that communication is a two-way street. Listening actively to receive information correctly is the other half of effective communication. When you receive an important verbal message, make sure it is clear and free from ambiguity. In case of doubt ask questions. Summarize and paraphrase the message to make sure you have got it all and right.
Alertness and Observation Skills: As a mudlogger or data engineer, you have crucial responsibility to safeguard the drilling operations. Therefore, you need to be vigilant and alert on the job. In oil well drilling (needless to say an expensive venture), there is a very small time window for a normal operation becoming abnormal. Your time to act is within this small time window. That’s why alertness and observation skills are an important requirement for your job position. Any skill can be acquired and honed by practice. To improve your observation, do this exercise as often as you can: Stand in front of graphical panel. Scan all charts in 10 seconds. Close your eyes for a few seconds and ask yourself, which parameter is not looking normal. With practice one can bring scan time down to 5 seconds. Also practice looking at parameters in group and see how they are responding to one another. That will indicate whether the cause is on surface or down hole. For example, if ROP has increased suddenly, look at WOB, RPM and torque, if these parameters have not changed it means the formation has changed. This should prompt you to look at flow-out and active pits. Practicing this active monitoring will bring you up to speed in analysing downhole situations.
Problem Solving Skills: Problem solving skills are probably the most sought-after skills in employees at all levels and across the industries. In mudlogging context, where more than two dozen sensors and equal number of cables and several junction boxes are installed, that too in a dynamic environment, occasional problems are bound to happen. Most geologists do not have technical background therefore,they must learn this skill on the job.
Hardware problem solving at very basic level involves logical thinking to isolate the problem. Let’s say the bulb in your room is not lighting up, despite having electricity. You suspect the bulb has probably fused. So you check the bulb and find out it is not fused. Now you may think that either the switch is not working or the cable has shorted. You check the switch and find that the switch is working. So you conclude the cable has shorted and need to be changed. Same logic is more or less applied with sensor, cable and signal conditioning and processing equipment to isolate and replace the faulty part.
Interpersonal Skills. Your friendly attitude and relationship building skills act as a strong booster to your career trajectory. Your willingness to smile, greet and help your teammates on habitual level will make them like you, trust you and help you in challenging situations. Many studies show, strong interpersonal skills are directly related to higher salary increments and promotions.
And one last point: your confidence, it comes from gaining quality experience.
Experience is not doing same thing mindlessly over and over again but it’s about actively learning from every observation, every result, every hiccup. It’s about finding creative solutions, mastering new techniques, and keeping a meticulous diary of lessons learned. Your experience also gets enriched when you go to work for a different client, in a different field and in a different country. Be aware, your
experience is not assessed merely by number of years but how deeply you have learned on the job. Please note again, skills aren’t acquired by reading; they’re honed through practice. Every day, bit by bit, until these become your work style. When your skills become your habits, you’ll witness their true power in propelling your career forward.