I am the girl in the middle. This was at the injury prevention class where we learned how to carry things in Tulsa, OK

New Jobs

I am in Tulsa right now and it is a direct consequence of taking a ferry ride last May from Pho Quoc Island to my Vietnamese town of Rach Gia. I had spent the previous rainy week alone on the island (alone meaning without Dan or my Vietnamese friends) pondering, no agonizing over whether I should go to Norway and become a data processor or jump on a seismic ship and look for oil. As I stood out on the bow of the ferry that day in May, looking out on the ocean, I knew – the boat.

I have now stepped into the “real world” and am now making more than $80 a month, much to my father’s delight. However, as many of you know I make this jump with trepidation. Trepidation because if two years ago when people learned that I was a geologist, they would remark – “oh so you are going to work for an oil company?” and I would respond with “oh course not” and that was a true fact.

Let me clarify exactly what my job is. My job title is Marine Seismic Acquisitions Engineer, which as the word marine implies, I will be working on seismic ships all over the world. Very simply, I will be looking for oil. That’ right I, Laura Smith will be looking for oil.

Preceding my starting the job I found it difficult to admit to people what I was about to do. I would hang my head and give a response such as “Well like any good environmentalist I am going to go look for oil and kill and deafen fish in the process”.

The thing is though, I am really excited about the job. My job will not be an ordinary job. My schedule is the following: I will spend 6 weeks on the boat. While on the boat I will work 12 hours on, 12 hours off, 12 hours on, 12 hours off, continuously for 6 weeks. Then I will work in the office closest to the boat for 3 weeks. Then 3 weeks off.

On the airplane down to Houston for training I brainstormed the following goals:

1. Gain more practical skills
2. Better understand the oil industry
3. Better understand for-profit companies in general
4. Learn new skills
5. Have fun
6. Enliven the lives of the people around me
7. Leave if I am in overall compromising situation
8. Do my job to the fullest of my capabilities
9. Continually ask questions

Now I am in Tulsa for the Schlumberger Injury Prevention program and defensive driving school. I spent all of last week in Houston learning about the company, getting my new laptop, 2 sets of fire retardant coveralls, and new steel toed boots (that look like cool cowboy boots). The diversity of people at training is shocking – in my class of 48 there are people from 15 countries and we are all going into different segments of Schlumberger. I was honestly expecting a group of 48 boring quiet engineers, instead I have been presented with 48 cool, fun, … engineers.

I’ll wrap this blog up for now – I’m already itching to write another one though about how much I have already learned.

I do need to clear one thing up though - I am not going to Norway for my first tirp, I am going to India. My vessel, the Geco Topaz is currently in Norway, but by the time that I board her in November, she will be in India. Rest assured though, in January I will go to Norway for my technical school.

I do want to end with one question though. Where ever you are or what ever you are doing, do you have clear goals for yourself? What are they? If not, then what are your goals?

I would love to hear from you.