Career Change Advise from Automotive to Oi & Gas Industry

[ProfEngrPEng]

Dear Friends,

I am in need of some suggestions or Advise. Here is my situation: I am a Canadian Licensed Professional Engineer - P.Eng, with a master degree in Mechanical Engineering specializing in Solid Mechanics. I have over 13 years of Automotive experience in product development of vehicle sub-systems and majority of which is in Stress Analysis - Structural, Dynamics, Thermal & Crashworthiness (FMVSS/CMVSS. Due to to my spouse's job we will be relocating to middle East for few years, where my auto industry experience will be of no use. So the closest field that I could make my self employable in Stress analysis of pipelines in Oil & gas industry. Jobs in Pipe stress require Oil & Gas Industry experience, though I am very well versed in my Analytical Skills and commercial FEA codes such as ABAQUS, LS-DYNA, NASTRAN & ANSYS. Oil and gas Industry use codes such as CAESARII, AUTOPIPE and ASME 31.1 & 31.3. Will it help me to get a job as a pipe stress engineer, If I get trained in these codes? These courses are expensive and offered by ASME & some software vendors and would cost me about 8-10k. I would appreciate your advise and any suggestions that would help me to make myself employable in Oil & Gas Industry and so I could stay with my family.

Thanks,
SD

 

[TPL]

So...you think that spending 8-10k will qualify you for a job in pipe stess engineer? Just like Canada, having a qualification doesn't mean you can do the job, you still need the experience.

They're not exactly crying out for trainees in the Middle East - they have their own people to look after (who would take much greater precedance over you for any trainee positions that were available) and, even if you had the experience, you would still be competing with well qualified competent and experienced engineers from places mostly like India, Pakistan and the Philipines whose remuneration expectations are probably much lower than yours would be as a trainee.

Due to to my spouse's job we will be relocating to middle East for few years - I am guessing you are female (apologies if I am wrong). Attitudes to female engineers vary throughout the Middle East, though it does depend where you go - the oil and gas industry is almost exclusively a male preserve and you would find it difficult to break into it as a female trainee.

In a similar situation we started a family when we lived there - kids got much more time with us than they would have got at home and family life was great.

As you are only going for two years, you might want to see if you can get involved in the field of education, maybe teaching at college or high school level, but again lack of experience and relevant experience might count against you.

 

[ProfEngrPEng]

Firstly, I am a male engineer my wife is moving to middle east and not for 2 year but few years. She is in medical field and I am well aware of women's work issues in Middle East.

Secondly, I am not looking for Trainee positions. I have my base engineering skills that I could put to use to seek positions that are not specific to stress analysis. However, i have seen some synergy between my analysis background and stress analysis used in Oil & Gas Industry.

I understand I may not have pipe stress experience, but I am a good analyst and confident to pick up Pipeline Stress Analysis.

Anyways ..Thanks for your comments.

 

[zdas04]

I get a couple of calls a month from head hunters looking for experienced engineers in various middle eastern countries. They call me looking for non-plant mechanical engineers because of some articles I've written about how different the job is than plant mechanical engineers. I think that if you can come across as experienced you have a pretty good chance of finding work either inside plants or in upstream facilities. But the jobs are really different.

David

 

[JRMacGregor]

I think you have a good chance in converting from another industry into O&G.

Worldwide, there is a shortage of O&G engineers in the ages 35-45 or so. Many young guys have been recruited recently and made rapid "progress".

In the UK some companies have set up special conversion courses to get engineers to cross over from other industries to subsea. 2009 credit crunch set this back but there are signs of recovery now.

If you write up your CV to focus on the analysis methods and packages you used, rather than the object you were analysing this will help.

It is not only subsea/pipelines that you can enter. Topsides structures and jacket platforms need analysed.

If you will be in the Dubai area, two companies that you should check out;
- Petrofac - doing large O&G projects, many of them onshore rather than offshore
- Seatrucks - doing offshore pipelay, trying to build up an engineering expertise to compete with the "big boys"

There are some fab yards which MIGHT need structural engineering support - maybe not so well paid and you would be more exposed to S. Asian competition;
- Dubai Drydocks World
- Lamprell
- GPC

You could also try the class societies (ABS, DnV, Lloyds, BV) who are responsible for certifying structural integrity, although they probbaly do most of their number crunching back at head office.

There is every chance that you are a better engineer than many of the incumbents. They will know some of the O&G "jargon", but that does not necessarily make them better than you.