CAREERS & JOB SKILLS

Power Engineer Takes Hands-on Approach

Brian Wolfe has always been a hands-on kind of guy, so it's fitting he would end up one day as a power engineer.

The operator at Shell's Jumping Pound Gas Complex near Cochrane often has to walk the rounds on the outside of the plant, inspecting the equipment - and it is literally a "hands-on" job.

"Part of our job is, if you're doing your rounds on the outside, to put your hands on every piece of equipment," says the 38-year-old married father of two children. "If the machine is vibrating, you don't know that unless you put your hand on it, and you want to make sure that if it is vibrating that it's not doing it differently than it did yesterday."

As a trained power engineer, Wolfe is responsible for the day-to-day functioning of the plant. That means monitoring the equipment inside and out. It requires a certain level of mechanical inclination, given his job description involves knowing how the entire complex works.

Yet Wolfe was in a different profession five years ago that required no predilection for mechanics. He worked with people with disabilities in Calgary, a job he found rewarding but also extremely demanding.

"Simply put, I was burned out and looking for a change," he says.

At the time, a friend had completed a diploma in power engineering technology at SAIT Polytechnic and recommended Wolfe should check it out.

He applied, got accepted and graduated in 2008.

Despite graduating amid one of the worst recessions in recent history, he spent no time looking for work.

"Coming out of school, I had five offers," he says.

Fortunately for Wolfe, he had happened to choose one of the most in-demand skilled professions in the province. In fact, power engineers will be among the most sought-after workers as the oilsands continues to grow over the next 20 years and the bulk of power engineers near retirement.

"From what I understand, we'll need more power engineers than we'll be able to produce," he says. "Something like 50 per cent of operating staff Alberta-wide is 50 years and older."

That means there's plenty of room for career development for Wolfe and other recent and future grads from post-secondary programs across Canada.

"You can move up because there's lots of opportunity, especially with everyone retiring," he says.

While Wolfe needed a considerable amount of on-the-job training after being hired, Wolfe says the SAIT program was the launch pad for his career.

"(What) it did was get me certified and give the base knowledge, but when you go to the plant, you have a lot to learn because every plant involves a different process."

The two-year diploma also provided him with career versatility. Power engineers work everywhere. Anywhere there's pressurized machinery, there's a power engineer.

"I could have just as easily been at a meat-packing plant, a dry cleaner or a brewery," he says. "The program is just going to set you up to do the job you want to do."

Wolfe says he is pleased with his career path as a gas plant operator. Despite working 12-hour shifts, he has more work-life balance than he ever did in his previous occupation.

"A lot of people think, 'Shift work -I don't want to do that. I have kids,' says Wolfe. "But on the other hand, I can be off Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and I get to go on field trips with the kids, and I get to do all the stuff that most dads don't get to do."

He generally works four days and gets five off, or works five days and gets four days off.

Half of Wolfe's job description involves working outside, physically inspecting the machinery at the plant.

"You're responsible for the safe operation of the equipment," he says. "Sometimes that involves starting up a boiler safely, and other times it involves putting in a work order to get something fixed."

The other half of the time, he's inside working as a panel operator.

"The guys inside are monitoring the process, making sure the product - methane, butane and propane - that they're making is being produced properly."

The average hourly wage for a power engineer - often referred to as an operator in the oil and gas industry - is about $26 an hour, according to the Alberta government's Learning Information Website's occupational profile on power engineering.

But Wolfe says an operator in the oil and gas industry can easily make upward of $100,000 a year with bonuses.

"It's an awesome career," he says. "Anyone who is thinking of a change and they're mechanically inclined should seriously consider enrolling in the program."

While Wolfe says he never saw himself working in the oil and gas industry, but he now knows for certain it's his future - and he couldn't be more satisfied.

"I really like going to work, he says. "I've always been a little mechanically inclined - not 'take the car apart and put it back together' mechanically inclined, but I like to learn how things work, and this job have been a good fit for me."

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

The perfect match: What makes a good employer?

Kaitlin Madden, CareerBuilder Writer

Job seekers hear a lot about the skills and qualities that employers want from their potential employees. They're looking for someone with a killer work ethic, technological expertise, leadership potential, a sense of humour, great communication skills ... it seems like the list could go on forever.

But what about the qualities that job seekers should look for in potential employers? What should applicants seek in the companies to which they are applying? Though it can sometimes seem like job searching is all about what the employer wants, it's essential for job seekers to know what they're looking for in a company, too.

Below, a few things all job seekers should consider when evaluating potential employers.  

Work environment

On paper, a job may seem great -- good salary, comprehensive benefits, impressive title -- but it's important to think about how working for a certain company or at a certain job will align with your personality and interests. Often, it's your fit with the company and job -- not your salary or title -- that will determine true happiness at work.

Accepting a job offer without considering how you'll fit into a company's work environment can mean misery down the line. For example, "A culture clash might arise between a collaborative working parent trying to achieve that illusive work-life balance in a culture that values hard-driving competition," says Cheryl Heisler, president and founder of Lawternatives, a career coaching service for lawyers exploring career changes.

Co-workers

Like your work environment, your co-workers can play a big part in how happy you will be at a job. "Liking the people with whom you work and sharing at least some of the same values is more than a mere nicety," Heisler says. "It takes a great deal of effort to be a square peg in a round hole; if much of your efforts are going into trying desperately to fit the mould, you will have that much less to give to your work product."

Your co-workers don't have to become your best friends, but naturally fitting in with the people you work with every day will go a long way in ensuring your happiness -- and effectiveness -- at work.

Company values

During the application process, job seekers should try to get a feel for the company's reputation. What does the company value? Have people had positive experiences working with -- and for -- the company? Are there any complaints against the company on Yelp! or the Better Business Bureau? If the company has a reputation for being dishonest or deceitful, job seekers should take this into consideration before proceeding with their application.

Growth potential

While many of us evaluate job offers based on short-term factors (Is the initial salary higher? Will I have a better title?), it's also important to consider the long-term growth potential you'll have with an employer.

To find out if there's potential for a promotion at a company you're interviewing with, Bethany Myers, career consultant and owner of career coaching firm BLM Consulting, suggests bringing up the subject during the interview process, which can be as simple as asking "What growth opportunities exist for this position?" Just be sure not to make your personal growth the focus of the interview, or it may appear as if you're disregarding the position at hand.

Job security

If there's one thing that the recession has taught us, it's about the value of job security.

"There isn't a feeling worse than uncertainty, and especially uncertainty surrounding your job," Myers says. "Knowing that you have a stable position within an organization not only is comforting, but it also is in the employer's best interest because it will eliminate that fear that tends to stifle a worker from being productive. If that looming dark cloud of 'when will my job end' isn't hanging over your head, you can focus on what you have been hired to do versus worrying if you should find a new job."

Leadership

Having a mentor or manager you can look up to will help you adapt to and grow in a role at a new company.

"This is a valuable tool that is often overlooked," Myers points out. "When an employee has a mentor within the organization, it works for everyone. This is the best way to mould new employees and re-energize seasoned ones. It's also a great opportunity for higher-ups to ensure a superstar employee doesn't fall through the cracks. It's a win-win in my book."

So remember, although it may not always seem like it, a job search is a two-way street. Hold potential companies to the same high standards they've set for you, and you'll assure that your next position is a perfect match.

Copyright 2012 CareerBuilder.com

Don't wimp out in the face of salary negotiations

4 ways to let fear ruin your new paycheck

By Selena Dehne, JIST Publishing. Featuring excerpted information from Next-Day Job Interview by Michael Farr and Dick Gaither

Don't underestimate the importance of negotiating in the job search. In their book "Next-Day Job Interview," Michael Farr and Dick Gaither share the following example of how powerful a seemingly small boost to a job offer can be.

An 18-year-old high school graduate negotiates for $21,000 per year instead of accepting the $20,000 per year that was initially offered.

1. That graduate then gets an average 3 percent raise each year.
2. He or she works for 50 years (normal in today's world).
3. The result is that this person ends up with at least $112,000 more during the course of his or her career lifetime than a person who didn't negotiate for that extra $1,000.

That's a pretty substantial difference, wouldn't you say? A mere $1,000 increase to a job offer can prove to be quite rewarding over time. That's why it's so important that you give negotiations a chance, rather than skipping the process because you're too uncomfortable to attach a value to your talents and skills.

As you negotiate, avoid the following mistakes. According to Farr and Gaither, these are some of the most common ways to botch the process.

Mistake #1: Assume that nothing is negotiable.

If you're concerned that an attempt to negotiate you job offer will offend the potential employer or make you look greedy, don't fret. According to Farr and Gaither, "More than 80 percent of employers expect some form of negotiation for pay, benefits, perks, work schedules, work locations and so on. If you don't ask for it, you won't get it."

Mistake #2: Throw in the towel too quickly.

"Just because you're told no, that doesn't mean the negotiation is over," say Farr and Gaither. "Salespeople know that the first no is just the start of the sale. Keep plugging away. Patience and persistence are paths to success."

Mistake #3: Say "yes" too soon.

"Most of the time the first offer isn't the last offer. And the first offer will usually be lower than the last offer. One theme running through every book on salary negotiation is that interviewees need to delay talking about salary expectations. The longer that an interviewer talks to you, the more likely you'll be to negotiate better compensation," explain Farr and Gaither.

Mistake #4: Negotiate just for money.

The employer may not be able to boost your salary or hourly rate, but there are additional ways to sweeten your job offer. According to Farr and Gaither, "If you can't get the money, you should negotiate for things that translate into money or that make your life easier such as extra vacation time; educational reimbursements; flexible schedules; help in buying tools, computers or software; travel allowances; and so on."

Selena Dehne is a career writer for JIST Publishing who shares the latest occupational, career and job search information available with job seekers and career changers.

Copyright 2011 JIST Publishing

Five core steps to a more satisfying career

By Kathy Caprino

As a career coach, I spend a good deal of my time reviewing people’s lives and careers and making sense of the seeming randomness. With clients who long for career change, I always start by asking them to complete my career path self-assessment, an in-depth survey that leads them to deeply examine their early selves, their previous jobs, and a variety of other important information. From this array of data, I uncover core life themes, roadblocks, unique skills and talents, and lost passions. I put this all together to identify more fulfilling and exciting professional directions.

While it’s very helpful to have a great career coach, the reality is that you can do this on your own. I’ve found after years of coaching that there are five core steps everyone can take to identify new career paths that will align more closely with who they are, and bring more success and reward.

Why should you take these steps? Because you have the right to love what you do and do what you love. People like to claim that loving your work is a pipedream – but those who defend that view are wrong. Enjoying your career and feeling there’s deep meaning and purpose in it is not just for a select, fortunate few. It’s for anyone who believes in him/herself and takes the right kind of action.

Below are the top five most effective steps to take to figure yourself out and get on track to a more fulfilling career:

1) Reconnect with the early you

Go back and review your teens and early adult years. Everything you are today was nurtured from seeds planted then.

What did you absolutely love to do, and what came easily and naturally? How did you stand out? What made people remember you and praise you? What skills, talents and activities helped define your identity then? For example, in my young life, I loved to: take the stage to perform and sing (I was an actress and singer in high school), write, read and study new ideas (I was an English major), understand human behaviour (I loved psychology), help others (friends always came to me with their problems), and challenge the status quo (I was a rebel at heart). That’s the foundation of who I am, and in my best career (the one I have now), I utilize each and every one of these skills or traits daily.

2) Move away from what you hate

In every job there are aspects of your work you don’t like. But in careers that are wrong for you, you’re doing a lot of what you hate. Just because you’re good at something (like P&L forecasts, perhaps, or presenting annual budgets to a board, or analyzing meaningless statistics), doesn’t mean you enjoy this work or should be engaged in it. Identify the types of projects, tasks and activities you hate, and then explore new directions that won’t demand doing work that isn’t you.

3) Honour your unique values

You can’t have a fulfilling career if you aren’t able to express your intrinsic values or your standards of integrity openly. Take the time to uncover what you deeply value (check out my book Breakdown Breakthrough, Chapter 11 – Using Real Talents in life and Work – for first steps in identifying your values). Your top values could be intellectual curiosity, helping others, innovating, turning chaos into order, bringing beauty in the world – there is a long list of values for you to explore. Find new career directions or jobs that will allow you to openly express your values and your non-negotiable ways of being. If you can’t honour your values and your preferred style in your current career, it’s only a matter of time before you grow to despise it.

4) Empower your relationship with money

People are paralyzed most in their careers over one thing – money. Thousands of professionals remain in miserable and damaging careers because they think they have to (but they don’t). After people reinvent their careers (myself included), they realize that their slavery to the almighty dollar was their undoing. Critically examine your relationship with money. Are you relying on money, income or your bank account as a self-esteem generator? Do you believe you must earn a certain dollar figure to have a happy life? Are you a slave to your own lifestyle, complete with your big house and garage full of cars and toys? The happiest career professionals I know have totally reconfigured their relationship with money and revised their limiting views, and are all the better for it. Money is no longer the boss.

5) Try it on

Finally, the reality of successful career change is that you can’t discover your best career by sitting at your computer researching jobs online, or simply agonizing about it. You must identify new directions that are potentially right for you and your life, and then “try them on” for size. You can explore and try on a new professional identity in many ways, including: 1) immersing yourself in a new course or class, 2) volunteering, 3) interning, 4) consulting, 5) gaining new credentials, 6) shadowing professionals in the desired field. The list goes on and on. The key thing is to take action to help you personally experience the identity of this new career. Only then will you know if it’s for you.

A great new career won’t just fall in your lap – there is a good deal of inner and outer work required to launch a fulfilling new career. It might take years (as it did in my case). You might be 50 or more by the time you do it, but hey – you’ll be 50 some day anyway, right? Why not arrive at midlife with a fulfilling, successful and purposeful work life? It’s a far more joyful way to go.

www.Forbes.com

How to handle a gap in your job history

By Eileen Dooley

THE QUESTION

I left my last employment in November, 2010, due to health reasons. I am now healthy and ready to start work, but how do I answer when I’m asked why I haven’t been working for such a long time? I left my job on very good terms. I had a great relationship with my supervisor and the boss, but due to a new company policy they are not allowed to give references to former employees. I do have several excellent reference letters from previous jobs.

Friends and colleagues are telling me not to let potential employers know that I was ill, as they may not believe me when I say that I am now better. How would you suggest I answer this question?

THE ANSWER

Most people have gaps in their résumé for various reasons, whether due to travel opportunities or layoffs or simply taking time to find a new job. Health reasons, although personal, are no different and not unusual. How to position the leave, however, is key. I don’t think most employers would see a one-year gap as a problem – five years might be – but any job applicant needs to come prepared to explain an absence from the work force.

It is important to answer the question directly, with little room for employers to probe for more information. Health reasons are personal and that is how you will respond to this question, but spin it positively. Say something such as: “The role I had at my previous employer was extremely rewarding and challenging, but I chose to leave the company to deal with a personal matter. This has since been resolved and I am looking forward to getting back into the work force and making a significant contribution.”

This answer could refer to any situation: personal illness, a spouse or family illness, divorce issues. It really does not matter and is of no business to the potential employer. You are ready, willing and able to return to work and that is the focus of this conversation. This answer should satisfy the hiring managers and they will move on to the next question in the interview.

As to references, if your former managers cannot give a written reference, could they provide a personal, oral reference? If not, you need to explain to a potential employer as to why you do not have a reference from your last employer.

Again, position it on the positive side by offering many other excellent references from other employers you have had.

When it comes to questions about awkward issues or matters that are definitely private, do not seem defensive or secretive. Speak confidently and openly about the positive experience you had while you were at your previous job; touch directly, but candidly, on why you left the position, and then bring it back to the positive aspects again. The interviewer is more likely to remember what you opened with and what you ended with.

The Globe and Mail

Job skills aren’t everything when it comes to the right hire

The following book excerpt is from Hiring For Attitude by Mark Murphy.

If your organization is going to excel, it needs the right people. But virtually every one of the standard approaches to selecting those right people is dead wrong. And here’s why: whenever managers talk about hiring the right people, they usually mean “highly skilled people.” For lots of executives, the war for talent is a war for the most technically competent people. But that’s really the wrong war to be fighting.

Most new hires do not fail on the job due to a lack of skill. My company, Leadership IQ, tracked 20,000 new hires over a three-year period. Within their first 18 months, 46 per cent of them failed (got fired, received poor performance reviews, or were written up). And as bad as that sounds, it’s pretty consistent with other studies over the years and thus not too shocking.

What is shocking, though, is why those people failed. We categorized and distilled the top five reasons why new hires failed and found these results:

1. Coachability (26%): The ability to accept and implement feedback from bosses, colleagues, customers, and others.
2. Emotional Intelligence (23%): The ability to understand and manage one’s own emotions and accurately assess others’ emotions.
3. Motivation (17%): Sufficient drive to achieve one’s full potential and excel in the job.
4. Temperament (15%): Attitude and personality suited to the particular job and work environment.
5. Technical Competence (11%): Functional or technical skills required to do the job.

You’ll notice that a lack of skills or technical competence only accounted for 11 per cent of new-hire failures. When a new hire was wrong for a company it was due to attitude, not a lack of skills.

ATTITUDE IS A BIGGER ISSUE THAN SKILLS

Our study showed that somebody was a bad hire for attitudinal reasons 89 per cent of the time. In some cases, these new hires just weren’t coachable, or they didn’t have sufficient emotional intelligence or motivation, or they just didn’t sync with the organization. But whatever the particulars, having the wrong attitude is what defined the wrong person in the majority of cases.

If you want more proof, do this little exercise. Make a quick list of the characteristics that define the low performers who work for you. These are the people that you regret hiring, the ones who cost you time, energy, and emotional pain—the kind of people who make you happy to hit some morning rush hour traffic because it’s a welcome respite from them. Just jot down the first four, five, or six things that come into your mind when you think about what makes these folks low performers.

I happen to have just conducted this exercise with a client who was happy to have me share his results. Here’s the list of the low performer characteristics this CEO came up with:

Top Characteristics of Low Performers

• Are negative
• Blame others
• Feel entitled
• Don’t take initiative
• Procrastinate
• Resist change
• Create drama for attention

I’ve done this exercise with countless clients, and while the low performer characteristics I hear tend to vary widely, one factor remains consistent: I rarely hear anything skill related. Overwhelmingly, the characteristics that define mis-hires (low performers) are attitudinal. In fact, whenever I’ve probed for more feedback, I’ve generally been told that a good number of those negative, entitled, blaming, change-resistant low performers have really good skills. That, of course, only makes the whole low performer situation even more painful.

The same exercise can be done with your high performers. And again, you’ll likely find that what makes these folks so great is all about their attitudes and not their skills. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that skills don’t matter—they do. But I’m also saying that the biggest challenge in hiring is not determining skill but rather determining whether or not someone has the right attitude to be a good fit in your organization. Besides, figuring out if someone has the right skills, or enough raw IQ points, is actually pretty easy. Virtually every profession has some kind of a test to assess skill. If you want to be a board certified neurosurgeon, you have to pass a test. If you want to be a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (considered perhaps the toughest networking certification), you have to pass a written and a lab test. If you want to be a nurse, pharmacist, engineer, nuclear physicist, car mechanic, or whatever, there’s a test to assess if you have the skills and horsepower to do so.

So when you see your colleagues get fixated on hiring people who can “do the job” and who have the “right skills” and enough “talent,” you’ll want to explain to them that attitude, not skill, is the top predictor of a new hire’s success or failure. Because even the best skills don’t really matter if an employee isn’t open to improving or consistently alienates co-workers, lacks drive, or simply lacks the right personality to succeed in that culture. Skills still count, but the data overwhelmingly tell us that attitude is the hiring issue that should demand the most focus.

Reprinted from The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The Globe & Mail

Staffing Up Increasingly A Challenge: Surveys

By Lynda Harrison

The top workforce challenge reported by Canada's petroleum industry is the attraction and retention of workers in hard-to-recruit locations, agreed 63 per cent of respondents in a recent survey.

This is followed by labour and skills shortages, with 57 per cent of respondents saying it's the top challenge.

Managing employee turnover/retention, benefits and compensation expectations, and productivity and employee engagement are some of the other challenges being faced by the industry, according to the Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada and Deloitte.

The two agencies collaborated on a recently released report entitled HR Trends and Insights: A Look at Current and Short-Term Workforce Trends within the Canadian Petroleum Industry (for Q3/Q4 2011). The report contains information and insights gathered in a survey of 40 petroleum companies representing more than 32,000 workers in the upstream and midstream sectors.

In the first half of 2011 the top-reported workforce challenge was labour shortages, said Cheryl Knight, executive director and CEO of the council. "As we approached the last quarter of 2011 it's more [about] attracting and retaining workers to remote areas. With increased growth in shale gas and oilsands the critical mass of recruiting is shifting to more remote or what we call hard-to-recruit regions," she told the DOB.

Compensation and benefits are rising as a result of greater competition, said Knight. It's already a fairly expensive for the oil and gas industry to operate in Canada due to weather, regulatory, environmental controls, and equipment and supply costs, and it is now confronting higher employment costs, said Knight. "We're starting to see the cost environment be driven up again."

The current labour market environment remains extremely competitive, she said, adding this is especially pronounced in the in situ oilsands and petroleum services sectors.

The majority, 84 per cent, of survey respondents are currently recruiting -- and 89 per cent of them report they are staffing up "considerably," especially at field locations, according to the report.

In particular, there is high demand for engineers, technicians, technologists, trades, operators, supervisors, specialists, and business and operations support personnel in the petroleum services, exploration and production, and oilsands in-situ sectors.

While all levels of experience are required, companies consistently noted increased demand for workers with intermediate- to senior-level experience.

Small- (less than 100 employees) and medium-sized (101 to 500 employees) companies reported growing concerns related to benefits and compensation, which reflect typical challenges associated with competition against larger organizations.

Meanwhile, managing employee turnover/retention was the top challenge reported by large companies (greater than 500 employees). Reliance on compensation and benefits as an attraction and retention tool may not be sustainable in an environment with labour market imbalances, the report found.

The operating environment of the petroleum industry is increasingly complex as companies must balance managing for current and expected growth amidst growing economic uncertainty, volatile commodity prices and strengthening environmental and regulatory pressures, says a press release issued by the Petroleum HR Council and Deloitte.

According to the report, some of the main growth and uncertainty factors influencing the industry are:

• the current and expected future growth of Alberta's oilsands;
• the emergence of shale oil and gas developments in North America;
• favourable economics to extract and transport liquids-rich gas;
• proposed infrastructure investments to open up Canada's oil and gas resource plays to international markets;
• economic uncertainty and commodity prices;
• increasing environmental and regulatory pressures;
• technological advancements; and,
• the importance of public perceptions and engagement.

Survey respondents indicated their recruitment efforts are dedicated to supporting organizational growth and replacing employees lost through attrition.

Companies noted use of internal redeployment/transfers and increased use of contract employees to help with attracting and retaining workers in hard-to-recruit locations.

Some companies are concentrating on productivity enhancements, improving worker mobility and diversifying their workforce. However, on an industry-wide basis, the use of such strategies was relatively low.

"On-site workers are reported to be aggressively targeted for recruitment by other companies and will follow the highest pay, the most work, or the offers of career advancement," said Mark Salkeld, president and CEO of the Petroleum Services Association of Canada. "This approach may be difficult to sustain in the long-run as companies are now reporting higher levels of attrition and turnovers along with escalating benefits and compensation costs."

In response to these challenges, some companies are adopting more viable solutions, the report found. The majority of respondents are providing more training to help employees move into leadership roles, as well as to respond to increased market activity and growth, deployment of new technologies and methods, and evolving environmental and regulatory requirements.

Close to a quarter of companies surveyed are actively focusing on strategies to improve the mobility of their people. These include internal transfers from areas of low activity to in-demand locations and efforts to improve mobility policies and logistics.

Meanwhile, 47 per cent of Canada's leading oil and gas companies surveyed in another recent report, by Ernst & Young, entitled Human resources in Canada's oil and gas sector: A snapshot of challenges and directions, cite labour availability as the most important issue facing their business.

That survey's respondents agreed that strategic recruitment and attracting talent, capability development and managing change are amongst their most important human resource challenges.

Labour availability, market access and cost control issues are weighing heavily on the minds of Canada's oil and gas executives, while HR professionals struggle to find the skilled workers that will become tomorrow's leaders, says Ernst & Young.

Lance Mortlock, senior manager in Ernst & Young's oil and gas practice, says "a perfect demographic storm" is already brewing in Canada's oil and gas sector as companies face climbing labour costs and the onset of severe worker shortages. "With the Alberta government predicting a shortage of at least 77,000 workers within the next decade, companies can't afford to be idle when it comes to attracting and retaining talent," said Mortlock.

Despite increasing concerns about skills and labour shortages, employee turnover and chronically in-demand occupations, the oil and gas sector's recruitment strategies remain outdated, he said.

"Alberta's oil and gas companies need to start looking at new ways of operating, including becoming much more creative with their hiring plans and considering attracting and sourcing talent from other countries around the world. Beyond that they must ensure their companies have strong knowledge transfer, training and integration programs in place to bring new employees up to speed on processes as quickly as possible."

According to Mortlock, many companies have already begun building targeted development programs using social networking tools, employing search firms and offering attractive signing bonuses to lure and retain skilled workers. But competing on salaries alone won't be enough to entice talent.

He said companies need to think "outside the box" and start considering offshore and co-sourcing arrangements, collaborating with other companies and universities, developing more efficient processes and building long-term multi-year workforce plans. "By sharing skills, talent and costs through project sequencing, joint ventures and partnerships companies can maximize available resources, respond to talent issues collectively and generate a common labour pool."

Oil & Gas Inquirer

The worst career blunder you can make

By Frances Bridges

Throughout my years of working, I’ve made a large number of mistakes in my professional life and career planning – 52 critical mistakes, in fact. Even as I reinvented myself several times (from unhappy corporate vice-president, to marriage and family therapist, to fulfilled career coach and executive trainer), I took serious missteps, including waiting too long to move away from a direction that wasn’t working, or partnering with the wrong folks who, in the end, made me miserable.

Of all the career mistakes I’ve made, and of those critical career errors I’ve observed in hundreds of professionals over the past eight years, there’s one blunder that stands out as the most damaging and demoralizing.

What is the worst career mistake you can make? Keeping your head buried in the sand, refusing to look up and see what’s barreling down the pike towards you, and sticking fast and furiously to the status quo. It can be summarized by these fateful words: “I’m staying just where I am; I don’t need to make any changes.”

The reality today is that you must always be looking up and looking in – open to what’s happening around you and within you. If you block out this vital information and refuse to process it and adapt appropriately to it, you’ll be blindsided, either by changes in your professional environment, or by shifts inside you that bring with them powerfully unsettling outcomes. Getting blindsided really hurts and is hard to recover from.

What can you do to avoid this huge career blunder? Take these five steps to ensure you’ll see clearly what’s happening around you and within you, and use the information you receive to manage and grow your career:

 1) Remember, nothing outside yourself is “secure”

So many professionals have the mistaken notion that because they’re doing well, their job is secure. Nothing could be further from the truth. How you’re faring in your job is NOT a predictor of the security of your role or position or you in it. A myriad of other important factors come into play, including: the stability of your industry, your employer’s financial well-being, the ever-shifting power and labor dynamics at your company, your relationships with your peers, colleagues and managers, and structural or organizational demands/changes that are beyond your control. Nothing is secure– least of all a job – except what you hold and possess inside of you.

2) Grow and stretch your skills and abilities, or you’ll fall behind

Another mistake people make is to hunker down hard and stick with only what they know to do. It’s a recipe for disaster to stay too focused on your existing skill set, refusing to stretch your chops and embrace new talents, abilities, and focus areas. The key is to continually expand your professional toolbox, not just stay put. The business world is changing at the speed of light, and we need to keep ourselves current, adaptable and open to these changes to be of continuing value.

3) Identify exactly what your employer wants from you

Employed individuals today often think about what they want from the job, and about what the employer owes them. They neglect, however, to see that it’s a two-way street: The relationship has to be mutually beneficially and positive, or it won’t last. You need to identify specifically and concretely what your employer and manager want from you – behaviorally, performance-wise, and in terms of your relationships with others, your leadership potential and your long-term contribution. If you’re not willing to or capable of giving them what they want, there will be changes made, and most likely you won’t like them.

4) Keep your professional relationships positive and nurturing

Here’s an important tip – if you don’t get along with people, your job and career are in danger, no matter how well you “perform.” Your potential success and value as a professional are directly correlated with how well you engage, inspire, and connect with others. If you hate the folks you work with, they’ll end up hating you back, and mutual disdain is not a condition that will keep you in good stead at work. If your professional relationships are suffering, move to remedy them today.

5) If you’re unhappy, make a change

Finally, if you’re unhappy at work, you must make a change now. I’m not suggesting that you jump ship without another job, especially in these times. I mean that you need to get to the bottom of what isn’t working – deeply and specifically –and address the situation without delay. Most people are hanging onto their jobs in this economy for fear of not being able to find another. If this describes you, my best advice is to keep your job for the time being, but try to make it the best you can, and make yourself the best you can be in the process.

Address your challenges, fears, insecurities, and problems before you get a new job or launch a new career. Otherwise, the problems will follow you in the next chapter of life and work. Do what you must to stay afloat, while planting seeds for your future career visions. Don’t wait. Interview, network, reach out to former colleagues, learn new skills, get great recommendations on LinkedIn – understand your worth in the marketplace, and become an active participant in your career management. Don’t just sit and wait for a headhunter to call you. In the end, hanging on to a job you dislike or that you’re not good at will end badly for you.

If you need help to figure out what’s not working, get some outside help. Get over your resistance to investing time and energy (and money) in your own growth, and open your eyes to what’s around you.

© 2012 The Globe and Mail Inc.