Feasibility Report on Employment - Research Paper Example

?Feasibility Report on Employment 22 January Step Research Purpose This research project is intended to evaluate the possibility of my becoming supervisor or a management executive of the oil and gas company I am presently working for. Step 2 (Mental Inventory): My college degree was in engineering and I have accumulated ten years of the related work experience in my field or industry. What I really want to explore is my chances moving up the corporate ladder and become one of its senior executives in charge of a larger business unit or even the entire company someday. I do not want to be doing technical jobs for the rest of my life which was the reason why I earned a certificate in business management to further improve my skills set and become qualified in other related fields. I am area supervisor of the company for quite some time already and I feel it is time for me to explore new opportunities. My engineering and technical backgrounds make me well qualified to be promoted to higher positions within the firm. The company has an affinity and preference for people like me who have these backgrounds as these are very useful in understanding the nature of the industry. Step 3 (Research Questions): A. What are the job responsibilities of a management executive in the oil and gas industry? B. Are there opportunities for professional growth within this field of expertise? C. How vulnerable is the industry to external global economic factors like recessions? D. What other qualifications are required besides the requisite relevant work experience? E. Will my business management certificate and other trainings I had attended will count? F. How much can I ask during the negotiating process as there is a lack of salary data? G. What are other possible work locations besides off-shore rigs and African jungles? H. What other career opportunities in the energy industry besides oil such as renewables? Step 4 (Finding the Sources): I utilized the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the government for most of my data as this source is authoritative, reliable and contains a lot of other related information. In addition, the article I found in Business Week at the school library's on-line link is an important add-on to my research project since I think the article discussed the common pitfalls and mistakes many engineers commit when they move over to the management side of the business or industry. A list is shown below for these two recommended sources in correct MLA style format: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U. S. Department of Labor. Occupational Outlook Handbook. 2010-11 Edition. Web. 22 Jan. 2011. . Malandro, Loretta. “Discover your Leadership Blind Spots.” Bloomberg-Businessweek Online. 01 Sept. 2009. Web. 21 Jan. 2011. . Step 5 (Answering the Research Questions): A. What are the job responsibilities of a management executive in the oil and gas industry? The responsibilities of management executives are much broader than an engineer's as they now have to deal with a variety of problems. Managers also need to take a broader and longer perspective of the business compared to the narrower scope of the engineer's job. For example, management executives not only need to know management theories but also those in finance, production, marketing, sales, promotions and even public or community relations. B. Are there opportunities for professional growth within this field of expertise? Big multinational companies are in the oil exploration industry and they spend a lot on hiring the best executives they can find and pamper them with generous perks and bonuses. In addition, countries like India and China which are rapidly industrializing their economies are in a mad search for new oil sources like those in Africa, Latin America and Central Europe. C. How vulnerable is the industry to external global economic factors like recessions? Although the oil industry is vulnerable to supply disruptions such as those caused by wars or terrorist attacks, the biggest threat is the so-called peak oil concept in which all known probable oil reserves are now going down and production continue to plummet because all the known oil fields are fast being depleted. Oil is a non-renewable energy resource and it will be several millions of years before these can be replaced or if at all. Peak oil is something that oil industry executives are very reluctant to discuss publicly so as not to alarm or panic people. D. What other qualifications are required besides the requisite relevant work experience? Organizational management and people-handling skills would be required for people who aspire to rise to the top of companies within this particular industry. Management entails taking the wholistic viewpoint and no longer on narrow functional disciplines like marketing, engineering, production, distribution or advertising. The executive must have a good grasp of the entire business from the top down to the smallest details to stay competitive and alert. E. Will my business management certificate and other trainings I had attended will count? Of course, it pays to have much broader skills and it also pays to have those additional qualifications not limited to one's field of expertise to make a person more marketable and in other words, also easier to train and hire. Human resources heads look for people who have an initiative to acquire new knowledge and skills over the years and not just stagnate in a job. F. How much can I ask during the negotiating process as there is a lack of salary data? It would be best to utilize one's network of friends in the industry to get an idea of how much oil industry executives are being paid. During the negotiations in the hiring process, it is better to let the hiring manager explain the details of the compensation package and let them talk about how good their company is when it comes to giving people their just due. However, it is not good to press for a high pay right away, considering my relative inexperience outside of engineering. Besides, I still need to prove myself as a manager and not just as an engineer. G. What are other possible work locations besides off-shore rigs and African jungles? Management engineers need to be close to the actual production operations for them to be on top of the situation whenever and wherever their expertise and advice are needed. In the industry, these two are the usual work locations, that is, they need to be where the oil can be found and be there and not in some high-rise office building unless they are the top executive. However, those involved in marketing and sales can probably expect a lot of foreign travels. H. What other career opportunities in the energy industry besides oil such as renewables? Peak oil has made it urgent for industry executives to find alternative energy sources. The world has not yet weaned itself from its thirst and addiction for oil despite several grave warnings issued by industry and academic experts that oil is now on a downward trend that is not reversible anymore as there are now very few oil fields still unexplored except perhaps in the area of the South China Sea that is claimed by several countries like China, Vietnam and the Philippines which is still subject to an international dispute as to who has drilling rights. A good indicator that the world today has somehow realized the urgency of finding alternative, renewable energy sources is perhaps only China which has embarked to become the number one in global position in wind power generation which it attained only recently. Introduction The purpose of this research project is for me to explore the possibility of going into a management-level supervisory or even executive job in my present company. I already have 10 years of work experience behind me but mostly in the technical and engineering aspects in the gas and oil industry as an area supervisor concerned with workplace safety issues. My job entailed safe and reliable operations of the process plant from the wellhead to a delivery point. I did some research on the feasibility of making a career move from the technical side of this vital industry to the management sphere by following specific criteria discussed in this report. Proposed Action The action I am contemplating or proposing to do will be an upward movement in the corporate ladder. I am exploring various opportunities that will leverage technical expertise to a higher level or rank within the firm I am working with right now and see whether I qualify. In my industry, there is a strong professional career progression with corresponding financial increases in remuneration, perks, benefits and fringe packages (like travel, vacations, medical and health insurance plans, education, etc.) and it is certainly worth exploring this probability. Criteria This report tries to examine and assess the expected changes based on the following criteria as bases: educational attainment, work experience, demand and availability of this job, preponderance and types of employers, the nature of the working environment, location of the jobs available, salary ranges and fringe benefit packages offered to management executives. I am also using other criteria for this research project which is the suitability of all my previous work experience if this is relevant to be used as a springboard to possibly jump to the broader renewable energy industry as the oil industry is facing peak oil constraints (reduced output). Sources For my employment research feasibility study report, I utilized the two recommended sources which are the Web site of the government's Bureau of Labor Standards where I looked specifically at the site's Occupational Outlook Handbook for most of the information used in this paper and the second source is a related on-line article entitled “Discover your Leadership Blind Spots” by Ms. Loretta Malandro, PhD from the digital version of Business Week. Both sources are inter-related and highly relevant to the report I am doing on career prospects. Conclusions I arrived at the following conclusions based from the information I had gathered from the two aforementioned Internet sources. Regarding educational requirements, the oil and gas sector of the energy industry wants to hire people who have the technical expertise and related understanding of solving technical problems such as safety inspections and maintenance of all necessary equipment. My 10 years' worth of relevant work experiences like in personal safety and process improvements can ensure reliable and accident-free operations of a gas plant. An area manager like me has lots of crucial responsibilities assigned like optimization of the daily production through minimization of costs and wastage. Additionally, I am in charge of making quality assurance regarding the sale specs of oil and gas customers are fully complied with. I may fall short of the 15-25 years average experience required for management level positions but this is not a hard-and-fast rule. Other qualifications are given consideration also. What I discovered though is that in the higher echelons of management, relevant business and management experience and educational background is required for promotions. My question is whether my recent certificate in business management will be given due consideration. My prior management-related experience was related only to my immediate subordinates who are members of my work team but I might lack a broader management perspective in this regard. I may require additional management training to avoid inadvertent blind spots (Malandro). Once I successfully cross from the technical side of the firm to the administrative side as a manager, the field is growing at about eight percent annually with approximately 36% of all jobs of this nature are in the manufacturing and extracting industries (like mining and oil). Engineering managers are to plan and coordinate research, design and production activities of which I already have plenty of experience (Bureau). I will determine in coordination with top executives the firm’s technical goals but now with a business perspective. This is also because engineering managers are expected to be involved in the production, financial and marketing activities of the company (Bureau). My prior technical background will be extremely useful also especially regarding environmental and pollution controls such as preventing accidents and the leakage of hazardous materials to the environment. After the career switch, I can be assigned to either a head office job or remain in the field for certain lengths of time, such as in an offshore oil rig or in the dense jungles of Africa. I can survive in either of these working environments as long as the conditions for efficiently carrying out my work responsibilities are there and provided by the firm. Pay scales ranged in a wide margin, from $91,870 to as high as $141,730 but a lot depends on the specialty and the level of work responsibility (Bureau). Salary rates are hard to obtain within my firm as related compensation packages are kept strictly confidential. However, it is the general consensus that those at higher levels received more benefits such as expense accounts, stock option plans and performance-based bonuses from company profits than non-managerial personnel (Bureau). Final Recommendations Based on research, I find myself imminently qualified for any higher managerial level position (next step upwards) but I admit that I need to take up more business-related courses, trainings and seminars to prevent leadership blind spots (Malandro). Moreover, my technical background will be very useful and applicable in the renewable energy industries such as the solar and wind power generation because total oil production is now declining worldwide. Works Cited Bureau of Labor Statistics, U. S. Department of Labor. Occupational Outlook Handbook. 2010-11 Edition. Web. 22 Jan. 2011. . Malandro, Loretta. “Discover your Leadership Blind Spots.” Bloomberg-Businessweek Online. 01 Sept. 2009. Web. 21 Jan. 2011. . Read More