In every PETROSAINS career awareness camp, there is always a group break-out session. It is the session that I look most forward to. It gives me an opportunity to be close to the teenagers; to view things from their perspective; to remind me of myself when I was young, I used to be like them too. As teenagers, we all have choices. At present, we are where we are because of the choices we made, or avoided making.
"These kids want to listen to your personal experiences , your personal stories. They don't need another lesson on the importance of science, or how technical your work can be. Just tell them stories that inspire them, or perk up their attention, and aspire to take up a career that is challenging and pays well". The words of the career camp coordinator ring through my ears.
The first group that I sat with, was a very quiet group. It consisted of 40 girls and 3 guys. The guys had nothing to say, neither had the girls. It was real ackward. I didn't know how to start the session. In general, humans are conceited. They always like things to be centred around them, not the other way round. So, I began by asking, "So, what do you all want to be when you graduate? An engineer?"
The 43 pupils around me, raised their eyebrows, and rolled their eyes immediately. "Eeew! No! We wouldn't want to be engineers!" the tallest girl who sits nearest to me said.
"Why not?" I asked. curious. What do these children know about being engineers, I wonder.
"Hmm.. I don't know. We have no idea what engineers do. Tell us a little bit more about your job." she answers.
I breathe in deeply as I always do. Calming my nerves. I think about the favourable aspects of my job.
"Well, I am engineer who goes offshore to oil platforms." I explain. "I go to the rig, design the job, issue instructions, supervise the work of the contractors, watch the oil flow and fire burning, write a report. Once it's done, I get a long holiday. For every 2 weeks I spend offshore, I get 1 week off."
"Ooooh!" the students exclaim in unison.
"How'bout the salary? Is it a lot?"
"Oh ... we start with RM 3,500. The more experience we have, the higher our pay will be. For some of the expatriates, it reaches up to an amount of RM 20-30 k."
Their eyes open wider in amazement.
This is a group of Chinese students. I suppose they are more on the quiet side. I think in general, Chinese students take a long time to warm up to strangers. Unlike students from other ethnic groups. We have a tendency to be first wary, then cautious, judging if the person is trustworthy and reliable, whether that person has any valuable information to provide to us, before being friendly with them. I am a Chinese and I am Chinese educated. That is what I observe after years of studying and working with people of different nationalities. It is not a very commendable attitude. I think. It hinders us from opportunities to truly get to know people and get close with them and appreciate them for who they are.
The next group I move to is from a national school. Here, there is a more balanced ratio of students. Half of them are guys, another half are girls. They definitely have a lot of burning questions in their chest.
"So, tell us," begins the guy in front of me. "In your job, what makes your adrenaline flow? Is it fishing on the rig, as the previous speaker told us? or watching dolphins swimming in the waters?"
haha! I almost laughed out loud. After years of working, these magical phenomena certainly seem childish. I finally understand now that we are there to work, and not watch miracles unfold in front of our our eyes.
"Yes." I answered. "That too. But, the most exciting moment in my job is when I perforate the well, bomb it up, and anticipate the moments the to evaluate whether it is oil, water or gas flowing out of the well. To see whether our analysis is correct. If it is oil, I look out for the fire at the flare boom. To see whether it's burning brightly, billowing dark coloured smoke, or with no smoke at all, with a bright blue flame in the centre. The moment when we take samples of the oil, to see whether it's of waxy, sweet or sour crude. To see whether it's just pure oil, or with some water emulsified in it. At that moment, nobody else in this world knows about the presence or the quality of this fluid, except us, the people on the rig. We are the first ones to witness it. We are right in the heart , the centre of the action. We are the eyes and ears for the people of the nation. That's what I love about my job."
As I explain, I reminsced about my times as a reservoir engineer. I love my job.
I move on to aother group. This group look like they have naughty ideas planted in their young, smart active brains all the time. Waiting for the right time to explode.
As I sat on the red, plastic chair that is provided, they look at each other and a mischievous grins break across their young impish cheeks. They nudged each other, elbows touching, pushing. Electing the representative to ask a question. Shy.
I broke the mysterious atmosphere. "If you have any questions, just feel free to ask. Anything, I'll definitely answer. I won't laugh at the question. I promise."
Finally, the boy in the second row plucks up the courage to ask the burning question. "Jean, Is there a toilet in the platform? Or do you just pass motion, and pee right into the sea?"
I swear I could have burst out laughing when I heard the question. My lips curled into a sly smile as I remember one of the stories my offshore mate used to relate to me.
"Yup. They do. On the rig, we have everything! from Astro , gym, 24 hour galley, fishing, bedrooms and toilets. And it's the proper type of toilet that we see here on land, in offices and in schools. The same thing. They even have wireless on the rig, so you can go online the whole day, 24 hours, 7 days per week."
"Nevertheless, do you want to listen to an interesting story?" They all nodded.
"Once, on one of the rigs, the water pump on the rig malfunctioned. As such, the crew had no clean water to bathe, no water to flush the toilets with etc. So, they had to resist the urge to answer the call of nature for 1 whole day. That day, the bad odour of the toilets floated throughout the whole rig."
I didn't need to describe more. By that time, the students had already wrinkled up their noses and muttered 'Eeew! that's disgusting!' under their breaths.
"What's the most interesting aspect of your job?" Asks the next group of kids, whom I presume are pretty entertained by now.
I think long and hard. "The most interesting part of my job, apart from producing oil and deciding how much oil to produce for the year and the rest of the field life, is getting to meet people from all over the world. Just imagine, in the office and on the platforms and rigs, we get to meet people from Sabah, Sarawak, Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, US, Russia, South Africa, Japan etc. There, we get to speak different languages. But mainly, we just speak in English. We learn about the cultures of the world, to get to know people on a personal level, to learn new things and to taste new food. We absorb all the good things from everybody and realize that deep down we're all the same."
"Apart from that, I also get to travel from one place to another, all the time, every month. So far, I've travelled to Kota Kinabalu, Miri, Kerteh, and soon, I'll be travelling overseas. So, you see, it's not all about the job. It's about the people you meet too. Who knows, you might meet someone you love in a country that you never imagine you'll be in!"
As one of the rare species, it is certainly easy to fall for one of the guys who's charismatic and looks like he can block the falling sky when it falls down. I smile to myself. Love comes when you least expect it.
At the end of the break-out session, my throat was dry and hoarse. I had been talking non-stop for an hour. My mind has exhausted itself and was running out of stories to narrate. By that time, I was only too glad to hand over the session to the organizers!
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