Jump to content
aberdeen-music

What Is Your Job/what Are Your Working Hours?


Little Green

Recommended Posts

  • 1 month later...

The posts are pointless without salaries. Lets see some figures....want to know how deep in the scrap heap I've become.

 

I seem to have been stuck at 25k since 2006, it was ok money then, but then I bought a house. Bad mistake.

 

I read that the average salary in Aberdeen (excluding offshore work, which is like 65k) is something like 37k. Can I ask what these jobs are?

 

I have no qualifications, little experience in anything except the stupid job I do (making sure lines on a screen are squiggly and not straight) Im sure it has something to do with oil and gas, I don't even use oil or gas so the irony of suffering for this industry is beginning to grate (despite the fact my central heating is oil, yup its been a cold winter)

 

I need a  new job but someting that pays at least 10k more, and that lets me just start my work, maybe say a quick hi, crack on, graft hard, get the fuck out when its time, and be done with it. Fuck brown nosing colleagues who step over everyone in the quest for promotions and authority over people better at the job than them, fuck team leads and bosses who earn more than twice as much money as me for just asking me to work harder and faster while making me work slower in the process, and fuck clients/customers/users/whatever you want to call them. I go to my work to make money, end of. (Why isn't everyone the same?!?!)

 

Any ideas for a better job?! I'm ready to burn down my house and live in a sewer....

Edited by threeornothing
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It seems like the Oil and Gas industry is a beast of its own with its own traditions and unwritten rules.

 

I hear the same stories over and over:

start as an unqualified apprentice, work for pittance for a few years to gain some qualification that basically straps you into oil and gas for life

Get offshore, earn a bit more but on a weird rotation schedule that messes up your social life

yearn for something more 9-5, look to work as a contractor, onshore, at a desk

Be envious of the full-timers once onshore in the office

perhaps get taken on full-time and get stuck in an office job where the bosses never leave and you never progress.

Or, do an engineering degree, skip the lakey work and go straight to the office but still be locked into the industry.

 

I could be way off, but that's how it seemed to me growing up. I decided pretty early I didn't want to get into it - which meant a) doing a poxy arts degree then b) living like a pauper for a long time, flitting from job to job whilst my engineering friends from school were buying houses and cars.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It seems like the Oil and Gas industry is a beast of its own with its own traditions and unwritten rules.

 

I hear the same stories over and over:

start as an unqualified apprentice, work for pittance for a few years to gain some qualification that basically straps you into oil and gas for life

Get offshore, earn a bit more but on a weird rotation schedule that messes up your social life

yearn for something more 9-5, look to work as a contractor, onshore, at a desk

Be envious of the full-timers once onshore in the office

perhaps get taken on full-time and get stuck in an office job where the bosses never leave and you never progress.

Or, do an engineering degree, skip the lakey work and go straight to the office but still be locked into the industry.

 

I could be way off, but that's how it seemed to me growing up. I decided pretty early I didn't want to get into it - which meant a) doing a poxy arts degree then b) living like a pauper for a long time, flitting from job to job whilst my engineering friends from school were buying houses and cars.

How do you mean 'locked in', ca_gere?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I read that the average salary in Aberdeen (excluding offshore work, which is like 65k) is something like 37k. Can I ask what these jobs are?

 

They are certainly IT jobs in Aberdeen that pay 35k+ (e.g. .NET developer / MS SQL DBA / other IT technology specialists)

 

You wouldn't start on that though. I think you would need a minimum of 5 - 10 years professional experience in the relevant area of expertise before you could move into roles like these. A degree wouldn't necessarily be a requirement though, although certainly wouldn't harm your chances.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How do you mean 'locked in', ca_gere?

Probably in that if you were to move away from Aberdeen, the money you would get for the same job would be less.

One of my friends does accounts for an company related to the oil industry. If he moved to Edinburgh he would be on about 10 grand less.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Probably in that if you were to move away from Aberdeen, the money you would get for the same job would be less.

One of my friends does accounts for an company related to the oil industry. If he moved to Edinburgh he would be on about 10 grand less.

Yeah, sorry, this.

The money seems good in the oil and gas in Aberdeen, comparatively speaking, meaning there's no reason to do anything else anywhere else.

A question for the oil and gas folks on here. How easy is it to transition from the industry to another industry? Or vice versa. I.e. say you are a IT project manager for... dunno... A bank say. Would oil companies even look at someone like that? Conversely, you are an IT project manager at an oil company, could you move on to work for a bank easily? I'm just curious because I have an image of the industry being very insular and specific (i.e. you gain a lot of skills only applicable for the industry) but I'm maybe way off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A question for the oil and gas folks on here. How easy is it to transition from the industry to another industry? Or vice versa. I.e. say you are a IT project manager for... dunno... A bank say. Would oil companies even look at someone like that? Conversely, you are an IT project manager at an oil company, could you move on to work for a bank easily? I'm just curious because I have an image of the industry being very insular and specific (i.e. you gain a lot of skills only applicable for the industry) but I'm maybe way off.

 

I can only speak for IT and from my own personal experience, but I found it reasonably easy to move away from doing IT in Oil & Gas (which I did for nearly 11 years) to now doing IT in the Public Sector. They are industries out there that aren't a million miles away from Oil & Gas and can offer a good stepping stone to moving into other areas. The first that comes to my mind is working in the Utilities sector and that's what I did for a few years after Oil & Gas and before moving over to the Public Sector. Would I be earning more money if I stayed in Aberdeen and Oil & Gas? Yes, absolutely (probably about 10-20% more), but that's not what motivates me at this moment in time in terms of my career. 

 

I think if you were involved more in the traditional engineering disciplines (e.g. mechanical/electrical) and used to working offshore (which I never did) then I imagine it would be considerably more difficult to move industry. That said, remember Oil & Gas is global. If your desire is just to move away from Aberdeen for example, then you would still find your skills in demand in other locations around the world if a change of scenery is all you are after.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, sorry, this.

The money seems good in the oil and gas in Aberdeen, comparatively speaking, meaning there's no reason to do anything else anywhere else.

A question for the oil and gas folks on here. How easy is it to transition from the industry to another industry? Or vice versa. I.e. say you are a IT project manager for... dunno... A bank say. Would oil companies even look at someone like that? Conversely, you are an IT project manager at an oil company, could you move on to work for a bank easily? I'm just curious because I have an image of the industry being very insular and specific (i.e. you gain a lot of skills only applicable for the industry) but I'm maybe way off.

 

While industry experience obviously counts a bit for IT I would say it's more important what your IT experience is. That PM in a bank will probably have a lot of experience delivering large, enterprise scale projects and many of the technical issues they face doing that will provide experience that will absolutely transfer to oil and gas. The only disadvantage they'd have is lack of business knowledge and that can be picked up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, sorry, this.

The money seems good in the oil and gas in Aberdeen, comparatively speaking, meaning there's no reason to do anything else anywhere else.

A question for the oil and gas folks on here. How easy is it to transition from the industry to another industry? Or vice versa. I.e. say you are a IT project manager for... dunno... A bank say. Would oil companies even look at someone like that? Conversely, you are an IT project manager at an oil company, could you move on to work for a bank easily? I'm just curious because I have an image of the industry being very insular and specific (i.e. you gain a lot of skills only applicable for the industry) but I'm maybe way off.

I thought that's what you were getting at and it is true to an extent. I know people who have got themselves in to a position where they simply cannot afford to stop working offshore as they need to meet mortgage repayments, car loans etc.

I'd say most skills are transferable between different industries, project management, planning, costing, admin, engineering etc. Plus, oil and gas isn't isolated to Aberdeen. There are plenty of opportunities around the world if you are willing to relocate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While industry experience obviously counts a bit for IT I would say it's more important what your IT experience is. That PM in a bank will probably have a lot of experience delivering large, enterprise scale projects and many of the technical issues they face doing that will provide experience that will absolutely transfer to oil and gas. The only disadvantage they'd have is lack of business knowledge and that can be picked up.

 

 

I thought that's what you were getting at and it is true to an extent. I know people who have got themselves in to a position where they simply cannot afford to stop working offshore as they need to meet mortgage repayments, car loans etc.

I'd say most skills are transferable between different industries, project management, planning, costing, admin, engineering etc. Plus, oil and gas isn't isolated to Aberdeen. There are plenty of opportunities around the world if you are willing to relocate.

 

Cheers ladz. Again, it's just the image I have - few people leave, it pays too well to want to and it's hard to get into if you're coming from another industry.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It probably doesn't help the perception that people don't leave the oil industry when it's pretty much the only game in town.  If you want to work in another industry you pretty much have to move away.

 

In terms of enterprise/large organisation level IT the only options in Aberdeenshire are the oil industry, council, NHS or universities. That's pretty much it.  Though there's such a massive range of companies working in oil that you can pretty much get a job doing any kind of IT here at any level from small one man band development companies to large multi-national outsourcers plus all the in-house work for producers and service companies.

 

Then when you work in another sector in Aberdeen you're still working for the oil industry. Much of the university's work will be funded by it or be produced directly for it on a commercial basis.  So yeah, back to my first paragraph. To get out of the industry you'd effectively have to move away.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...