The seven years of my 20s have been a journey of discovery. When I graduated, I was really confuse on what I want to do and couldnt get a clear picture of what the future might hold or even what future do I make for myself. I have made bad choices in my life. I have been extremely emotional at times and reacting foolishly to situation instead of responding it rationally. Sometimes I do feel that I have wasted my 10,000 hours (refer to Gladwell) of potential opportunity to achieve mastery in my craft(whatever that is).
In retrospect, I do feel my failure contribute towards new opportunities that did help me elevate my condition and enhance my perspective to enable me to make better decision in the future. I feel that I slowly become more rational and less emotional. But of course, with these new enlightenment comes bigger and tougher challenge. Kaihan Kripendorf in his book The Art of Advantage which analyze the ancient Chinese 36 Stratagems(which predates Sun Tzu's The Art of War) highlights this eastern philosophy vs western philosophy in whereby life is continuous. There is no sort of like The Ultimate Victory that will lead to a Golden Age. Each victory in battle will bring on another battle. And it will be more challenging than previous.
So now I am starting a new life in Shell MDS Bintulu and my career is experiencing it's third rebirth. I hope I will not screw up this one. So far as-so-goood. The atmosphere is great and working in Bintulu does not bother me much. I usually go back to KL every 2 weeks. I could honestly say life is good. I am fully aware more challenges will come and I hope I am more prepare to meet them.
When I heard that my former colleague(enemy) SMK (refer part 2) resign 24hrs notice and got arrested later for embezzlement trying to substitute catalyst loading-unloading activity with sands(to those in plant operation and maintenance, this would be familiar), I was so over-joyed to the point of unhealthy. It is really bad to be rejoicing of one misfortune even it is of your enemy. But the temptation was so great. Yes there is a God (not that I ever doubt it) and justice have been served. Now I think that audits have begun and management starting to realise how wrong and disillusion they were. But I do feel bad the other 2 accomplices(his junior engineer and lead tech) that was arrested but it is their choice to commit such a crime. This is the "cepu-emas" question; How come a manager always nominate people like SMK so highly and rating 2(excellent) each year when in the end he caused the whole Mechanical Static section to be arrested and subsequently TERMINATED? Is this what you preached about leadership? Is this the product of Triple Plus? Not a Victim? Take Charge?If leadership is about finding better leaders, is your judgement impaired?
I dont mean to be mean (hmmm...?) but this thing has been bottling up in me for so many years. It has make me doubt myself and my capabilities which was wrongly placed. The impact of this incident is like a large bolder have been lifted of my shoulder or the Heavens have been liberated from the shoulder of Atlas. I can finally cut-off my ties to the past and begin anew. What this incident teaches me that I should be improving and enhancing my skills and knowledge and focus to become a better version of myself rather than obsessing on what others especially management perception of me. Also dishonesty will not win forever. I hope management have learned their lesson as I have certainly learned mine.
Since life is continuous so too I will continue learning. Time is precious to be wasted on anger, despair or complacency. I know some people are afraid to make the jump and rather be miserable and complain and whine all the time till their hearts content. If any of you read La Tahzan (Dont be Sad); Orang yang bijak mengubah nasib malang kepada keuntungan akan tetapi orang bodoh akan membuat nasib malang berganda-ganda lagi malang. Or something like that, forgive me I couldnt find the translation. The ability to judge risk and to strike with decisiveness and boldness at the right moment are the two things I realised I need to sharpen. It is also vitally improtant no to be influence by emotion. Most of the time anyway. As Robert Kiyosaki highlights in Rich Dad Poor Dad, "Use your emotion to think not think with your emotion".
I also learned a great deal how others are managing their oil and gas facilities. Oil and gas industry is not like manufacturing industry where efficiency is everything. O&G can afford some discount as long as continuous production is guaranteed. Cost is rarely an issue actually since people are more afraid of the risk of downtime and accident rather than over-spending. That is why I think tools such as Six Sigma or Lean Manufacturing are not widely adopted in the O&G industry. Even reliability engineering practice differs from one company to another and there is no right or wrong way. It all depends on your plant needs and what is the typical problem that your plant is facing. The rule of thumb is the cost of your Preventive Maintenance must not exceed the cost of replacing the whole equipment a new. Also Reliability Engineering cannot compensate for poor design. You would rarely see creativity and innovation in O&G as you can afford to use low tech if your plant is reliable.
To those contemplating in joining the Oil and Gas industry or selecting a course in Uni, I would recommend going into something like Geo physic or Geo Science. Petroleum engineering would good as well. Those in exploration and production are more mobile. And these area have less competition since not enough talent. Others are Process Engineering, or something related to Safety and Environment. The conventional engineering trades(Mechanical, Electrical, Instrumentation) are too crowded and you will be facing fierce competition.
Reliability Engineering is also a good market as there not much of those in O&G industry. It is still a blue ocean. I would urge engineers to get into Reliability Engineering and trust me, it would really offer you extra edge over a more experience guy. Plus i find that it gives me insight on how does a O&G facilities is run so whenever I get to a new plant, I can understand it inner workings in an instant and quickly identify the problems it is facing. We are moving from Operation and Maintenance Era into Asset Management. Thus my goal now is to become an Asset Management Specialist.
In the end, I come to the realization that, now is the time I should be doubling my efforts and increasing my market value. I am now 31 yrs of age with 7 yrs of experience in Oil and Gas industry. I have gain the knowledge what is necessary to be successful at the peak of my career. I now have a more clear picture of where I am in terms of skills and ability, what challenges lies ahead, how to exploit them and what option are available to me. The question remains; will I have the strength and determination to pull it off? As this chapter ends, my journey is far from over....
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