Spent my entire professional life sniffing hydrocarbons in design, operations, construction and management.
I still have my bamboo slide rule in case TSHTF and all the lights go out and our present day engineers lose the use of their computers, electronic calculators and canned software programs.
Loved to hear the whine of compressors/turbines but hated the wearing of fire-proof coveralls, ear protection, safety shoes and hard hats, especially when daytime temperatures approached 100F.
Recruiting? I understand that you don’t even get to talk to a recruiter these days but have to fill out electronic data sheets and submit it to some faceless individual.
Wish I still had my bamboo slide rule. I do still have my big aluminum one, around here somewhere:)
Still have my slide rule in the truck to figure my fuel mileage. Just C and D scale stuff you know. My Dad taught slide rule.
I was on a rig the other day and asked a young engineer to give me the pipe tally in stands, singles and feet to put a tool on depth... deer in the headlights. Don’t even bother to ask about stretch. I gave up coaching on writing the procedure. It was such a mess I rewrote it.
The kids were amazed that you can get trig and log functions from a slide rule and they had no idea what a nomograph is. They can sure punch them buttons and text though! Those thumbs just fly!
I’ve consulted for years and probably can’t hold a real job anymore. Sarbanes-Oxley (sp?) turned hiring on its ear. HR became an empire and took the authority from the line managers.
I wouldn’t even bother looking for being an employee anymore of course. There are only about three people who can ruin your life in just a part of a day an employer, your wife and your kids. Everybody accounts to someone but if you work for yourself instead of being an employee you don’t usually take a bullet from your blind side for no good reason at all. I work because I still love the oilfield and solving problems. I try to teach some but it is often not very gratifying. Four times out of Five I say I’ll never do it again but I’m stupid and keep hoping for better and coming back for more.
Diesel and coffee is what the oilfield ran on for a long time. Both are still there but it isn’t like it once was either. Half the people are in some kind of regulatory compliance role and other than the regulations, additional people and paper nothing has improved much in terms of the environment because it was not that bad to start with where I worked and the companies I worked for.