Insight article
Focus Jose’s Experience As An Offshore Trainee At Shearwater
1 Oct 2022
Story from Jose, Observer traineeOffshore - 2022
When I started to study, I always knew that I wanted to become an engineer, but I didn’t know what kind. I was looking for something that had half of the office and a half fieldwork, and I found that in Geophysics.
At the very beginning of my career, I was involved in real Geophysical work but not at my university. I was a researcher assistant at another university (UNAM) doing seismic for geotechnical purposes and they taught me the technical as well as the theory, at the same time I was learning theory at my University. That was a long way of almost 6 years, but in the end, I was grateful for all the hard work. After being an official worker of UNAM, I followed the "seismic path”, and I started a Master’s degree in earth science with a major in seismology. Ok, but why am I telling you this?
Many times, we can see it almost impossible to work in a big company, maybe you think that you are not good enough or maybe you could think that it is hard to hold all those skills and knowledge together to do a good job. But I can tell you that what is the most important is you as a person, how you can manage pressure, how you can share the knowledge you have with all people around you, and how patient you are to listen and learn.
My case was tighter and tighter with what I was talking about, I started to be confident in the things that I know and humble in the things that someone else was teaching me. None of this could be possible without empathy and a sense of humanity and why not: humour. Sometimes things are hard enough, sharing a smile and sometimes telling a good story is something human that we share no matter where we come from.
For me it was a great success to get in to Shearwater. When I applied, I saw this as a big dream because I had not known anybody with a similar experience (someone that had worked offshore before), and everything was just up to me being me and being confident about what I could share. I used to work in Mexico acquiring data, and some time after as a seismic consultant, but this was very different. It was the marine acquisition I really wanted to know about and how to do it. After two interviews I received that email that I always remember with joy, "You made it".
I am still learning a lot; I feel grateful because I learn from people all around the world and now, I have many friends from places that I just listened to and knew on the internet. I still follow the "seismic path" because it is both personally and a professionally the best that could have happened in my life.
Work harder, always be you, always be kind, don’t give up and the opportunity will come.
2022