The oil and gas sector became a political football during the referendum debate, kicked up and down the park more often than a mitre five at Pittodrie. It still manages to make the headlines every other day as the price of oil begins rising again and the focus switches 180-degrees from divestment back to investment.
What has been the one unchanging element in all of this, however, is the fact oil and gas is an integral part of the Scottish economy and a mainstay of the job market.
When considering its career opportunities, most of us will conjure up visions of hard-hatted engineering specialists, PPE-suited rig workers, divers or earnest electrical maintenance workers.
However, many of the jobs are created behind the scenes in associated specialisms that are, none the less, essential to making the whole operation tick over smoothly.
In this sector, there are a lot of risks involved with on-site work and this means health and safety specialists are a must. So, if this is your area, seek out the opportunities on-site, which require health and safety qualifications combined with the appropriate oil rig tickets, or those job openings on safety vessels – a requirement to meet stringent industry guidelines.
While health and safety at work is important everywhere, this is especially true for oil and gas: first aiders, fireproofers and search and rescue workers are all needed.
Oil and gas workers also need to eat, and not just pies and chips mind. Catering is another industry that has benefited from the sector with chefs always in demand, as well as catering staff to help prepare and serve.
Trying to emulate your favourite Masterchef recipes will be particularly challenging on an oil rig, but add in the enhanced wage packet and holiday entitlements and you can soon work up an appetite for life offshore.
There’s also a need to transport goods and equipment for the sector; if oil and gas is doing well, you can rest assured so are those who service on-shore facilities and rigs. Besides HGV drivers, there are also the supply ship captains and crews, tug boat pilots, crane operators, dockworkers and logistics experts.
If none of these ticks your boxes, there is always software and hardware engineering. This can involve developing software for multi-national IT systems.
Innovative software design can be a gamechanger for oil companies, and they put a big emphasis – and big bucks – into making it happen. Hardware engineers, likewise, are needed to maintain computers and the technology that is essential to the inner workings of the industry.
The oil and gas industry creates jobs. We all know that. But it pays to remember they don’t all involve being a rigger.
Exploring the diverse sectors and specialisms of work within this broad industry could inspire a change in your career, in a direction you never even saw coming.