CAREER CHOICES FOR ECONOMICS GRADUATE IN AN OIL & GAS COMPANY
Sir, please what other roles can a graduate of economics fill in an oil and gas company apart from that of an accountant?
Tope
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Dear Tope, like I presumed you know, many economics graduates write ICAN or ACCA to become accountants, which may get them job in an oil and gas company amongst other companies. I am an example here – I studied economics but wrote ICAN and got job as an accountant in the industry.
However, you don’t need to divert to accounting before you can use your economics degree to get job in the industry.
These are other departments in a typical oil and gas company that will consider an economics graduate for its position:
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BUSINESS ECONOMICS: Many large oil and gas companies have Business Economist role; the Business Economists are the people who run forecasts to establish the viability and returns of projects, amongst other things. The best student in my class is now Business Economist with Shell. He had no more than first degree in economics at the time of getting the job. He didn’t and still doesn’t have ICAN or ACCA, because he doesn’t need it.
- COMMERCIAL ANALYSIS: Many oil companies have commercial department that also runs the economics and commercial viability of projects. The best student in the set after mine was also in Shell for this role at some point. He didn’t have ICAN. He is not an accountant.
- BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: The roles of Business Economists, Commercial Analysts and Business Development Executives or Business Analysts overlap; in most cases, it is a single unit that does this and they can name the department any of these three. In some companies, especially IOCs, they are distinct units. They all need do business economics and analysis and consider economics graduates in their entry level recruitments.
- PROCUREMENT: Procurement not being a specialist course you study in school, graduates of almost any field, from Law to Sociology to Economics, are considered for this role in many oil companies. I have another classmate in this department in another IOC. She also has no more first degree in economics. (I must mention the three people I have mentioned so far graduated with First Class, but it doesn’t mean you have to First Class to get a job in these department).
- HR: Like procurement, HR is another department where graduates of broad range of courses, including Economics, are considered. The HR Manager of an oil company I know studied economics. Otunba Solomon Oladunni, former HR Executive (later Executive Vice President) at Mobil also studied economics.
These are examples of areas you can be considered for in the oil and gas industry as a graduate of economics.
I wish you all the best.
Jarus
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