Former oil and gas worker who faced redundancy on his career change

When Marc Cran was face with redundancy for the second time within the oil and gas sector he knew it was time to leave.

With a young daughter to support the 34-year-old from Insch decided it was time for a complete career change.

Facing the chop, he turned to barbering.

For Marc he’s never had any regrets turning his back on the oil and gas industry.

Knew it was time for a change

The dad-of-two said: “It was known industry wide there was a storm coming and things were looking pretty bleak.

“There was mass payoffs at other companies across the city.

“I got in to my head that I didn’t want to go redundancy again.

“I’d seen it at other companies previously and that’s when I decided to do something to be my own boss and self employed.

“I had made my mind up it was time for a change.”

Marc had already been made redundant as a pipe fitter for Kintore-based Pipeline Technique.

But he managed to secure a new job with Halliburton before working offshore for Dyce company Plexus Ocean Systems for two-and-a-half years.

Marc said: “I had worked offshore for a few companies previous before but when my daughter was born I moved in to the workshop for Plexus.

“They were going through a redundancy process and I made my mind up I was going to do something different.

“Obviously we were in the middle of a downturn. Things could’ve picked up and I could’ve been in the same situation in two or three years time.

“But I wasn’t interested in that. It was the uncertainty of it all.

“With big oil companies there’s always a process to go through which drags on for a long time.

“I had a young daughter at the time and I wasn’t interested in hanging about to go through it again.

“I’d seen it happen time and time again and I didn’t want to wait around.”

It was then Marc, dad to nine-year-old Callie and five-year-old Caleb, made the career change and started a six-month barbering course in Glasgow.

He said: “I wanted to be my own boss. I started looking in to various positions which could lead me down that road and I came across barbering.

“The more I thought about it the more I liked it and I saw an opportunity to potentially open my own shop in the village I live in.”

Marc worked at two Aberdeen barbershops before opening Marc Cran Barbering in his hometown village of Insch in January 2019.

He said: “Everything has been great.

“I’ve no regrets at all. I get why people are in oil and gas for the money and time off but for me what I went on to do has been far more fulfilling.

“I’ve been more successful than I would have been in oil and gas.”