After flirting with a career in the RAF, aeronautical engineer Emma Stephenson instead chose the oil and gas industry.
It’s an excellent career choice, the 26-year-old, who lives in Aberdeen, says – fuelling her love for solving technical problems and travel.
After winning the Young Professional Award at the Offshore Achievement Awards earlier this year, she tells us about her career at Shell.
What is your day job today?
I am shift supervisor process on Anasuria FPSO (floating, production, storage and offloading vessel) in the North Sea, accountable for process safety and personnel safety for all 60 people on board.
Why did you choose your career in the oil and gas industry?
After joining the air cadets in Belfast as a teenager my interest in aircraft began to grow and after a few trial flights in a Tudor aircraft I was intrigued with how it all worked. I had always enjoyed mathematics and physics at school and decided to study aeronautical engineering at university. Pre-university, I won a place with Shell for a Year in Industry before studying at Glasgow University. This fired my interest in the oil and gas industry and it’s become even more interesting now that I’m putting it into practice.
Who or what has influenced you most in your career to date?
I think the most influential would have to be my family for teaching me to be independent and for their support. I remember my mum and dad’s surprise when I told them I would study aeronautical engineering; it was not quite what they were expecting, but they supported me all the way. During my Year in Industry with Shell I had great support from my mentors and that year encouraged me to go back to Shell again.
Where do you see your career going?
I have recently accepted my next role in Shell, which will begin in Holland in early 2013, working in the global solutions team in the rotating equipment engineering department. I have enjoyed the technical roles that I have experienced so far and hope to continue with a technical career path in the future.
What advice would you give to others looking to get into the oil and gas industry?
Engineering is an excellent career choice for any young person – the variety of work that is available and the sense of satisfaction derived from solving a technical problem is hard to find in other careers. I would recommend others to get involved in activities that stretch them and their horizons. For example, outside of work I climbed the peak of the near 14,000ft Grand Teton Mountain in Wyoming US, and professionally, I worked hard to achieve the shift supervisor process position in Shell, and my interest in talking to others as an Engineering Ambassador all help towards making me a well-rounded engineer. It is these attributes that I would encourage others to develop to ensure they bring their best to any employer.
If you weren’t doing the job you are in now, what else would you be doing?
For a period during university, I did consider a career with the RAF and I sometimes wonder what that would of been like. I have also caught the travelling bug and thankfully with working on a shift basis offshore I have had the chance to indulge in that by visiting places like Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Canada to name a few. Perhaps being a Lonely Planet writer would be what I would be doing if I wasn’t an engineer.
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