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Mark: Hey, folks let’s learn something new about the oil and gas industry.

All right. We’re at the beautiful Houston, Texas. It’s February it’s like 85 degrees outside which is actually nice for Houston. And we’re sitting here with Brian Hinchcliffe with Career Partners.

How are you doing today, Brian?

Brian: Pretty good. Thanks, Mark.

Mark: Yeah. And so, Brian, you actually have a fascinating story, y’all do a lot of stuff as far as helping companies manage their people and helping people get good placement. But, you and I had a quick conversation today about managing your career, let’s talk a little bit about that.

Brian: Yeah. I think I’ve over the years I’ve worked a lot with people that’s been my career both back in Australia and here. And, what I’ve realized is that there’s a bunch of people that think that, well, the company has got to look after that for me.

And, what I’ve – what – what I’ve always tried to – to teach people is that you know nobody’s going to do that for you, you’ve got to get off and do that. It’s you that’s got to go off and do that MBA at night even though it’s a grind to do it. It’s you that’s going to take the initiative in that – in that respect.

And so, we help people to do that. We’re doing – we’re working mostly in my part of the practice with people executives who had been laid off to help them get back into their – either back into their chosen career path or to make a career change or to do something entrepreneurial. And, but in every case we’re encouraging them to – to get off and do it give them the tools and the resources and the support to do it themselves.

Mark: Yeah. So, if they take ownership and we see this all the time, so you know we’re still in the bottom into this low crude price environment, unfortunately a lot of people had been laid off. The ones that are proactive the ones that go out there and do the right things and go out and network and then reach out for help are the ones that typically come ahead even in this little crude price environment.

Brian: Yeah. I think that’s exactly right. I think there are some to be brutally frank, there are some career areas within oil and gas that are particularly challenging.

Being an exploration geologist, sorry, guys, but if you’re in that field, there’s a lot of you around and the industry has changed and maybe it’s going to be a long time until jobs come back.

But, I’ve seen people do some very creative things. I worked with a lady who recognized she didn’t want to be one of five hundred people applying for that one job as a geologist. She figured out she had really good skills in using the software that she’d used throughout her career, so she then targeted the software companies to become – to represent them because she knew how to use the software.

Mark: Yeah. And, you know, we’ve seen the exact same thing. So, we’ve seen geophysicists and geologists and reservoir engineers who right now there’s not a lot of jobs, but we’ve seen this more wants to go after the companies that provide the tools and then engage with their sales team and then the company hires them because they have that subject matter expertise.

So, it took something that was a negative which was I had all these experience in reservoir engineering and brought it to a place where nobody else had it and it works. But, once again, it’s you taking charge and thinking outside the box.

Brian: Yeah. And I’ve got another client that taking it in a different path. He had a long experience in the oil energy and oil and gas and he realized that when the companies are getting – figured out how to be profitable at about $50 a barrel. And that – but they’ve done that – they’ve got to that point because they have forced layoff 70,000 people or whatever it is in Houston.

They’ve realized – he’s realized that when things improve they’re not going to hire everybody back. What they’re going to do is they’re going to improve processes, they’re going to be smarter about use of technology, and they’re going to  need some people, but the way they’re going to begin to hire those people back is as contractors.

So, he started a contracting company to provide contractors in specific fields like exploration geology, geophysics to fill that gap and he’s got some contracts already with some – some of the companies to help provide supplemental resources.

Mark: Yeah, man, these are great stories, we could go and on.     But, Brian, I want to be really cognizant of your time, if people wanted to learn more about what you do, where should they go?

Brian: Well, come and see us at go to our website, cpitexla.com.

Mark: Yeah. And, folks we’ll stick a link in the show notes, so you don’t have to be writing things down.

Brian: And, when you found us on the web and Career Partners International and we’re global, but we are locally owned. So, we – and we pride ourselves on high touch. We work one-on-one with everybody that we work with.

Mark: Yeah. So, if you’re in the oil and gas industry and you’re either looking for a change in your career or if you’re a company looking to do things like help retain your people because it’s coming, you know, that war for talent is coming back, reach out to Brian. He and his company do some fantastic work in the oil and gas industry.

Brian, I want to thank you so much for your time today.

Brian: Thanks very much, Mark. It’s been a pleasure.

Mark: Yeah. So, folks I hope this helped. We will see you next time.