hiring the best today for tomorrow’s discoveries

This article originally appeared in the Lamp, 2007 – Number 1

ExxonMobil’s New Hire Development Program for geoscientists weds the best of learning with the best of work.

ExxonMobil is a company primarily devoted to finding and producing oil and gas. But for the highly sought-after new geoscientists who spend their days studying the earth in search of that oil and gas, it’s so much more. As they put it, not only is ExxonMobil a place for them to do rigorous scientific work and research, it’s also one of the very best learning institutes they've ever attended.

Talk to some of the many new geoscientists ExxonMobil hires annually, and they’ll use phrases like “gaining knowledge” and “intense educational experience.”

That’s because ExxonMobil has set up a unique, individualized, highly structured two-year program for new geoscientists, called the New Hire Development Program, which weds the best of learning with the best of work.

“We have spent years developing this program for our new geoscientists,” says Tim Cejka, president of ExxonMobil Exploration Company. “For the first two years in a new geoscientist’s career with the company, we give them experience and training across the company in all areas of geoscience.”

ExxonMobil devotes so much time and so many resources to its new hires, says Cejka, because in order to attract and retain the very best scientists in the world, the company needs to provide them with a significant breadth and depth of experience. “They are eager to be taught and to apply their skills to real-life situations using the best technology,” he says. “And we can give them that. In turn, we hope they love their jobs, and we expect that they will give us their best. This program makes it possible for them to do that.”

Attracting the best
New geoscientists are put to work immediately, with immediate results expected of them. Roughly 20 percent of the first two years will be spent taking ExxonMobil classes and studying rock formations in the field. These classes are part of a curriculum comprising three eight-month assignments coupled with three proprietary flagship courses.

Not only do the new geoscientists rotate through the assignments, but they also rotate throughout the company, with each new assignment providing a mentor and a team. So, part of the first two years might be spent in research, another part in production and a third part in exploration, working on various projects and solving problems unique to each segment of the business.

Michael Seidner, manager of Geoscience Technical Development, says that the company is committed to this cross-disciplinary training because “the broader the set of experiences they have, the more they can draw from in order to solve the challenges they’re facing in any part of ExxonMobil in which they are working.” 

Robert Steed, a geoscientist himself, is the coordinator for the New Hire Development Program.

He and advisor Kim Ferrall, also a geoscientist, put together a specific program for the new geoscientists, designed so their learning corresponds to the projects they’re working on. Steed and Ferrall know every new hire and design an individual development program for each geoscientist. The programs take them through their first two years, after which they enter one of the 13 geoscience discipline-based skill areas.

"We are in contact with every geoscience supervisor in the company and decide what’s going to be the best set of rotational assignments for each new hire. Many of these employees have no experience in the oil industry, and this gives them a chance to find what they love, what’s really going to excite them in their careers,” says Steed.

One of ExxonMobil’s new hires, Richard Barke, began his career as an intern analyzing data from gas fields in Germany. His first two rotations were spent both on- and offshore with fields in the United Kingdom’s North Sea. His third rotation was with ExxonMobil Development Company, in Houston, analyzing data for prospective Nigerian offshore fields.

Barke has a doctorate in geology from Oxford University, and had his choice of career offers and options. He chose ExxonMobil because of the New Hire Development Program.

“It’s a huge draw,” he says. “I could not get the same variety of experiences using cutting-edge technology from another company.”

For him, too, the program is indicative of the character and integrity of the company. “What I mean by that,” Barke says, “is that they want to train you to be the best geoscientist in the world, and they’ll put the time and the effort into you and work with you to make that happen. Here, I get to work with brilliant people who demand the utmost transparency and who welcome the give and take of ideas.”

Global outlook
The current new hires come from 29 countries, speaking different languages and having different experiences and different educational backgrounds. Many of them come from universities that have petroleum-science programs. But ExxonMobil’s recruiting effort doesn’t stop there. The company is looking for the best scientists. Period. To that end, it has an intensive recruiting effort in the best science programs in universities around the globe.

“Diversity,” says Cejka, “is vital to our long-term health as a company. We are at the beginning of a whole process that ultimately produces energy for the world. Without creative new ways to look for new opportunities and without new technologies, the whole conveyer belt stops. If everybody thinks the same way, and nobody generates new ideas, then nobody will drill a new well. If no new wells are drilled, then there are no new discoveries. If there are no discoveries, then there is no production.

“That’s why we need the smartest people,” he says. “We make powerhouse geoscientists out of all kinds of scientists, from all around the world.”

Trudi Hoogenboom, an Australian in her first year in the New Hire Development Program, has a doctorate in planetary physics and did her post-doctorate work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She interviewed with ExxonMobil almost on a whim.

“I didn’t have any idea that an energy company would be interested in a planetary physicist,” she says. “But during my first interview, they presented all the reasons why I should work for them, and they actually got three former NASA scientists who now work for ExxonMobil to sit in on the interview.”

She is currently working on geophysical processing in the Exploration Company. “I had the mathematical skills already, and now I’m learning the geoscience.  I find it absolutely fascinating. They’re giving me the very best training. I never thought I’d be working for an energy company, and now I’m so glad I am.”