Petroleum is currently one of the key economic sectors of Vietnam. The natural conditions of the country showed the advantages and potential of this sector in the future when the estimated volume of exploitation of Vietnam placed 4th in oil exploit and 7th in gas exploit among Southeast Asia countries (according to Journal of Finance – TapChiTaiChinh). In the context of its continuous growing development, Vietnam has been conducting many plans to promote the development, spending with high priority of capital and manpower on these sectors. Vietnam is ranked 3rd in the Southeast Asian region and 31st in the world in crude oil and natural gas production.

The petroleum industry has contributed approximately 20-25% of Vietnam’s annual GDP (according to Petro Vietnam – Vietnam Oil and Gas Group). This industry is also one of the few industries with high and steady growth rates, which is always in double digits while other industries are on the verge of decline. The petroleum industry will also increase as Petro Vietnam has decided to plan for investment in exploration and exploitation with a total value of up to hundred thousand billions VND in 2014, which is promising to be a boost of improvement.

HUMAN RESOURCES STRATEGY

Comparing to its high rankings in natural oil reserves, Vietnam’s ranking in exploitation is still limited due to the barrier of profession and technology. Therefore, in the near future, firms in this sector will focus on maximizing performance to improve mining output that match to its current position. The petroleum industry, with the support of the state, has set the development strategy right from its early advantages, especially towards the training of human resources for service quality in the future. Besides, the development of petroleum industry in Vietnam is low and lack of highly qualified manpower. This leads to the search from massive business for high quality manpower. Therefore, the development potential for petroleum engineers can be very high. Even large corporations are willing to pay more costs to train students since their first year with the best policies to attract students interest.

Currently, in Vietnam, the average salary of a petroleum engineer is about 20 million VND/month (equals to 12,000 USD/year). Obviously, working in the petroleum industry is one of the most well-paid job among the subsidiary units of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (According to Petro Vietnam).

HEREDITARY CAREER IN PETROLEUM ENGINEERING: FACT OR FICTION?

According to unofficial information sources from many forums, people say that the industry needs to have intimate relationships in the industry to have a steady position and promotion. This is incorrect. Due to the competitive era among groups for their position in the industry, the industry rejection cannot be dependent on relationships, but to be determined by the qualifications and skills of the employees. Corporations can actually see the core values of sustainable development, and there is no element as inheritance. It can be proved that many Vietnamese students studying abroad have no “acquaintance” in Vietnam yet still working in large corporations at high positions. We are all studying and working in a dynamic, professional environment with advanced applications. Therefore, all the knowledge you gained are very useful for future career. The biggest universities in the world, especially those in Australia, offer very good conditions, such as the University of Adelaide. This indicates that there must be professional competencies and excellent skills to achieve the corresponding positions.

According to sharing from entrepreneurs and engineers working in this sector, students who are “good enough” may be qualified to receive their job offers. “Good enough” is sufficient to meet the requirements and criteria.  Firstly, petroleum engineers must have actual professional competencies and basic English skills to implement their job. In addition, soft skills is also a very important complement. During the learning process, students can be improved, trained to achieve the above criteria if they have sufficient motivation and study in the right method.

WIDE-OPEN OPPORTUNITIES

The development of petroleum industry has been accompanied by related innovative industries. According to the strategic development of petroleum industry by the government in 2015 and the orientation to 2025: “Developing the petroleum industry and become an important economic- technique sector, synchronization, including search, exploration, exploitation, transportation, processing, storing, distribution, service, export and import. Building the Petro Vietnam a strong, diversified multidisciplinary business domestically and internationally.” This means that petroleum industry subsidiary services such as oil and gas supply, processing, storage will grow to be proportionate and graduated engineers can fully do related works as long as they have enough self-confidence in their knowledge and skills. Since then, the career pathway to students of Petroleum Engineering is not only bound in professional works but can also “encroach” into other fields to challenge themselves.

Thus, the petroleum industry in Vietnam is a really “hot” job and is still in the development stage. In Vietnam, the opportunity to work and grow in this industry for every single students is equally the same. The key is in the striving and capacity of the worker which is shown in the learning, training process from the moment we stepped into college/university. The good results will only come to those who really have the motivation, clear goals and reasonable investment for the future of themselves later.

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