A career in the oil industry

Adam Vonk talks about why he studied geology and why he is interested in a career in the oil industry.

When Adam Vonk first came to university, he was not sure what he wanted to study, so he decided to take a paper in earth sciences and developed an interest in geology. Adam realised that as oil becomes scarcer, someone who is specialised in finding new oil reserves will be in high demand.

Transcript

ADAM VONK

When I first came to university, I didn't actually know what I wanted to get into, so I did four different courses. I did physics, I did maths, I did computer science, and I did earth sciences. I enjoyed earth sciences the most because, instead of being stuck behind a computer all day in an office, geology allows you to get out in the field, breathe the fresh air, examine rocks – you’re following your own inquisitive nature in finding out, okay, how did the earth develop and how did these rocks form? It’s like answering a lot of these basic questions that people have when they look at the landscape.

And then I thought about, you know, future career prospects in terms of… in terms of, you know, the oil industry’s obviously quite a well-paying industry, and there is a huge shortage of geologists and the oil price will only go up over the next sort of 10, 20 years as the resource becomes more scarce. So the demand for actually skilled people to find oil and gas will only increase as well, so you are most likely to get quite a good job. And also, there’s always that excitement that, okay, there may be some sort of hydrocarbons down there, and wouldn't it be great to, you know, have a role in finding some of them?