Case studies: Geoscientist: Cassandra

Cassandra is employed by PGS Reservoir as a geoscientist. She first studied geology at Birmingham University and graduated from Aberdeen University in 2005 with a Masters in Petroleum Geology.

I became interested in science and how the earth formed while studying A levels in geography, chemistry and biology. I wanted to be able to use my degree in my everyday work; analyse data and try to understand what the earth at the time was like to produce the geology we see (or the data that represents it) today. I was unable to find relevant work after graduating without having a more specific Masters degree. I worked for a shallow geophysical exploration company while applying for a few Masters courses and the Petroleum Geology MA course at Aberdeen directed me to a career in the petroleum industry. The BSc Geology gave me a good grounding in all aspects of geology, and on the MSc, I learned all the relevant skills to become a specialist in my area of the industry. The course is taught using real examples and through many oil company visits, which is an invaluable experience.

I phoned a lot of companies during the final few months of my Masters and sent my CV to those that were interested or had positions available. After several interviews, I was offered a job with PGS.

To get a job in this sector, I’d advise you to call as many companies as you can and ask if they’d be interested in seeing your CV. Apply to the graduate schemes. Apply for all jobs that specify five years’ or less experience – they may take on a graduate if they don’t find anyone with more experience. Join thePetroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain (PESGB), and go along to the meetings - this is good fun and you get to meet people who may know of positions that are available - and there’s also free wine!

I started at PGS in a very junior role and spent the first 18 months working on Mega Projects in the North Sea. Although this was monotonous at times, I learned all the relevant industry software and became experienced in all geophysical tasks, before getting involved in prospectivity studies. Since then I’ve worked on external prospectivity studies for oil companies in areas such as offshore Greece and the Philippines, both of which included depth conversion and working up prospects to aid well placement. More recently I’ve been involved in an equity determination for a large field in Algeria operated by several oil companies.

There’s often a lot of data management involved, especially with large projects, to keep the projects well managed and enable them to run smoothly, which can be very time consuming, and you sometimes have to spend long periods working alone with data. But working with a large company also provides a lot of variety and I enjoy having the freedom to interpret the data using the knowledge I gained at university to try to understand how the area developed to form the present petroleum system.