Case studies : Graduate HSSEIA at Petrofac: Stephen Brown

Stephen Brown is a graduate HSSEIA (health, safety, security, environment and integrity assurance) adviser. Before he joined Petrofac he did a Masters in Chemical Engineering with Environmental Engineering.

Petrofac is a multinational company with a great reputation and provides the opportunity to gain international experience.

I’ve been given lots of support since my arrival on different levels. I have a mentor who is key to my progress within the organisation and I am involved in the Future.net programme which is helping to hone my interpersonal and business skills.

There are a lot of training courses on offer mainly focused on technical skills and business development. I have enjoyed the Future.net programme because it pushes you outside of your comfort zone and helps you to think about what improvements can be made when dealing with people. Recently an opportunity arose for me to cover a more advanced role within my team for a few months. I really appreciated the exposure and the experience I gained.

Since I joined Petrofac I have learned that if you don’t ask, you don’t get. Your progress within Petrofac is as much up to you as it is the company. If you discover a project you would like to be involved in, Petrofac is very accommodating.

There are plenty opportunities to travel and it is one of the main reasons I chose to come and work for Petrofac. I have travelled to a few sites within the UK already. Later this year I will be getting involved with a project in Tunisia which I am very excited about.

I have been involved in a cross company forum where all the advisers from the different contractors we deal with get together and share lessons learned from particular incidents. This is a great way of companies opening up about issues.

Holidays are standard and you can reallocate your public holidays to when you want them. A great perk is the flexi-time where you can take one day extra holiday a month if you work slightly longer hours. For me the location is the best of all the oil-related companies in Aberdeen. I have worked in both Dyce and Altens and the traffic can be close to chaotic in these areas of the city.

I am pretty pleased with how the first six months have gone. I have been involved in a lot of interesting projects which has pushed me to really think outside of the box on occasions. The culture is fantastic and everyone really pulls together to get the best out of each other.