Technical vs. Managerial Careers

Cover and Contents

What’s Ahead—editor’s column

TWA Editor Luis Ayala weighs the pros and cons of technical and managerial career paths.

TWA Interview

Helge Lund, Chief Executive Officer of StatoilHydro, talks about his career path, leadership skills, and the current state of the oil market.

Forum

Experienced professionals evaluate technical vs. managerial careers.

Pillars of the Industry

Ali Ghalambor, head of the Department of Petroleum Engineering at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, looks at petroleum engineering as a career—one he considers at times to be more sophisticated than rocket science—and offers some insight into the profession.

A profile of Simon Ayat, chief financial officer and executive vice president of Schlumberger.

A YP Guide to Aberdeen

In this new series, young professionals describe what it is like to work in some of the oil and gas industry’s key locales around the globe.

Technical Leaders

A conversation with Christine Ehlig-Economides, professor of petroleum engineering at Texas A&M University.

Tech 101 Series

In this new series, TWA examines some of the most significant upstream technologies being employed today. This first installment focuses on well tractors.

Academia.edu@TWA

Decision analysis is not a cookbook or series of boxes that must be checked before a project is approved, argue professors Reidar Bratvold and Steve Begg, who share some pointers on how to map out the likely consequences of decisions, assess the importance of individual factors, and choose the best course of action.

Soft Skills

Finding common ground in technical and managerial careers.

Women on the Frontline

Another new series debuting this issue looks at young women in the oil industry—where are they working, what are they doing, what are their challenges?

YP Newsflash

Coverage of a YP workshop at SPE’s Russian Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition, and how two YP's are raising awareness of cystic fibrosis.

SPE Connection

The benefits of petroleum professional certification.

Editors Page

The Editorial Board of TWA

Your Best Shot

TWA readers submit their best photos from job sites around the world.