The Point of View of the Young Petroleum Engineer
Authors: Isaacs Vernon A. 
Published: December 2007

This paper was prepared for the 40th Annual California Regional Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, to be held in San Francisco, Calif., Nov. 6–7, 1969. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal provided agreement to give proper credit is made.

Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.

Many articles have been written on professionalism from the viewpoint of mature engineers professionalism from the viewpoint of mature engineers and management. On the other hand, nothing is readily available from the viewpoint of the young petroleum engineer toward his image of professionalism. This paper will describe professionalism. This paper will describe the many anxieties, frustrations, needs, and rewards in the young engineer's goal toward professionalism. Self-motivation coupled with professionalism. Self-motivation coupled with the proper supervisor's guidance and opportunity will enable him to reach this goal while still a young man.

Introduction

Research on the viewpoint of a young engineer and his outlook toward professionalism is indeed limited; little if any written work from this viewpoint has been done on this topic. While little reference material from this standpoint is available, there isn't one coffee room or washroom wall that could not tell all the old stories down through the years passed on by all of us. We can hear them now:

"I supervise fifteen construction men yet am the lowest paid man on the job."

"Figured out that my hourly wage comes to less than a dollar an hour."

"How can we hope for advancement; Joe Blow is doing the same work and he's been with the company twenty years."

"Can't figure out why we do all this engineering work in these unit engineering committees, as the management will decide what to do over cocktails regardless of our recommendations."

"Professionalism, bah, the only way to get ahead in this company is through political channels." political channels."Vase are some of the many remarks we've all heard and most likely have said at some point in our career. The positive remarks are point in our career. The positive remarks are also heard but offhand, can you recall them? Human nature seems more inclined toward the complaining side of things, and what hurts is that there is some truth in these statements; naturally, the younger man is the most inclined to be influenced by them.