The Oil Drum: Europe

Well I had a nice little rant written about "Tipping Points"  and public opinion, and then I read two things.  The first was a response from one of our industrial friends, about my post on who is getting hired at the oil companies, and the other was Chairman Greenspan's remarks in Tokyo.  I think the juxtaposition of comments is in itself revealing, and I will discuss bits of both.

You may remember that I was concerned, the other day, about how the industry is hiring management rather than technical assistance.  Our insider comments that in an office where the  median age is now around  55 for the majority of drilling engineers and production engineers, there are now a significant number of contract engineers (also in the same age bracket).  Only about 10% of the engineering staff can be defined as young. And the reason?

Ten. That's all we could find on the market. We are getting a few from other countries, but many don't want to leave their homes and come here due to the political climate. And their home countries are offering them really good packages to stay, matching or exceeding what we can offer. America is not regarded as friendly across the world any longer.

(Note, although I have posted this as a quote, I am editing slightly). In this regard let me just say that a friend of mine just visited a lab in China and called to tell me it was now, in this little field that I also play in, the leading lab, equipment-wise, in the world. At some future time I will see if that is really true. As it is my students have had no problem in succeeding once they went back, and most now find it increasingly difficult to stay over here.