Senior Research Engineer

A good corporate citizen

I came to work for BP for a number of different reasons. In the near-term, I wanted to apply my background in modelling and simulation to industrial technology development projects. For the longer term, I wanted the range of technical, business and geographical opportunities that I knew a company of BP’s size could offer. It was also important for me to work for an employer that took corporate citizenship seriously, and to live near a large, vibrant city.

Compared to other companies of similar size, I think BP offers a lot of choice and opportunity in developing your skills and building your career. BP is also very supportive of people’s personal choices and encourages its employees to volunteer in the community, take advantage of flex hours and maintain a sustainable work life balance.

Custom-designed apparatus

Amongst my recent projects, I worked with an external service provider to custom design and use high-throughput apparatus to generate validation data for a recently developed kinetic model of a commercial oxidation process.

I also coordinated a week-long early development workshop designed to bring together thirty technologists from all over the company to network and learn about BP’s key technology initiatives in areas including Biofuels and Alternative Energies.

The key is constant expansion

To take advantage of the many opportunities here, you have to be willing to constantly expand your technical skill set, take risks and develop your networks. You also have to acquire non-technical skills that are not necessarily emphasised in academic engineering programs. These include working with people whose backgrounds are complementary rather than similar to your own, prioritizing your commitments, and learning to influence people without line-reporting relationships.