LESSON LEARNED

Lots of things going in my life these days. Mostly work related things. 

I always feel like I'm blessed with my current job as a procurement staff in an oil and gas company. It paid well, for a 23 year-old like me, and I got to learn so many things. 

A little bit about oil industry. There are two types of oil companies, the ones that already in the production stage, or the ones that are still in exploration stage. My company is an exploration company, which shortly means that it still 'looking' for the oil resources. Different from big oil companies such as shell or chevron which already on the production stage, when literally means that they already 'found' the oil. The negative from exploration company, you never really know whether you 're going to find the oil or not. Though you have the best geophysicists there will always be a risk of failure. And when you failed discovering that oil sources, either your company have to find another spot to dig, or simply close the business. But the bright side, the high payment worth the high risk as well. The production oil companies on the other hand, they still pay you good but not as much as exploration companies, since they have a low business risk.  


Back to my story. My company is one of that exploration companies who have failed in discovering oil in Indonesia. So it planned to close down the Jakarta office in the end of 2012. It was a bad news for everyone, including me, who got that news on my third day working there. But as devastated as it is, I realized that actually, I'm pretty blessed with this calamity. How so? Well.. Imagine, I'm the new kid on the block. I'm assigned under the procurement division which I had know idea about at first. But since the business is in it's closing process, I'm pushed to soak in everything like a pro. I cried so many times, I got angry, stressed out and depressed a lot. Thankfully I have my boyfriend beside me the whole time. 


And to my horror since November last year, my company were starting to let people go. So can you believe that now, I only have 20 personnel left in my office. And talking about my division, we used to have 15 people in procurement division. Now? It's only me, contract assistant, 1 procurement specialist and my manager, who will also leave to the Kurdistan office next Thursday. So there will only be me and one other person in procurement, with so many things to do and to settle until we really closed. Now.. I can say that I'm blessed because, the experience that I got so far. Priceless I have to say. I'm only 23 but here I'm juggling with responsibilities of three functions, the contract administrator and procurement administration have left the office so they handed all of their responsibilities to me. Damn! it's totally intense! to have these big roles stacked up on my shoulders. 


And as if it wasn't enough, I also have to take care of the Government Audit. One of the complicated procedures for a company who decided to close down it's business is to have BPMIGAS come to the office and conduct an Asset Audit. Beside that, there are so many other steps that my company have to do to complete the closing or relinquishment process. I have to go to the BPMIGAS back on forth for a meeting with the Gov. Officials. And I wasn't complaining at all. I'm overwhelmed, in a good way. I'm thrilled to be exact.


On top of all, I just can't wait to just absorb everything. I'm exposed to this whole new side of oil industry where I have to deal with Government Officials, learn how to face them with their politics and bureaucracy. I also got to learn and to do, at the same time, the roles and responsibilities outside my initial role as contract assistant. And I don't think I will have this learning opportunity if my company is in it's normal state. I'm looking forward to what's going to happen to me months or years from now. How far I get. Hope I'll go far. I know I will. 

 Gloomy days in my cubicle.