Volunteering is a key part of our Industry.
Volunteering is a substantial part of our industry as it represents the contributions of its members locally and worldwide. I had the opportunity to serve as a Student Chapter President and I would like to mention all the benefits and honors it brings.
Expand your network:
Being part of chapter activities implied that you meet people from industry and it is always rewarding to establish contact with your future colleagues and employers. Additionally, increasing your network not only gives you more opportunities, but also keeps you updated with the most recent information, news and knowledge about the field.
Knowledge sharing:
It is known that it is an extremely important part of industry development. Innovative ideas cannot be generated without having individuals that share their ideas, experience and work together, as we know, our industry requires a continuous innovation to stay profitable and provide intelligent and efficient solutions for the new challenges of tomorrow.
By volunteering you will have the opportunity to interact with others and participate to this interesting dynamic. Your contribution will be allways appreciated.
Keep your standards high:
Volunteer will help you to maintain your professionalism and skills high. By staying connected to your peers you will learn how to perform in specific situations, formulate and organize ideas when interacting with professionals that came from a variety of disciplines or areas and, the most important in my opinion, reinforce your skills and knowledge you have acquired in University or at your specific job.
It is a complement of your formation:
As I have exposed before, the worst thing could happen when volunteering is to improve your own skills at the time you make a significant contribution to others. I do not attribute to volunteering any negative effect on your personal career in this industry, by contrast, I strongly recommend you to take this important role wherever you are or come from, so you can grow as a professional and help others to do so.
Leadership:
Volunteering will help you to develop leadership. As long as you are in charge of activities and tasks that not simply correspond to your own, you become responsible for others and have the challenge to organize them to make a determinate activity to succeed. You learn how to distribute and delegate responsibilities and tasks in order to achieve a goal your team has proposed to fulfill.
In the future it will help you to coordinate with other professionals and perform in a team to reach a common objective, being a key part of it and give them the north to successfully develop all the activities needed to be carry out as well as dealing with the upcoming challenges that will be present.
Finally:
These days are being very hard for most of us and industry in general, but keep in mind that it will not last forever and you have to be ready when opportunities appear again. I cannot give you a better advice other than to stay present when volunteering opportunities are available and read as much as you can. SPE provides a variety of resources you can use and keep working for you, so do not waste time and take advantage of these benefits.
I invite you to join, volunteering is one of the best ways to stand out at the very beginning of your career.
Some SPE Resources available for you:
- e-mentoring
- Webminars
- Journal of Petroleum Technology
- Competency Management Tool
- SPE Connect
- Volunteer Opportunities
- Many others
#Volunteering