Oil firms try to ‘speed up’ recruiting

John Porretto

Associated Press Writer

On your mark! Get set! ... “Have you ever searched for oil under the ocean floor, or helped create products to improve fuels and lubricants? Hurry now, the clock’s ticking.”

Not your typical job interview, but several oil and gas companies are resorting to unusual hiring techniques they hope will succeed where traditional recruiting has failed to fill thousands of vacant engineering positions.

Industry officials and analysts say it’s nearly impossible to quantify the shortage, but the Internet is full of openings at ConocoPhillips, Chevron Corp., Valero Energy Corp. and a host of other companies.

One of them, Foster Wheeler USA, the Houston arm of a global engineering and construction contractor, says job fairs and other traditional practices have proved marginally successful, but it’s time to try something new — namely “speed interviewing.”

The technique is modeled after singles gatherings called “speed dating” that became popular in the past decade. At them, participants rotate among a large number of prospective dates, narrowing the list to a choice few by session’s end.

“Having to grow our work force so rapidly in the past year, we have to think outside the box for new and innovative ways to find people,” said Ed King, Foster Wheeler’s personnel director. “We’ve done job fairs, but everyone does job fairs. It’s time for something different.”

Speed-recruiting in Houston

The turnout far exceeded expectations of several hundred attendees, said Richard Spragg, communications manager for EPCglobal, the recruiting company facilitating the event.

By 8:20 a.m., 40 minutes before the scheduled start at a Houston hotel, the line of blue-suited, resume-carrying job hopefuls snaked around the Briarpark Suite. By 10 a.m., the queue was so long that space ran out in a “holding area” next to the interview room.

But the large crowd did not slow down the speed-interviews. Each candidate checked in at a recruiting table, where EPCglobal staffers, conducted a quick, basic-skills assessment trying to determine the best fit for the individuals and companies. The EPCglobal greeters acted like matchmakers, ushering the applicant to a hiring manager for 10- to 15-minute interviews. The idea is that companies can get face time with many more people than if they stuck to the typical 60- to 90-minute interviews.

So what can a potential employer — and prospective employees — take away from such brief encounters? More than you might think, says Peter Harris, content manager for Monster.ca, the Canadian version of the job-search Web site Monster.com.

One of the most important parts of any interview is the first impression.

“An interview is about fit and click,” said Harris, who heard of the speed concept about a year ago. “A large pool of first impressions gives you more interaction than reviewing 100 resumes.”

Such brief pitches from prospective hires also could help managers identify people who would thrive under deadline or in other tense environments.

“There’s going to be a time when you have to convey your message as a representative of your company in a short period of time,” Harris said. “Speed interviewing allows employees to see how a person will hold up under pressure.”

The quick interview was more than enough time for Prasad Nevrekar, 53, to score a job offer from Foster Wheeler.

Nevrekar, a chemical engineer, arrived from Phoenix a bit skeptical, wondering if it would be just another job fair where his resume would end up in a “black hole.” He was pleasantly surprised.

“This is an actual interview with hiring managers with the authority to hire,” said Nevrekar. “This has not been a waste of time. My wife has already posted a ‘for sale’ sign in front of our house.”

Those who make good impressions will eventually have more traditional interviews with the four companies involved. It’s anyone’s guess how many hires will come from Dec. 2’s event, Spragg said.

“It’s not something we’ve tried elsewhere,” he said.

The shortage of engineers and others has been caused by a convergence of factors, including an upsurge in offshore exploration by cash-rich oil companies and the ongoing reconstruction of the Gulf’s energy infrastructure damaged by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

Baby boomers retiring

“Those boomers are typically your most highly skilled folks,” said Denise McCourt, director of general membership for the American Petroleum Institute, a trade association. “They’re not easy to replace.”

King said Foster Wheeler USA, whose ranks of engineers and designers have grown from roughly 200 to 800 since May 2005, could use another 200 such positions pronto — jobs that could pay six-figure salaries. He hopes to begin filling some spots Dec. 2, though he and others acknowledge they’re not sure what to expect.

Joining Foster Wheeler USA were Turner and Townsend, a global construction and management consulting company; AMEC Paragon, a project management and engineering services company; and SNC-Lavalin, another international engineering and construction outfit. All are looking for engineers, though each has enough differing needs and services to make a quartet of companies feasible, Spragg said.

“There’s a real urgency to bring in skills from any new source, anything they can think of they haven’t done before,” he said.