Thread regarding ExxonMobil Corp. layoffs

Our industry consultants have been telling us for 30+ years that we will work for 10 to 12 companies over a 30 year career and move all over the country if not the world. The career consultants have consistently said that there is "ZERO" probability of working for the same company in the same location for 30 years.

The consultants are now saying that many will need to change their career two or three times due to automation, AI, the cloud, and the offshoring of jobs to low cost countries such as India. An Indian engineer is 1/8th the cost of an equivalent engineer in Houston or Belgium.

Welcome to a global economy. At least, you will be able to roll over your 401K retirement plan to another company but you will never get to six weeks vacation.

@ft I turned a side-hustle into a seven-figure global business.

Not an OTC paper, but it’s still pretty cool.

@fs These papers you keep referring to were already dismantled on another thread. The TL/DR version is that they’re nowhere near as impactful as you seem to think they are, especially since…wait for it…nobody reads them.

What’s getting old is seeing people who edit documents and gossip for a living screeching and wailing about the indispensability of their world-class engineering skills. Especially when they can’t even pick the correct boundary conditions for a static load analysis on a simply supported beam, or build-out a parameter grouping to non-dimensionalize a physical problem.

I’ll say it again: if you actually did engineering to the level you think you do, your job would not be going to the third-world.

Now go edit those overlay specs 😆

These twelve brutal truths are aligned with the revised version of "What Color Is Your Parachute?" The first edition was issued 50 years ago.

What Color Is Your Parachute? Your Guide to a Lifetime of Meaningful Work and Career Success Paperback – December 27, 2022
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Using the trailblazing advice and enduring guidance of What Color Is Your Parachute? job-hunters and career changers will have the tools to discover—and land—the work, and life, most meaningful to them.

@c6 DEI guy is always adding his 2 cents. Maybe go get an a degreee instead of complaining about women managers. The coded racist talk is worn out dood.

@ck not only OTC papers. I also have patents. So yes I do know how to design things. How many patents do you have bruh?

@ck and when was the last time you published anything?

@ck get over yourself. In what world do engineers only do calculations? Engineers don’t need to piece on hole themselves into only design. We can do other things. Your comments are getting so old.

#13 You guys don’t engineer anything. Come TF down off this soapbox once and for all.

And no, nobody cares about the OTC paper you wrote in 1994.

Agree. The only one on this list that is cringy is “feedback is a gift”. Heard that from one of my former supervisor who is twenty years younger than me and contributed little. A DEI hire from prestigious university who repeat phrases from the WAEM playbook. He likes to remind us of his superiority because he graduated from one of the Ivies.

yes the sls at baytown are the worst. They dont even talk to the underlings. They have a smug look an their faces. They are the most arrogant clueless group I have ever met. The first line employees are also a holes. I just got here from another company where we worked directly for the research groups with technical supervisors. These supervisors at btec are clueless non technical id--ts who only know the forms and exxon bureaucracy. I have been hounded for my time exceptions and training forms from these tools. There is no technical help from supervisors. They are only here to make sure i have completed my pmsm training and check the boxes. I did not even know who the sls was until one of them said "do you know who I am in an arrogant tone " I replied am I supposed to and she said "I am the second line supervisor for some group" In said ok I don't know what that means. She was puzzled and slightly enraged because I did not bow down or fear her. I was told later by my handler who it was and to avoid her. I noticed another female that does not move out of the way in the hallway and expects everyone to move out of her way. She must be one of these slss as well. Apparently there is a site manager who is higher then all of them. I have never seen or heard of this person. The egos at btec are out of control. I do regret this exxon decision and may leave quickly.

Another Brutal Truth: Some who have always followed these 12 truths can still become a target for reducing headcount. But at least you can leave with your integrity intact.

Second line supervisors are insecure. never challenge, they are losers unemployable elsewhere and will make your life he-l — coming from a prior supervisor turned advisor turned IC. all becauseni challenged a non sense money wasting effort that the manager needed to show their bloated ‘managed budget’.

“Leaders make mistakes too. Challenge respectfully when it matters.”

Most XOM supervisors have large egos. Even when done respectfully it will be seen as a challenge.

Let them make their mistakes and let their supervisors correct them.

This is very good advice for most any industry. I'd add that you must learn the political landscape and play/avoid it at your own risk. Keep opinions to yourself and try to control your emotions. The ugly 'truths' you speak or share today will likely come back to bite you down the road.

To the poster - Good advice and well said.