Pursuing MBA in Canada as an oil & gas professional is a critical decision to make. Fluctuations in oil price and geopolitical impacts have been significant in the industry. Over time, working in upstream, midstream, or downstream businesses in the oil & gas industry have changed significantly. The decline in oil prices has introduced volatility affecting the oil & gas industry worldwide. For oil & gas companies and their employees, the situation is a reality. Many oil and gas companies are transforming their business and strategizing to adjust to the new normal. It has prompted several professionals to seek either higher education or change job roles and industries.
There is no doubt that the oil & gas industry is one of the fascinating industry. Oil & Gas professionals love to work in this industry. New graduates join this sector from all backgrounds, and the oil & gas Industry offers diverse job roles to everyone. The oil & gas industry is going through a transformation—the transformation from being positioned as the oil & gas Industry to LNG to renewables and power Industry. With any alteration comes change, and managing change is critical for success. It has become essential to take a step back and analyze if a change in the career path is required.
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$0.00 30 minutes
The rationale to pursue an MBA in Canada
For oil & gas professionals, there are several reasons to pursue a career transformation initiative, enabled by an MBA in Canada. For instance, professionals with niche skills such as with the skill of upstream business are especially susceptible to the changing requirements. The oil and gas professional should definitely add technology skills to their skill set. Many job profile is too specific to meet the need of other organizations.
MBA in Canada is also a great option if you are looking to gain international study experience and planning to work in Canada. MBA in Canada gives you that experience and exposure in terms of the profession and personal experience as well, which you might not get in your home country.
Oil & Gas Industry professionals can move to Canada and, in the process, diversify career by pursuing an MBA to either align with the job requirements of the oil & gas industry or transition to other sectors for better job security and life overall. Landing in Canada on a student visa or PR is the first step. Canada is a great country to settle down, and the study route is a great way to move to Canada. You will build a professional network through an MBA, meet great people, and make friends. Ultimately, you will find a good job in Canada and have people around. Many people move to Canada to call it home!
Post-MBA, you can choose to continue working in the oil & gas industry, or broaden horizons to the energy industry, which includes the renewable energy industry and electric power industry. It is possible to transform your career and choose to work for other sectors in a new role.
For an oil & gas professional, below are a few aspects, which will drive your decision to pursue an MBA in Canada
- Current professional experience, incl. international experience
- Your current oil & gas industry job profile (upstream / midstream / downstream)
- Your current job niche and specificity
- You professional aspirations
- Financial obligations (to move and to study in Canada)
- Technical, management & interpersonal skills; transferable skills
- The province within Canada (Alberta, Ontario, Quebec or British Columbia, among others) where you want to move
- The choice of MBA School in Canada and specialization
- Your phase of life and capacity to commit on the effort required
- Family commitment and travel frequency to home country
- Moving with family during studies
- The fondness of winter weather incl. snow of Canada
Increase oil & gas job security by pursuing an MBA in Canada
Although oil & gas companies have always adapted to the changing reality in the past, decreasing oil prices and the unstable geopolitical situation is pushing companies limit. By pursuing an MBA in Canada, you can get better job security in the oil & gas industry by moving into a relatively stable job role and business function. There are specific job roles and business functions within the oil & gas industry that have better job security than other jobs. For instance, strategy roles, new business development roles and roles focussed on organizational transformation. For an oil & gas professional, an MBA in Canada can help you to move into such job roles. In other words, you can be more secure with a job, even with oil price fluctuations. Besides, it will also help you to move into managerial roles within the oil & gas industry faster.
You can reduce oil and gas job security anxiety by pursuing an MBA in Canada. After completing your MBA, you would have learned about several industries and business functions, while acquiring new skills and gaining new knowledge in the process. You will learn about how to apply for jobs and navigate through the job search phase during an MBA, and searching for a job will not scare you anymore. It inherently helps you to gain confidence that you can work on several other topics and functions compared to the traditional work you would have done before the MBA in Canada. If you decide to go back to the oil and gas industry after completing your MBA in Canada, you can utilize your new skills and knowledge to help the oil and gas industry in their transformation journey.
You will learn about networking and building professional relationships during MBA in Canada, and this will help you do navigate within the oil and gas industry in a better way, thus helping you to increase the sense of job security. You can also re-position yourself in such a way that during the turmoil, you become a pivotal candidate to help management go through the journey. You can become a critical resource for executives. During an MBA in Canada, you will meet several peers and be friends with them; this will help you to be on top of job opportunities that exist in the market. With time, you will gain confidence that you can move between companies and work on various business functions. It will allow you to be more versatile in terms of what you can offer to an oil and gas organization. The oil & gas industry is going through a transformation phase and will continue to do so, and you can become a crucial resource who can help companies in their transformation journey.
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$0.00 30 minutes
Accelerate your oil & gas industry career by transitioning to a new role after an MBA in Canada
Oil & Gas Industry professionals can accelerate career by transitioning to management, strategy and transformation roles within the oil & gas industry. An MBA in Canada can open doors to get management and strategy job roles in the oil & gas industry. It may not be as easy and direct to get into these roles. With the right mindset, networking and a great value proposition, you may be able to get into these roles. Careful selection of MBA specialization, the MBA School itself and location in Canada are critical. If your objective is to accelerate career by transitioning to management and strategy roles within the oil & gas industry, MBA specialization can help.
Transitioning to a new role within the oil and gas industry after pursuing an MBA in Canada is a great choice. The oil and gas industry is going through a transformation phase, and you can help business executives to navigate through this transformation journey by bringing the knowledge and skill that you acquired from an MBA in Canada. During an MBA in Canada, you will learn how various companies historically have evolved themselves to align with the market needs. You will also learn how multiple disruptors in the business world has propelled companies to change their primary offerings and transform into new company over time.
You will gain knowledge about strategies and actions that are key during those transformation phases. You will learn about the capabilities development, which is essential for a company to transform in today’s world successfully. Using all this knowledge, you can position yourself within an oil and gas industry such that you become a crucial contributor to the company’s transformation journey. There are several aspects of an organization’s transformation journey, and those are the aspects that you should focus on to go back to the oil and gas industry after completing your MBA in Canada. You can look out for job roles that are strategic and transformational and apply for those correctly. It will not only help you to leverage your new skills and knowledge but also help organizations to meet their goals.
Many of the oil and gas industry companies hire consulting firms to implement the transformation strategy. With an MBA from Canada, you can help the oil and gas company to align with the consulting firm. The oil and gas industry will continue to evolve, and many companies will take drastic steps to re-align their core offerings with the marketplace. The first transition will be from oil to gas dominated portfolios such as LNG. The oil and gas companies can also transform to energy companies, which includes renewable energy. There are other companies within the oil and gas industry, which might change their core offerings and potentially become power companies. It requires a lot of contemplation on the strategy of how these transformations will take place.
During an MBA, you can focus your energy and time to learn about how the oil and gas industry is transforming. If you can realize how you can contribute to the oil and gas transformation journey, then you have a solid case to accelerate your career within the oil and gas industry by transitioning to a new role after an MBA in Canada.
Diversify skillsets and move to a new industry, by persuing MBA in Canada
Transitioning to a new industry after MBA is often one of the primary goals of an oil and gas industry professional. It helps to not only accelerate career but also to get job security, as oil price fluctuations no more threaten the job role. An MBA in Canada gives skills and time to re-position your transferrable skills and align with the job requirement in the new industry, in a new business function. Furthermore, an MBA in Canada for an oil & gas professional gives you the prerequisites to secure a business management job in Canada.
As an oil & gas industry professional, there are several transferable skills that you already have that can be transferred to other business functions and to different industries. An example is analytical and modelling skills. It is critical to analyze your transferrable skills before embarking on the MBA journey in Canada. Based on your transferrable skills and the current business function experience, you can make an informed decision on MBA program specialization. For oil and gas professionals, several specialties can be of interest. Management consulting (among many others) is one of the primary industries where an oil and gas professional can focus on successfully completing an MBA in Canada. Making the transition from an oil and gas industry to management consulting requires a lot of training and targeted effort during an MBA in Canada. It is crucial to identify the business function of your interest, which will help you to position yourself for the management consulting job roles. For example, specializing in finance or operations, or technology or marketing along with strategy can help you to re-position yourself for management consulting.
In an MBA, you can specialize in business and sustainability, entrepreneurial studies, finance, global retail management, health industry management, marketing, operations management and information systems and organizational studies, among others. To transition to a new industry, you need to identify the new sector, your focussed business function, and the job role, which you aspire to take.
An oil & gas industry professional can potentially transition to the Banking industry, manufacturing industry, consumer-based industry, or management consulting. There are many other industries, such as telecom, retail, and mining, among others.
Finance, marketing, operation management, and strategic management are a few business functions where you can align your skills. In terms of job roles, strategy, operations, and transformation, focussed job roles are typical for an oil and gas professional to pursue.
Your educational background and experience with an oil and gas industry (upstream, midstream or downstream) will drive your choice of industry, business function and job roles. During an MBA, you will learn about various business processes and technologies, which integrate with the organization strategy to meet stakeholder requirements. Your MBA specialization and your professional aspirations will drive your value proposition after an MBA in Canada.
It is critical to identify potential areas of interest such that you can start to learn about the same, even before starting your MBA program in Canada. For example, if you are from an engineering background working in an oil and gas industry, and if you want to move into finance/operations or technology function within management consulting, it is prudent for you to start learning about various fields before starting an MBA in Canada.
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$0.00 30 minutes