Dear Shell employees, please l will like to get some advice from current and former Shell employees. Shell has been my dream company to work for and l am thinking of pursuing a career with Shell. Please any advice whether it’s a good choice based on the constant layoffs l have been hearing from this site?
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I have been employed for 25 years and am 57 years old in Nov (anniversary coming Jan 2027). 20 years in manufacturing at a plant in S. Louisianan that was put on the chopping block in 2021. Nearly severed but landed a spot in Upstream. 20 years in a fantastic refinery with amazing co-workers and minimal business-related churn, turned into 5 years with Deepwater and constant re-orgs. Coincidentally, I have been approached to accept another severance so my role can be morphed into another (one that I will no longer qualify for) that will be staffed by a contract employee. At this point, the last 5 years of seeing every line of business be downsized and continuing to be divested, I've determined that 25 years is enough. I would not advise another professional to look to Shell for a "career" at this point. I was blessed to have been hired when the defined benefit pensions (80 point) were still offered, as well as company partially supplemented medical premiums for life after retirement. With 1.5 yrs of salary as severance plus carryover vacation and prorated bonuses, I can make do with the pension until 59.5 yrs and start pulling 401k dividends without penalty. I feel lucky and blessed, and wish you luck in whatever you decide, but Shell may not be the best long term option a young early career seeking person could choose.
If it can be outsourced to Bangalore, then it can be done with AI. And AI is cheaper than employees.
And the optimal AI user controlling all of this should sit with the assets and businesses, which are not in India. This is because time delayed communications make the work slower and therefore less efficient. It also makes subject matter expertise harder and perhaps impossible to acquire.
There will be a small number of people with deep technical expertise on-site who displace many Indians. At that time, we must all remember when Indians said that outsourcing is good and morally right for the company because it reduces costs. If they truly belive that, then they should have no complaints.
The Indian consulting companies and their entire economy and stock market have already been measurably negatively rocked by AI and this will only continue and accelerate. This is readily searchable information. TCS, Infosys, HCL, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra are down more than 46% from their August 2024 peak. The data doesn’t lie.
Shell is growing quite well in Bangalore, especially in technology, digital, engineering and data-related roles. India is becoming an important hub for Shell, so there can be good long-term career opportunities here.
https://www.shell.in/about-us/what-we-do/capability-centres.html
probably, but not careers within one industry.
oil and gas is an awful industry to plan for a career in, no matter how companies you may hop between.
Careers within 1 company are long gone.
I think it’s a huge mistake to work in oil and gas. There is no long term career to be had here. Oil and gas knowledge is not valued outside of the industry, and the industry is shrinking lay and sending all work to India. Not Shell only, the entire industry. So there is no escape.
Smart people are leaving to work in technology. Something you will hear a lot is horror stories about people getting laid off and then never finding another job that pays as well, and eventually taking a pay cut.
These are people who have not kept their technical skills current. They will deny this, but it’s true. Coasting will be punished if you don’t at least invest in modern skills. I do not believe in the idea of “stable tech jobs”. It is common to keep the same job title but have a totally different effective job description in technology because things move quickly in technology. Don’t get left behind.
As along as your skills are current, you will not have a problem finding Shells pay at lots of other places. The naysayers and horror stories are just wrong. They have no idea how to market tech skills in a resume and instead put d-mb stuff like random project contextless names that don’t communicate any value. I have seen it. Do not listen to our abundant supply of fired coasting old fogies.
That being said, I would not start here either. The CEO himself has clearly communicated through actions and words that this is a new Shell where we don’t innovate or invest. Is this the kind of place to plan a career? No. Layoffs across the comment every 18 months. Selling assets and campuses. The shell future is to be a teeny dinky loser company bought by exxon for cheap. Mark my words. 15 years maximum. Exxon has already begun buying pieces of us. That’s what happens when you decarbonize a company that sells carbon compounds.
Work for Shell, invest in Venture Global.
@ar why not Darrell also want to have layoff experience
Why would you go to sHELL?
@ac .. Truth!… why can’t Shell leadership see this?
@a5 … why is HR commenting?
Current Employee Here…Just Run…
@ac Oh yes take lunch and catch bus at 4.30 pm
Just do the STCB thing: Take all trainings, maternity leaves, have dancing contests with colleagues and apply somewhere else for more money after one or two years.
@OP Darrell, it depends on what you do, where, level of ambition.... And your level of resiliency.
I've been working at Shell Houston in upstream projects for only 10 years and had a short previous career outside of oil and gas. Shell's pay and people are great. I used to tell myself early on, make yourself so valuable that Shell CANT lay you off. Recognize that you're stepping into a company that has high performers all around. Yes, there are some ppl that have been beaten down into a day job, but most people I've been around enjoy doing great and insist on still doing great. The last round of layoffs I have personally known people that were let go that I thought were do valuable, Shell couldn't let them go... No way. Before the last round, I never knew personally someone to be let go. It is still shocking to me they laid off those incredibly valuable people... And projects is about to do another layoff.
If you do go for a career at Shell, or really any where, but definitely Shell and oil and gas, live well below your means, save for monsoon season, not just a rainy day. Expect when you get let go from oil and gas to be paid significantly less (again, I don't know what you do). If you find your next position at the same or better pay, great! It is possible either way, better or worse.
For resiliency, Shell has had a recent track record of the feeling of constant layoffs. I tend to think Shell hangs on to hope that more projects are right around the corner and don't want to cut too deep, but those projects didn't materialize. Others will write off as the higher ups don't know what they are doing, sight get the head count right the first time... When both are true, bc they were probably hoping to get the project that feel through. I do feel like Shell cares about the people but at the same time it's a business.
There's an old saying of work at Shell, invest in Exxon. Interpret that how you want. Tones change and having a long career in Shell is probably going to be tough, definitely tougher than what it used to be ... Then again, I may see survivor bias on ppl who started at Shell for 25-40 years. I have no idea how many left asking the way.
Honestly, this site probably tends to attract the most pessimistic people in companies and the power of anonymity is a double edged sword, ppl can say what they want.... And ppl can say what they want... Yeah you read that right.
In short, contribute, Excel, CONTINUE to contribute, save for monsoon season, no matter how valuable you are it's not a guarantee. In my eyes, Shell is worth it... Goodluck getting hired at times like this, you're going to have to be a BAMF.i how it works out for you.
Our CEO already told , it is no longer provide comfortable, secure job , it will be dynamic , constant reorgs etc.
Great company with great pay and benefit package to work for. Used to be even better without all of the constant threats of re-orgs. Once you come to grips with the fact that Shell doesn't owe you anything except a paycheck for hours worked, it's a lot easier to deal with. Many of the people on here have only worked for Shell so their view may be different.
great org !