Navigating Career Challenges and Opportunities of the Energy Transition

Course Description

This extensive online short course helps geoscientists and engineers navigate career challenges and opportunities inherent to the decarbonization and energy transition. The purpose of the course is to set up activities that allow participants to reflect and come to their own conclusions about their current professional situation and next steps. The coaching approach encourages participants to maximize their personal and professional potential by empowering them to plan actions, initiate changes, and track progress toward defined career goals. It aims at enabling a cross-learning environment to face the uncertainties associated with career transitions. Participants share experiences, compare viewpoints and cooperate to establish a positive and supportive atmosphere.

The course, designed as a coaching program over five weeks, includes six online meetings of two and half hours (2.5 hours) consisting of group coaching focused on your experiences from the previous week and presentations outlining the self-paced activities for the following week. Each week is supplemented with self-paced activities described in a downloadable activity book.

We begin in better understanding yourself and your current behaviors, then consider how to improve interactions and learning from others and the outside world through the 5 following contents:

Content 1 – Context Definition & Assessment - You - Who are you? We focus on better understanding the issues, their consequences and their context. You grow a better self-awareness and reconnect with your strengths in order to explore and find proactively durable solutions.

Content 2 – Goal Definition - Strategy & Vision - Where? We help in defining your values, goals, vision and mission.

Content 3 – Manage life balancing action, energy and direction - How? We assist you in establishing habits and building your path toward your vision.

Content 4 – Learn and adjust - Go! We see how to draw new lessons and adjust to overcome hurdles, learning in finding better solutions with others.

Content 5 – Cooperation & Opportunity Creation. We focus on creating new opportunities through synergizing and networking. You will go over the key takeaways and findings, as well as practice your elevator pitch.

Course Objectives

Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:

1. identify their strengths,
2. recognize their triggers of stressful situations,
3. improve their self mastery through self awareness, self confidence and self control,
4. define their next career move aligned with their objectives, strengths & values,
5. implement simple actions that help kick-start their next career move.

Participants’ Profile

The course is intended for geoscientists and engineers:

• wishing to boost or change their career
• willing to challenge themselves, ready to sometimes step out of their comfort zone and take charge of their professional development
• who are facing or expecting changes or challenges in their career and who are willing to prepare themselves and feel serene in facing these changes

Prerequisites

Commitment to the following ground structuring and evolutionary rules:

• Respect the timing allocated for the activities
• Confidentiality
• Active Participation, including participation to the in-between sessions activities
• Open mind, open heart, open will: Question your own certainties
• Hold judgment
• Connect with peers
• Share your feelings and questions
• Let the future you want, inspire you
• Act: implement at least the smallest step you have identified towards your career objectives

About the Instructors

Esther Bloem

• M.Sc. in Applied Geophysics (cum laude) from Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
• Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
• Life coach and Certified Positive Intelligence Coach
• Since 2008, she has worked as a research scientist at the Division of Environment and Natural Resources at the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO)

Esther currently coaches on mental fitness. She has observed that mental fitness is key for performance and happiness

Lucia Levato

• M.Sc. in Physics. from University of Rome, La Sapienza, Italy
• Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from University of Geneva, Switzerland
• Certified professional coach (International Coaching Federation), certified practitioner of TRIMA approach by competencies
• + 35 years of experience in project management, research, teaching and mentoring, coordination of multicultural teams in:
  - Academia - Institute of geophysics, University of Lausanne
  - Entrepreneurial activity - Education and webmarketing
  - Oil and Gas industry - CGG

In 2017 Lucia founded LUSVAL to promote the emergence of inclusive and collaborative work environments by leveraging the potential of people and teams

Gwenola Michaud

• Master in Geophysics from Ecole et Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre of Strasbourg, France
• Ph.D. in Geophysics from Colorado School of Mines, USA
• Certified professional coach from Institut de Coaching International of Geneva, Switzerland
• Since 1998 she has worked in the Oil & Gas Industry in various companies, including Schlumberger, on reservoir characterization and surveillance, time-lapse analysis, multi-component borehole data and passive seismic data

Since 2020, she is a freelance in digital and software solution development and commercialization in the Energy and Environment Industries. Gwenola is also a coach in personal development to help technical people get back their motivation and reach new results in their career and life.