October 27, 2024 • 24 mins
Position yourself at the forefront of one of the most dynamic sectors in the US economy - offshore wind. Whether you're a recent graduate or contemplating a career change, explore the essential roles of STEM, communication, and finance in this burgeoning field.
Hosted by Ian Voparil and Jim Bennett, our kickoff episode guides you through the transformative opportunities of offshore wind. With projections of creating up to 40,000 full-time jobs in the next decade, offshore wind needs you!
Journey with us as we explore the pathways to a rewarding career in offshore energy. We delve into how platforms like Google and LinkedIn are revolutionizing job searches, providing insights into the skills needed for success. Discover how universities like Tufts, Stony Brook, and UMass Amherst are equipping the new generation with the skills necessary for success. Using personal anecdotes, we discuss the transition from traditional energy sectors to renewables, learning about the essential collaboration between public and private sectors in preventing project delays and driving innovation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jim Bennett (00:02):
Why aren't you a part of one of the most
promising and fastest growingsectors of the US economy?
I'm talking about offshore wind.
Get your career moving, ormoving again, in the exploding
offshore wind industry.
What's really happening?
What are the opportunities?
How do you move forward?
You'll hear it from the expertsin the field.
(00:22):
The Offshore Energy Podcast isnext.
Ian Voparil (00:35):
I'm Ian ValpVero and I've spent the last 20 years
developing offshore energyprojects around the world.
Jim Bennett (00:42):
I'm Jim Bennett and I have over 40 years of
experience developing energy inthe ocean.
Ian Voparil (00:48):
And this is the Offshore Energy Podcast, Jim
good to see you today, you too.
You too, thank you.
We're doing our first episodewith the Offshore Energy Podcast
, are you excited?
Jim Bennett (01:00):
excited.
I'm definitely excited about thepossibilities here and I'm
looking forward to our you knowand Jim, as we were talking
about it, we thought a greatfirst episode might be how to
get into the industry.
I'm sure there's a lot of folksout there, especially folks
coming out of school, that lookto the offshore wind industry as
(01:21):
a great possibility.
Ian Voparil (01:23):
And I was taking a look at some of the statistics
from around the world.
E projects that about 67million people work in energy
globally and in the last coupleof years more people are working
in clean energy, which is aninteresting definition we could
go into at some point.
But more work in clean energythan in fossil fuels and you
(01:45):
know you and I are both havebeen around the sector for the
last few years at some point butmore work in clean energy than
in fossil fuels and you and Iare both have been around the
sector for the last few years.
And offshore wind has gone frommaybe a couple of tens of
people full time employees inthe US six, seven years ago to
now a couple of thousand.
Yeah, that's great, that'sabsolutely terrific, it's
(02:07):
amazing and if we meet our kindof planning goals and targets.
I know the current estimatesare something like 15 to 40,000
people, full-time employees,working in offshore wind in the
next decade.
Jim Bennett (02:23):
So, absolutely, I think it's a great start, but it
is only a start.
Ian Voparil (02:30):
So, Jim, one of the ways that we've talked about
gaining entry to the industry isthrough education.
Yes, absolutely.
Different undergraduate andgraduate level programs.
What's your experience?
Jim Bennett (02:42):
It's really good to see that the academic
environment, and the academicinfrastructure, if you will, is
growing with the industry, andthere are a number of different
programs, full programs, thatare coming along, and a couple
of them, to be specific, includeTufts up in Boston, stony Brook
(03:05):
, down in New York, and theseare actual academic programs as
opposed to, if you want to callit, continuing educational
programs or professionaleducation programs, and it's
great to see them develop theway they do.
Another is the New JerseyInstitute of Technology.
(03:29):
I don't know, are you familiarwith others as well?
Ian Voparil (03:33):
Yeah, I was.
You know, off the top of myhead I think of that program at
UMass, Amherst, Right and rightwhen I was leaving New Orleans,
a couple of the communitycolleges and a four-year
institution down there were alsostarting programs around
offshore wind.
Jim Bennett (03:48):
You know that reminds me I definitely want to
give a shout out to the firstacademic program that I came
across and that was BristolCommunity College up in
Massachusetts.
Ian Voparil (03:58):
You know we're forgetting at least one or two
and want to apologize in advancefor that and for those in
college considering a major whatare the key ones that get
recruited for in offshore energy?
Jim Bennett (04:13):
I am indeed very much a fundamentalist in that
regard.
Most people, I think, give alittle bit too much weight and
get too locked into a particulardiscipline because of their
schooling.
But I think the fundamentalsare key to having a good
launching, a good career, andthose fundamentals are basic
(04:35):
things.
They're things like English,they're communications, they're
interpersonal skills, andsomebody coming out of school
with those capabilities are in abetter position to succeed, to
my mind, than just somebody whohas a few courses in a very
(04:56):
technical area of renewableenergy, and I think that's
nothing new.
I don't think that it is uniqueto renewable energy by any
means, but I think it'ssomething that you need to keep
in mind.
Understanding the largercontext, the public sector, the
private sector, theenvironmental groups,
(05:16):
understanding all of thosethings and be able to
communicate amongst thosevarious groups is going to be
the recipe for success over thelong term.
Ian Voparil (05:27):
I do want to give a call out to those in the STEM
disciplines, because they're sofundamental to the success of
the industry and the ongoingsuccess in the industry
Mechanical engineering, navalarchitecture, structural
engineering, now electricalengineering with power that's a
new one for me those are keydisciplines that folks need.
I think, if you look at the jobmarket, developers are also
(05:52):
frequently hiring folksexperienced in financing,
particularly with complicatedfinance stacks like required for
renewable energy development,and so if you've got a
background in any of thosethings, I think you're going to
find a very interestingcommunity in offshore energy,
particularly offshore wind rightnow.
Jim Bennett (06:11):
I will note that, yes, as you've said, there's all
kinds of expertise needed inthe development of this industry
, and I am quite sure thatthere's a place for you in the
mix of things.
Ian Voparil (06:25):
And what about for people already in their
professional lives, perhaps in adifferent field, but those who
want to show competence and gainexperience that are relevant in
offshore wind?
Jim Bennett (06:35):
but those who want to show competence and gain
experience that are relevant inoffshore wind.
There's one group, of course,that we haven't mentioned yet,
because it's so fundamental tothe growth of the industry over
time, and that's the OceanicNetwork.
The Oceanic Network, formerlyknown as the Business Network
for Offshore Wind, started veryearly on trying to bring
(06:56):
businesses together and hasgrown into a multifaceted
organization, and one of thosefacets is training along the
lines of the other trainingacademies, as well as the
academic programs.
Ian Voparil (07:11):
You mentioned the trade associations.
I use the generic term, butoceanic, there's American Clean
Power.
There are some more like localand bespoke ones.
Too Many of them do conferences, you know, as we know.
But if you're just getting intothe industry, you know there
may be an opportunity for you toattend a conference.
Attend a conference forstudents particularly, and folks
(07:38):
earlier in their careers.
There's even often support orscholarship available to help
defray the cost of going to theconference, which I think is a
great opportunity for thosefolks in their careers a lot of
conferences are ensuring that uhhigher level students get an
opportunity to attend withouthaving to pay the very
relatively high pricesespecially for a student.
Yeah, for sure, and thanks tothem for doing that right,
(07:59):
because it's really key.
Jim Bennett (08:01):
Yeah, absolutely, and I strongly encourage
students or soon-to-be graduatesgo to one of these conferences
and get overwhelmed by what'sgoing on, and it'll help you.
It'll help you and Jim, I knowthat you've been involved with
the American offshore windAcademy, which is, you know, not
a university curriculum but isan opportunity to kind of get a
(08:25):
real deep dive on a particulartopics and courses yeah, as I
mentioned earlier, there was uhone of the early act Academ, if
you will, professional trainingopportunities, including the
University of Delaware and theOffshore Wind Skills Academy in
(09:00):
Offshore Wind Academy, or AWA,has developed a very broad array
of a lot of different technicaland managerial aspects of
offshore wind.
Ian Voparil (09:06):
You know the resumes of some of the others
there.
Yeah, it's really it's a greatgroup to bring together that way
, and I would be remiss not tomention something that my wife
is going through right now.
But you can also get a coupleof different certificates, not
offshore wind specific, butshe's doing the Yale program and
renewable energy finance, whichis really a deep dive into all
(09:29):
kinds of energy, but also, youknow, then, the finance aspects
of delivering renewable energyin the country, as well as the
general kinds of certificatesand certifications.
Accreditation you can get inother things like project
management, you know you can getall kinds of
discipline-specificcertifications that are relevant
(09:50):
, you know, certainly valuablein the sector, though not
necessarily about offshoreenergy in specific.
All right Now, jim, let's hitit clearly here.
How do people find jobs?
Jim Bennett (10:04):
It's been a long time since I've been out of
graduate school, to say theleast, and hitting the pavement
trying to find a job, and it wasthe biggest one I think that
we'd both agree on is networking, talk to people, continue to
talk to people.
Find out what's going on, findout who's doing what Another and
(10:26):
, in support of that, in orderto be in a position to know
where you want to go with thosesorts of things, talk with
people after you've gone throughwhere you want to go with those
sorts of things.
Talk with people after you'vegone through where you want to
be in the industry.
You may not end up in thatexact spot in the industry, but
knowing where you want to go andhaving a direction to talk with
(10:47):
people and network with peopleabout it is likely to give you a
better result.
Ian Voparil (10:56):
And Jim, I think people can get a good sense of
the kinds of jobs out there onGoogle or, better yet, an
offshore wind job search onLinkedIn where you can pull up,
you know sometimes hundreds ofjobs.
There are specific descriptions, the roles and responsibilities
and the competencies thatpeople are looking for.
It gives you a really goodsense of the key things that are
going to make you stand out asa candidate in this market.
Jim Bennett (11:19):
Absolutely.
The job boards and the websitesare kind of replaced what we
were talking about before, andthose are the mechanisms that
are now available.
Ian Voparil (11:29):
And also, you know, many of the developers have
their own career websites andyou know what?
If you're starting tounderstand where you want to
head or how you want to work inthe sector, check out the
websites.
Now, jim, in the intro we bothmentioned the length of our
careers in offshore energy andyou know, with careers that long
(11:50):
, we've certainly had keyexperiences that have helped us
understand key needs or keyopportunities to deliver and be
successful in the industry.
Let's share a couple of those,shall we?
Jim Bennett (12:05):
I was taken by the fact that we were genuinely
trying to identify impacts intogood science and do good science
, and the reason I stayed inthat arena was because there was
a need for a lot of goodscience and the oil and gas
industry at the time was tryingto find that good science, and
(12:30):
that was an issue for usthroughout the 80s and 90s with
the offshore oil and gas program, and what eventually happened,
of course, is in 2005,.
Well, I'll tell you.
Let me back up just a minuteand mention something that I did
(12:51):
back in graduate school thatalways stayed in the back of my
mind.
We had an exercise to puttogether a little media pamphlet
, a trifold it was called at thetime.
It was developed basically on amachine that is known today as
the typewriter.
You can see it in some museums,in some places, but it was a
(13:14):
trifold public information piece, and the topic that I was
working on was wind energy.
And you've got to remember I'mgoing to date myself here, but
the thing is that at the timethis was during the Carter
administration and offshore notjust offshore wind, but wind
power in general was the topic,and it was a long, long way from
(13:40):
primetime, even onshore, muchless offshore.
But the point is I did thatlittle pamphlet.
Of course I didn't save it Iwish I had but it was something
that developed.
It was an industry thatdeveloped both onshore and later
offshore through the 80s andthe 90s.
(14:03):
It was way, way ahead of itstime in terms of actual
implementation.
The offshore environment that Ihad been working in for about
(14:28):
two decades suddenly was givenauthority in 2005 to do
renewable gas, which typicallyhad a black hat and was viewed
as the bad guys.
We were all of a sudden goingto be the good guys with
renewable wind, environmentallysensitive.
We were quickly disabused ofthat notion in that we figured.
(14:54):
We figured everybody was goingto like us, and it was.
It's always more complicatedthan that.
There's always somebody whoagain, but it was that movement,
always with an environmentalthreat associated with it, from
a an extractive industry to arenewable industry.
(15:14):
That was definitely a big drawfor me.
Ian Voparil (15:20):
And I think the first one I had was actually my
first big job at that energycompany.
They were looking to develop apiece of offshore oil and gas
and a potential facility andpipelines to interconnect it all
in an island off north of Japan, off of Russia.
There was a lot ofenvironmental concern around
(15:42):
impact to fisheries, aroundimpact to other marine resources
like sensitive habitats, andimpact to marine mammals.
And I was a chemicaloceanographer by training.
But I came on board thiscompany and you know my first
big project was what effect willthis project have on marine
(16:03):
mammals?
You know, are it basically aninternal impact assessment?
And because the company wastrying to raise external
financing, you know needed tohave a pretty serious job done
about it, needed to meet therequirements for the lenders.
And so you know I was thinking,boy, as an academic I'm at a
whole other, you know, leaguethan marine mammal scientists.
(16:27):
I studied chemical oceanographyand chemical cyclings in the
oceans, but what I realized isthat in the room of people I was
working with I have the besteducation to try to tackle those
issues.
I was already.
I knew at least oceans andsystems and could think about
acoustics and things like that,and so that was my first thing
right.
My first learning was jump inGood thought and ability to
(16:52):
really try to figure out the keyissues around questions was
instrumental.
Jim Bennett (16:57):
My background has been in government and
government affairs for some timeand what was the real
eye-opener for me and thisaffects people as they develop
their careers is that they needto recognize the system that
we're working in.
You recognize that.
You had the education in aspecific area that can
(17:19):
contribute to the industry.
I came to recognize andappreciate the system in terms
of the role of the public sectorand the private sector and the
private sector.
I came to respect the privatesector in a very big way because
that's where things gets done.
It's where things gets done inthe oil and gas program and it's
(17:39):
where things get done in therenewables program.
They're both set up in verysimilar ways and we need to keep
that in mind, know andappreciate the roles and the
contributions that the varioussectors play, both government
and the private sector,government being federal and
state and local governments, aswell.
And I think that's a very keypoint as you develop your career
(18:03):
and as you move into where youwant to be and where you want
your contribution to be.
Ian Voparil (18:11):
I think one of the things that I was lucky about in
my career too is I came aroundat the right time and with the
right education and backgroundand mindset that I recognized
some of these environmentalissues.
They were making projects stop,you know, they were making them
so complicated that companiescouldn't complete them and
(18:34):
delaying timelines and making itdifficult to obtain permits.
I recognized that those issueswere parts and you know in some
cases some parts of the reasonswhy the projects were not being
successful.
And so the more that you canunderstand how what you do
impacts the larger project orlarger developments, economics,
(18:58):
the better you can articulatethat, the better you can see
when risks are occurring andhelp leadership understand those
and hopefully put in place theright kinds of mitigations and
strategies to avoid, reduce,minimize, keep projects and keep
delivery on track.
(19:18):
And, Jim, it's not just thedeveloper perspective that's
important in overall projectperspective.
Right, You've been reallyimportant in how to involve the
public in major offshoreprojects.
Jim Bennett (19:33):
Tell us a little bit about that I think because
of the way public involvementhas developed, and that public
involvement is a very, verypositive force, which did not
used to be the case, and Icompletely agree.
It's a great point that you'remaking about what we're talking
about external forces, but infact we're making those internal
(19:57):
forces in the process ofgetting government and the
private sector to come togetherwith something that is
acceptable for publicinvolvement, and I think that's
key to moving forward.
Ian Voparil (20:11):
Jim, we're talking about these things with the
benefit of long careers thathave given us great hindsight,
but I don't want everybody tothink that you need to know a
lot about everything in order tobe successful in offshore
energy.
In fact, once you find yourpassion and you get really good
at it and you're in the industry, you have a lot of opportunity
(20:31):
to learn on the job.
In my case, for example, Ilearned project economics
getting ready to take a rolethat I was going to be
responsible for projecteconomics.
Jim Bennett (20:42):
Yeah, if I could add to that.
To be responsible for projecteconomics yeah, if I could add
to that in my career.
One of the directions that Ihad and I didn't have a clear
path from here to there I knewgenerally what I wanted to, how
I would be satisfied in my job.
But one thing that came alongthat I spent a lot of time on,
(21:05):
that didn't even exist when Istarted my career, to speak of,
was geographic informationsystems, and these are computer
applications that came along.
I had no plan to do that, butit led to that.
It led to oil spill modeling,it led to environmental
mitigation based on theinformation provided there.
(21:27):
So, in addition to those otherfundamentals, I would suggest
that analytical skills are very,very valuable, and the tools
like GIS but there's a lot ofother tools as well that
developed over time are going tobecome available to you and if
(21:48):
you have the passion and thecompetitive spirit to move
forward into those areas, you'regoing to be successful.
Ian Voparil (21:56):
Well, m, we've covered some of our experiences
and some of our insight gettinginto the industry.
You know, I hope we providedsome actionable intelligence r,
I?
Jim Bennett (22:11):
I hope so as well.
U, I do think that, uh, asfolks are trying to get in into
the industry, they should keepin mind uh, uh, is certainly
important, uh, and keep in mindthat this is an industry that
needs you.
It's it's not an industry witha set number of positions and,
(22:32):
uh, limited possibilities.
It's growing at a at a rate oflike 10 or 15 a year, and that's
that's.
That's incredible, and theindustry really needs you, but
it also needs you to know whereyou can make the best
contribution.
Ian Voparil (22:50):
Yeah, that's great, Great advice, Jim.
So much of offshore wind feelsvery adventurous.
There are a lot of people outthere doing first of a kind
things and making this industryreally come to life here in the
United States.
Jim, we are living ininteresting times and listeners.
Our next episode will be abouthow changes in presidential
(23:13):
administrations impact offshoreenergy development.
Jim Bennett (23:17):
Yeah, I think we definitely have to cover that.
We will take a look at what thereal impacts are going to be,
as opposed to the fears and thecampaign slogans and the like.
Let's talk about the reality ofit, but also, of course, we
have to talk about the Gulf ofMaine.
This is a huge, hugedevelopment in offshore wind and
(23:40):
we'll cover both of those verytimely issues in episode two.
Well, Ian, it's been greattalking with you.
Ian Voparil (23:51):
Jim great seeing you and talking to you too.
Jim Bennett (23:55):
And I'm looking forward to meeting with you
again beyond the horizon On thenext.
Ian Voparil (24:00):
Offshore Energy Podcast.
Why aren't you a part of one of the most
promising and fastest growingsectors of the US economy?
I'm talking about offshore wind.
Get your career moving, ormoving again, in the exploding
offshore wind industry.
What's really happening?
What are the opportunities?
How do you move forward?
You'll hear it from the expertsin the field.
(00:22):
The Offshore Energy Podcast isnext.
Ian Voparil (00:35):
I'm Ian ValpVero and I've spent the last 20 years
developing offshore energyprojects around the world.
Jim Bennett (00:42):
I'm Jim Bennett and I have over 40 years of
experience developing energy inthe ocean.
Ian Voparil (00:48):
And this is the Offshore Energy Podcast, Jim
good to see you today, you too.
You too, thank you.
We're doing our first episodewith the Offshore Energy Podcast
, are you excited?
Jim Bennett (01:00):
excited.
I'm definitely excited about thepossibilities here and I'm
looking forward to our you knowand Jim, as we were talking
about it, we thought a greatfirst episode might be how to
get into the industry.
I'm sure there's a lot of folksout there, especially folks
coming out of school, that lookto the offshore wind industry as
(01:21):
a great possibility.
Ian Voparil (01:23):
And I was taking a look at some of the statistics
from around the world.
E projects that about 67million people work in energy
globally and in the last coupleof years more people are working
in clean energy, which is aninteresting definition we could
go into at some point.
But more work in clean energythan in fossil fuels and you
(01:45):
know you and I are both havebeen around the sector for the
last few years at some point butmore work in clean energy than
in fossil fuels and you and Iare both have been around the
sector for the last few years.
And offshore wind has gone frommaybe a couple of tens of
people full time employees inthe US six, seven years ago to
now a couple of thousand.
Yeah, that's great, that'sabsolutely terrific, it's
(02:07):
amazing and if we meet our kindof planning goals and targets.
I know the current estimatesare something like 15 to 40,000
people, full-time employees,working in offshore wind in the
next decade.
Jim Bennett (02:23):
So, absolutely, I think it's a great start, but it
is only a start.
Ian Voparil (02:30):
So, Jim, one of the ways that we've talked about
gaining entry to the industry isthrough education.
Yes, absolutely.
Different undergraduate andgraduate level programs.
What's your experience?
Jim Bennett (02:42):
It's really good to see that the academic
environment, and the academicinfrastructure, if you will, is
growing with the industry, andthere are a number of different
programs, full programs, thatare coming along, and a couple
of them, to be specific, includeTufts up in Boston, stony Brook
(03:05):
, down in New York, and theseare actual academic programs as
opposed to, if you want to callit, continuing educational
programs or professionaleducation programs, and it's
great to see them develop theway they do.
Another is the New JerseyInstitute of Technology.
(03:29):
I don't know, are you familiarwith others as well?
Ian Voparil (03:33):
Yeah, I was.
You know, off the top of myhead I think of that program at
UMass, Amherst, Right and rightwhen I was leaving New Orleans,
a couple of the communitycolleges and a four-year
institution down there were alsostarting programs around
offshore wind.
Jim Bennett (03:48):
You know that reminds me I definitely want to
give a shout out to the firstacademic program that I came
across and that was BristolCommunity College up in
Massachusetts.
Ian Voparil (03:58):
You know we're forgetting at least one or two
and want to apologize in advancefor that and for those in
college considering a major whatare the key ones that get
recruited for in offshore energy?
Jim Bennett (04:13):
I am indeed very much a fundamentalist in that
regard.
Most people, I think, give alittle bit too much weight and
get too locked into a particulardiscipline because of their
schooling.
But I think the fundamentalsare key to having a good
launching, a good career, andthose fundamentals are basic
(04:35):
things.
They're things like English,they're communications, they're
interpersonal skills, andsomebody coming out of school
with those capabilities are in abetter position to succeed, to
my mind, than just somebody whohas a few courses in a very
(04:56):
technical area of renewableenergy, and I think that's
nothing new.
I don't think that it is uniqueto renewable energy by any
means, but I think it'ssomething that you need to keep
in mind.
Understanding the largercontext, the public sector, the
private sector, theenvironmental groups,
(05:16):
understanding all of thosethings and be able to
communicate amongst thosevarious groups is going to be
the recipe for success over thelong term.
Ian Voparil (05:27):
I do want to give a call out to those in the STEM
disciplines, because they're sofundamental to the success of
the industry and the ongoingsuccess in the industry
Mechanical engineering, navalarchitecture, structural
engineering, now electricalengineering with power that's a
new one for me those are keydisciplines that folks need.
I think, if you look at the jobmarket, developers are also
(05:52):
frequently hiring folksexperienced in financing,
particularly with complicatedfinance stacks like required for
renewable energy development,and so if you've got a
background in any of thosethings, I think you're going to
find a very interestingcommunity in offshore energy,
particularly offshore wind rightnow.
Jim Bennett (06:11):
I will note that, yes, as you've said, there's all
kinds of expertise needed inthe development of this industry
, and I am quite sure thatthere's a place for you in the
mix of things.
Ian Voparil (06:25):
And what about for people already in their
professional lives, perhaps in adifferent field, but those who
want to show competence and gainexperience that are relevant in
offshore wind?
Jim Bennett (06:35):
but those who want to show competence and gain
experience that are relevant inoffshore wind.
There's one group, of course,that we haven't mentioned yet,
because it's so fundamental tothe growth of the industry over
time, and that's the OceanicNetwork.
The Oceanic Network, formerlyknown as the Business Network
for Offshore Wind, started veryearly on trying to bring
(06:56):
businesses together and hasgrown into a multifaceted
organization, and one of thosefacets is training along the
lines of the other trainingacademies, as well as the
academic programs.
Ian Voparil (07:11):
You mentioned the trade associations.
I use the generic term, butoceanic, there's American Clean
Power.
There are some more like localand bespoke ones.
Too Many of them do conferences, you know, as we know.
But if you're just getting intothe industry, you know there
may be an opportunity for you toattend a conference.
Attend a conference forstudents particularly, and folks
(07:38):
earlier in their careers.
There's even often support orscholarship available to help
defray the cost of going to theconference, which I think is a
great opportunity for thosefolks in their careers a lot of
conferences are ensuring that uhhigher level students get an
opportunity to attend withouthaving to pay the very
relatively high pricesespecially for a student.
Yeah, for sure, and thanks tothem for doing that right,
(07:59):
because it's really key.
Jim Bennett (08:01):
Yeah, absolutely, and I strongly encourage
students or soon-to-be graduatesgo to one of these conferences
and get overwhelmed by what'sgoing on, and it'll help you.
It'll help you and Jim, I knowthat you've been involved with
the American offshore windAcademy, which is, you know, not
a university curriculum but isan opportunity to kind of get a
(08:25):
real deep dive on a particulartopics and courses yeah, as I
mentioned earlier, there was uhone of the early act Academ, if
you will, professional trainingopportunities, including the
University of Delaware and theOffshore Wind Skills Academy in
(09:00):
Offshore Wind Academy, or AWA,has developed a very broad array
of a lot of different technicaland managerial aspects of
offshore wind.
Ian Voparil (09:06):
You know the resumes of some of the others
there.
Yeah, it's really it's a greatgroup to bring together that way
, and I would be remiss not tomention something that my wife
is going through right now.
But you can also get a coupleof different certificates, not
offshore wind specific, butshe's doing the Yale program and
renewable energy finance, whichis really a deep dive into all
(09:29):
kinds of energy, but also, youknow, then, the finance aspects
of delivering renewable energyin the country, as well as the
general kinds of certificatesand certifications.
Accreditation you can get inother things like project
management, you know you can getall kinds of
discipline-specificcertifications that are relevant
(09:50):
, you know, certainly valuablein the sector, though not
necessarily about offshoreenergy in specific.
All right Now, jim, let's hitit clearly here.
How do people find jobs?
Jim Bennett (10:04):
It's been a long time since I've been out of
graduate school, to say theleast, and hitting the pavement
trying to find a job, and it wasthe biggest one I think that
we'd both agree on is networking, talk to people, continue to
talk to people.
Find out what's going on, findout who's doing what Another and
(10:26):
, in support of that, in orderto be in a position to know
where you want to go with thosesorts of things, talk with
people after you've gone throughwhere you want to go with those
sorts of things.
Talk with people after you'vegone through where you want to
be in the industry.
You may not end up in thatexact spot in the industry, but
knowing where you want to go andhaving a direction to talk with
(10:47):
people and network with peopleabout it is likely to give you a
better result.
Ian Voparil (10:56):
And Jim, I think people can get a good sense of
the kinds of jobs out there onGoogle or, better yet, an
offshore wind job search onLinkedIn where you can pull up,
you know sometimes hundreds ofjobs.
There are specific descriptions, the roles and responsibilities
and the competencies thatpeople are looking for.
It gives you a really goodsense of the key things that are
going to make you stand out asa candidate in this market.
Jim Bennett (11:19):
Absolutely.
The job boards and the websitesare kind of replaced what we
were talking about before, andthose are the mechanisms that
are now available.
Ian Voparil (11:29):
And also, you know, many of the developers have
their own career websites andyou know what?
If you're starting tounderstand where you want to
head or how you want to work inthe sector, check out the
websites.
Now, jim, in the intro we bothmentioned the length of our
careers in offshore energy andyou know, with careers that long
(11:50):
, we've certainly had keyexperiences that have helped us
understand key needs or keyopportunities to deliver and be
successful in the industry.
Let's share a couple of those,shall we?
Jim Bennett (12:05):
I was taken by the fact that we were genuinely
trying to identify impacts intogood science and do good science
, and the reason I stayed inthat arena was because there was
a need for a lot of goodscience and the oil and gas
industry at the time was tryingto find that good science, and
(12:30):
that was an issue for usthroughout the 80s and 90s with
the offshore oil and gas program, and what eventually happened,
of course, is in 2005,.
Well, I'll tell you.
Let me back up just a minuteand mention something that I did
(12:51):
back in graduate school thatalways stayed in the back of my
mind.
We had an exercise to puttogether a little media pamphlet
, a trifold it was called at thetime.
It was developed basically on amachine that is known today as
the typewriter.
You can see it in some museums,in some places, but it was a
(13:14):
trifold public information piece, and the topic that I was
working on was wind energy.
And you've got to remember I'mgoing to date myself here, but
the thing is that at the timethis was during the Carter
administration and offshore notjust offshore wind, but wind
power in general was the topic,and it was a long, long way from
(13:40):
primetime, even onshore, muchless offshore.
But the point is I did thatlittle pamphlet.
Of course I didn't save it Iwish I had but it was something
that developed.
It was an industry thatdeveloped both onshore and later
offshore through the 80s andthe 90s.
(14:03):
It was way, way ahead of itstime in terms of actual
implementation.
The offshore environment that Ihad been working in for about
(14:28):
two decades suddenly was givenauthority in 2005 to do
renewable gas, which typicallyhad a black hat and was viewed
as the bad guys.
We were all of a sudden goingto be the good guys with
renewable wind, environmentallysensitive.
We were quickly disabused ofthat notion in that we figured.
(14:54):
We figured everybody was goingto like us, and it was.
It's always more complicatedthan that.
There's always somebody whoagain, but it was that movement,
always with an environmentalthreat associated with it, from
a an extractive industry to arenewable industry.
(15:14):
That was definitely a big drawfor me.
Ian Voparil (15:20):
And I think the first one I had was actually my
first big job at that energycompany.
They were looking to develop apiece of offshore oil and gas
and a potential facility andpipelines to interconnect it all
in an island off north of Japan, off of Russia.
There was a lot ofenvironmental concern around
(15:42):
impact to fisheries, aroundimpact to other marine resources
like sensitive habitats, andimpact to marine mammals.
And I was a chemicaloceanographer by training.
But I came on board thiscompany and you know my first
big project was what effect willthis project have on marine
(16:03):
mammals?
You know, are it basically aninternal impact assessment?
And because the company wastrying to raise external
financing, you know needed tohave a pretty serious job done
about it, needed to meet therequirements for the lenders.
And so you know I was thinking,boy, as an academic I'm at a
whole other, you know, leaguethan marine mammal scientists.
(16:27):
I studied chemical oceanographyand chemical cyclings in the
oceans, but what I realized isthat in the room of people I was
working with I have the besteducation to try to tackle those
issues.
I was already.
I knew at least oceans andsystems and could think about
acoustics and things like that,and so that was my first thing
right.
My first learning was jump inGood thought and ability to
(16:52):
really try to figure out the keyissues around questions was
instrumental.
Jim Bennett (16:57):
My background has been in government and
government affairs for some timeand what was the real
eye-opener for me and thisaffects people as they develop
their careers is that they needto recognize the system that
we're working in.
You recognize that.
You had the education in aspecific area that can
(17:19):
contribute to the industry.
I came to recognize andappreciate the system in terms
of the role of the public sectorand the private sector and the
private sector.
I came to respect the privatesector in a very big way because
that's where things gets done.
It's where things gets done inthe oil and gas program and it's
(17:39):
where things get done in therenewables program.
They're both set up in verysimilar ways and we need to keep
that in mind, know andappreciate the roles and the
contributions that the varioussectors play, both government
and the private sector,government being federal and
state and local governments, aswell.
And I think that's a very keypoint as you develop your career
(18:03):
and as you move into where youwant to be and where you want
your contribution to be.
Ian Voparil (18:11):
I think one of the things that I was lucky about in
my career too is I came aroundat the right time and with the
right education and backgroundand mindset that I recognized
some of these environmentalissues.
They were making projects stop,you know, they were making them
so complicated that companiescouldn't complete them and
(18:34):
delaying timelines and making itdifficult to obtain permits.
I recognized that those issueswere parts and you know in some
cases some parts of the reasonswhy the projects were not being
successful.
And so the more that you canunderstand how what you do
impacts the larger project orlarger developments, economics,
(18:58):
the better you can articulatethat, the better you can see
when risks are occurring andhelp leadership understand those
and hopefully put in place theright kinds of mitigations and
strategies to avoid, reduce,minimize, keep projects and keep
delivery on track.
(19:18):
And, Jim, it's not just thedeveloper perspective that's
important in overall projectperspective.
Right, You've been reallyimportant in how to involve the
public in major offshoreprojects.
Jim Bennett (19:33):
Tell us a little bit about that I think because
of the way public involvementhas developed, and that public
involvement is a very, verypositive force, which did not
used to be the case, and Icompletely agree.
It's a great point that you'remaking about what we're talking
about external forces, but infact we're making those internal
(19:57):
forces in the process ofgetting government and the
private sector to come togetherwith something that is
acceptable for publicinvolvement, and I think that's
key to moving forward.
Ian Voparil (20:11):
Jim, we're talking about these things with the
benefit of long careers thathave given us great hindsight,
but I don't want everybody tothink that you need to know a
lot about everything in order tobe successful in offshore
energy.
In fact, once you find yourpassion and you get really good
at it and you're in the industry, you have a lot of opportunity
(20:31):
to learn on the job.
In my case, for example, Ilearned project economics
getting ready to take a rolethat I was going to be
responsible for projecteconomics.
Jim Bennett (20:42):
Yeah, if I could add to that.
To be responsible for projecteconomics yeah, if I could add
to that in my career.
One of the directions that Ihad and I didn't have a clear
path from here to there I knewgenerally what I wanted to, how
I would be satisfied in my job.
But one thing that came alongthat I spent a lot of time on,
(21:05):
that didn't even exist when Istarted my career, to speak of,
was geographic informationsystems, and these are computer
applications that came along.
I had no plan to do that, butit led to that.
It led to oil spill modeling,it led to environmental
mitigation based on theinformation provided there.
(21:27):
So, in addition to those otherfundamentals, I would suggest
that analytical skills are very,very valuable, and the tools
like GIS but there's a lot ofother tools as well that
developed over time are going tobecome available to you and if
(21:48):
you have the passion and thecompetitive spirit to move
forward into those areas, you'regoing to be successful.
Ian Voparil (21:56):
Well, m, we've covered some of our experiences
and some of our insight gettinginto the industry.
You know, I hope we providedsome actionable intelligence r,
I?
Jim Bennett (22:11):
I hope so as well.
U, I do think that, uh, asfolks are trying to get in into
the industry, they should keepin mind uh, uh, is certainly
important, uh, and keep in mindthat this is an industry that
needs you.
It's it's not an industry witha set number of positions and,
(22:32):
uh, limited possibilities.
It's growing at a at a rate oflike 10 or 15 a year, and that's
that's.
That's incredible, and theindustry really needs you, but
it also needs you to know whereyou can make the best
contribution.
Ian Voparil (22:50):
Yeah, that's great, Great advice, Jim.
So much of offshore wind feelsvery adventurous.
There are a lot of people outthere doing first of a kind
things and making this industryreally come to life here in the
United States.
Jim, we are living ininteresting times and listeners.
Our next episode will be abouthow changes in presidential
(23:13):
administrations impact offshoreenergy development.
Jim Bennett (23:17):
Yeah, I think we definitely have to cover that.
We will take a look at what thereal impacts are going to be,
as opposed to the fears and thecampaign slogans and the like.
Let's talk about the reality ofit, but also, of course, we
have to talk about the Gulf ofMaine.
This is a huge, hugedevelopment in offshore wind and
(23:40):
we'll cover both of those verytimely issues in episode two.
Well, Ian, it's been greattalking with you.
Ian Voparil (23:51):
Jim great seeing you and talking to you too.
Jim Bennett (23:55):
And I'm looking forward to meeting with you
again beyond the horizon On thenext.
Ian Voparil (24:00):
Offshore Energy Podcast.
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