Miri – 1

Okay, let me first get some things straight. Miri is not a backwater town like some people would describe it to be. Before I left, I was told that there is one Starbucks in Sarawak, and that is in Kuching.

An hour into my arrival I saw one in Miri, somewhere in the shopping complex. The next day, I saw a Coffee Bean in my own office. And there is a Secret Recipe within walking distance to the hotel I’m living on now. Miri is not Mar Sara.

So far, life here has been everything I was expecting it to be. Miri is mostly quiet, with small pockets of happening-ness that caters to the oil and gas employees that come from all over. The drive to work is pleasant in the morning, but I can’t help but feel like I’m late for work everytime I step outside. By 6.30, the sun is out.

Integrating into Shell has so far been a very good experience. Somehow, the company has managed to make it so that everyone seems to be happy to see someone new come in. No sulky faces, no mono-syllabic grunts of acknowledgement when I was introduced to all the people in my department. I’ve already had a game of squash with some Shell fellows and some others have asked me to play tennis. Apparently, with the lack of a nightlife in Miri, most of the people here just turn to sports. I can definitely live with that.

When I got here, I found out that I will be doing procurement for IT services, which was a bit of a surprise. I’m working in Finance, and I didn’t even know that until I stepped into the office. Whats even weirder is the fact that there were 2 other engineers coming in at the same time as me going to reservoir and production engineering. Both of them got hired later than me. Can’t help but to feel that I should be in their office instead.

But then again, all things considered I am pretty happy with my current position. My supervisor is really nice, and more importantly, efficient. I got my smart tag (Shell calls it a GID card) on the first day, and by day 2, I was beeping myself in and out of the office. Plus, having been a graduate trainee before, I know what its like to constantly feel like a deadweight in the company because people are constantly training me, but during that time I’m practically useless to the company. Engineers in Shell tend to be in training for the first 2 years or so. If I got into engineering, I’ll feel the same way I did in MOX all over again. I’ve had enough of going from one place to another and having everyone there look at me like they can’t really give me anything substantial to do (which they can’t because of the limited time I have in the departments).

I’ve been asked to sign to about 6 different training sessions relevant to my department, but then that would have to await my entry to the Shell Open University.

Owh, and the best news I got was that Shell Sarawak observes the Gawai holidays, and so the office shuts down for 10 days at the end of May. I’m coming home at the end of the month!.(Flight bloody expensive though, but its 10 days. I’m not going to pass up a holiday like that. I’ll only be back for about 7 days though.)

So I guess I might be seeing you guys pretty soon then. Heh. I’ll blog again about Shell soon. It’s a very interesting company indeed.

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