The Offshore Energy Podcast

Episode 1 - Unlocking Careers in Offshore Wind

• Ian Voparil & Jim Bennett • Season 1 • Episode 1

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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. 

Jim Bennett:

Why aren't you a part of one of the most promising and fastest growing sectors of the US economy? I'm talking about offshore wind. Get your career moving, or moving 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 experts in the field. The Offshore Energy Podcast is next.

Ian Voparil:

I'm Ian ValpVero and I've spent the last 20 years developing offshore energy projects around the world.

Jim Bennett:

I'm Jim Bennett and I have over 40 years of experience developing energy in the ocean.

Ian Voparil:

And this is the Offshore Energy Podcast, Jim good to see you today, you too. You too, thank you. We're doing our first episode with the Offshore Energy Podcast, are you excited?

Jim Bennett:

excited.

Jim Bennett:

I'm definitely excited about the possibilities here and I'm looking forward to our you know and Jim, as we were talking about it, we thought a great first episode might be how to get into the industry.

Jim Bennett:

I'm sure there's a lot of folks out there, especially folks coming out of school, that look to the offshore wind industry as a great possibility.

Ian Voparil:

And I was taking a look at some of the statistics from around the world. E projects that about 67 million people work in energy globally and in the last couple of years more people are working in clean energy, which is an interesting definition we could go into at some point. But more work in clean energy than in fossil fuels and you know you and I are both have been around the sector for the last few years at some point but more work in clean energy than in fossil fuels and you and I are both have been around the sector for the last few years. And offshore wind has gone from maybe a couple of tens of people full time employees in the US six, seven years ago to now a couple of thousand.

Ian Voparil:

Yeah, that's great, that's absolutely terrific, it's amazing and if we meet our kind of planning goals and targets. I know the current estimates are something like 15 to 40,000 people, full-time employees, working in offshore wind in the next decade.

Jim Bennett:

So, absolutely, I think it's a great start, but it is only a start.

Ian Voparil:

So, Jim, one of the ways that we've talked about gaining entry to the industry is through education. Yes, absolutely. Different undergraduate and graduate level programs. What's your experience?

Jim Bennett:

It's really good to see that the academic environment, and the academic infrastructure, if you will, is growing with the industry, and there are a number of different programs, full programs, that are coming along, and a couple of them, to be specific, include Tufts up in Boston, stony Brook, down in New York, and these are actual academic programs as opposed to, if you want to call it, continuing educational programs or professional education programs, and it's great to see them develop the way they do. Another is the New Jersey Institute of Technology. I don't know, are you familiar with others as well?

Ian Voparil:

Yeah, I was. You know, off the top of my head I think of that program at UMass, Amherst, Right and right when I was leaving New Orleans, a couple of the community colleges and a four-year institution down there were also starting programs around offshore wind.

Jim Bennett:

You know that reminds me I definitely want to give a shout out to the first academic program that I came across and that was Bristol Community College up in Massachusetts.

Ian Voparil:

You know we're forgetting at least one or two and want to apologize in advance for that and for those in college considering a major what are the key ones that get recruited for in offshore energy?

Jim Bennett:

I am indeed very much a fundamentalist in that regard. Most people, I think, give a little bit too much weight and get too locked into a particular discipline because of their schooling. But I think the fundamentals are key to having a good launching, a good career, and those fundamentals are basic things. They're things like English, they're communications, they're interpersonal skills, and somebody coming out of school with those capabilities are in a better position to succeed, to my mind, than just somebody who has a few courses in a very technical area of renewable energy, and I think that's nothing new. I don't think that it is unique to renewable energy by any means, but I think it's something that you need to keep in mind. Understanding the larger context, the public sector, the private sector, the environmental groups, understanding all of those things and be able to communicate amongst those various groups is going to be the recipe for success over the long term.

Ian Voparil:

I do want to give a call out to those in the STEM disciplines, because they're so fundamental to the success of the industry and the ongoing success in the industry Mechanical engineering, naval architecture, structural engineering, now electrical engineering with power that's a new one for me those are key disciplines that folks need. I think, if you look at the job market, developers are also frequently hiring folks experienced in financing, particularly with complicated finance stacks like required for renewable energy development, and so if you've got a background in any of those things, I think you're going to find a very interesting community in offshore energy, particularly offshore wind right now.

Jim Bennett:

I will note that, yes, as you've said, there's all kinds of expertise needed in the development of this industry, and I am quite sure that there's a place for you in the mix of things.

Ian Voparil:

And what about for people already in their professional lives, perhaps in a different field, but those who want to show competence and gain experience that are relevant in offshore wind?

Jim Bennett:

but those who want to show competence and gain experience that are relevant in offshore wind. There's one group, of course, that we haven't mentioned yet, because it's so fundamental to the growth of the industry over time, and that's the Oceanic Network. The Oceanic Network, formerly known as the Business Network for Offshore Wind, started very early on trying to bring businesses together and has grown into a multifaceted organization, and one of those facets is training along the lines of the other training academies, as well as the academic programs.

Ian Voparil:

You mentioned the trade associations. I use the generic term, but oceanic, there's American Clean Power. There are some more like local and bespoke ones. Too Many of them do conferences, you know, as we know. But if you're just getting into the industry, you know there may be an opportunity for you to attend a conference. Attend a conference for students particularly, and folks earlier in their careers. There's even often support or scholarship available to help defray the cost of going to the conference, which I think is a great opportunity for those folks in their careers a lot of conferences are ensuring that uh higher level students get an opportunity to attend without having to pay the very relatively high prices especially for a student.

Ian Voparil:

Yeah, for sure, and thanks to them for doing that right, because it's really key.

Jim Bennett:

Yeah, absolutely, and I strongly encourage students or soon-to-be graduates go to one of these conferences and get overwhelmed by what's going on, and it'll help you.

Jim Bennett:

It'll help you and Jim, I know that you've been involved with the American offshore wind Academy, which is, you know, not a university curriculum but is an opportunity to kind of get a real deep dive on a particular topics and courses yeah, as I mentioned earlier, there was uh one of the early act Academ, if you will, professional training opportunities, including the University of Delaware and the Offshore Wind Skills Academy in Offshore Wind Academy, or AWA, has developed a very broad array of a lot of different technical and managerial aspects of offshore wind.

Ian Voparil:

You know the resumes of some of the others there. Yeah, it's really it's a great group to bring together that way, and I would be remiss not to mention something that my wife is going through right now. But you can also get a couple of different certificates, not offshore wind specific, but she's doing the Yale program and renewable energy finance, which is really a deep dive into all kinds of energy, but also, you know, then, the finance aspects of delivering renewable energy in the country, as well as the general kinds of certificates and certifications. Accreditation you can get in other things like project management, you know you can get all kinds of discipline-specific certifications that are relevant, you know, certainly valuable in the sector, though not necessarily about offshore energy in specific. All right Now, jim, let's hit it clearly here. How do people find jobs?

Jim Bennett:

It's been a long time since I've been out of graduate school, to say the least, and hitting the pavement trying to find a job, and it was the 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, find out who's doing what Another and, in support of that, in order to be in a position to know where you want to go with those sorts of things, talk with people after you've gone through where you want to go with those sorts of things. Talk with people after you've gone through where you want to be in the industry. You may not end up in that exact spot in the industry, but knowing where you want to go and having a direction to talk with people and network with people about it is likely to give you a better result.

Ian Voparil:

And Jim, I think people can get a good sense of the kinds of jobs out there on Google or, better yet, an offshore wind job search on LinkedIn where you can pull up, you know sometimes hundreds of jobs. There are specific descriptions, the roles and responsibilities and the competencies that people are looking for. It gives you a really good sense of the key things that are going to make you stand out as a candidate in this market.

Jim Bennett:

Absolutely. The job boards and the websites are kind of replaced what we were talking about before, and those are the mechanisms that are now available.

Ian Voparil:

And also, you know, many of the developers have their own career websites and you know what? If you're starting to understand where you want to head or how you want to work in the sector, check out the websites. Now, jim, in the intro we both mentioned the length of our careers in offshore energy and you know, with careers that long, we've certainly had key experiences that have helped us understand key needs or key opportunities to deliver and be successful in the industry. Let's share a couple of those, shall we?

Jim Bennett:

I was taken by the fact that we were genuinely trying to identify impacts into good science and do good science, and the reason I stayed in that arena was because there was a need for a lot of good science and the oil and gas industry at the time was trying to find that good science, and that was an issue for us throughout 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 minute and mention something that I did back in graduate school that always stayed in the back of my mind. We had an exercise to put together a little media pamphlet, a trifold it was called at the time. It was developed basically on a machine that is known today as the typewriter. You can see it in some museums, in some places, but it was a trifold public information piece, and the topic that I was working on was wind energy. And you've got to remember I'm going to date myself here, but the thing is that at the time this was during the Carter administration and offshore not just offshore wind, but wind power in general was the topic, and it was a long, long way from primetime, even onshore, much less offshore. But the point is I did that little pamphlet. Of course I didn't save it I wish I had but it was something that developed.

Jim Bennett:

It was an industry that developed both onshore and later offshore through the 80s and the 90s. It was way, way ahead of its time in terms of actual implementation. The offshore environment that I had been working in for about two decades suddenly was given authority in 2005 to do renewable gas, which typically had a black hat and was viewed as the bad guys. We were all of a sudden going to be the good guys with renewable wind, environmentally sensitive. We were quickly disabused of that notion in that we figured. We figured everybody was going to like us, and it was. It's always more complicated than that. There's always somebody who again, but it was that movement, always with an environmental threat associated with it, from a an extractive industry to a renewable industry. That was definitely a big draw for me.

Ian Voparil:

And I think the first one I had was actually my first big job at that energy company. They were looking to develop a piece of offshore oil and gas and a potential facility and pipelines to interconnect it all in an island off north of Japan, off of Russia. There was a lot of environmental concern around impact to fisheries, around impact to other marine resources like sensitive habitats, and impact to marine mammals. And I was a chemical oceanographer by training. But I came on board this company and you know my first big project was what effect will this project have on marine mammals? You know, are it basically an internal impact assessment? And because the company was trying to raise external financing, you know needed to have a pretty serious job done about it, needed to meet the requirements for the lenders.

Ian Voparil:

And so you know I was thinking, boy, as an academic I'm at a whole other, you know, league than marine mammal scientists. I studied chemical oceanography and chemical cyclings in the oceans, but what I realized is that in the room of people I was working with I have the best education to try to tackle those issues. I was already. I knew at least oceans and systems and could think about acoustics and things like that, and so that was my first thing right. My first learning was jump in Good thought and ability to really try to figure out the key issues around questions was instrumental.

Jim Bennett:

My background has been in government and government affairs for some time and what was the real eye-opener for me and this affects people as they develop their careers is that they need to recognize the system that we're working in. You recognize that. You had the education in a specific area that can contribute to the industry. I came to recognize and appreciate the system in terms of the role of the public sector and the private sector and the private sector. I came to respect the private sector in a very big way because that's where things gets done. It's where things gets done in the oil and gas program and it's where things get done in the renewables program. They're both set up in very similar ways and we need to keep that in mind, know and appreciate the roles and the contributions that the various sectors play, both government and the private sector, government being federal and state and local governments, as well.

Jim Bennett:

And I think that's a very key point as you develop your career and as you move into where you want to be and where you want your contribution to be.

Ian Voparil:

I think one of the things that I was lucky about in my career too is I came around at the right time and with the right education and background and mindset that I recognized some of these environmental issues. They were making projects stop, you know, they were making them so complicated that companies couldn't complete them and delaying timelines and making it difficult to obtain permits. I recognized that those issues were parts and you know in some cases some parts of the reasons why the projects were not being successful. And so the more that you can understand how what you do impacts the larger project or larger developments, economics, the better you can articulate that, the better you can see when risks are occurring and help leadership understand those and hopefully put in place the right kinds of mitigations and strategies to avoid, reduce, minimize, keep projects and keep delivery on track. And, Jim, it's not just the developer perspective that's important in overall project perspective. Right, You've been really important in how to involve the public in major offshore projects.

Jim Bennett:

Tell us a little bit about that I think because of the way public involvement has developed, and that public involvement is a very, very positive force, which did not used to be the case, and I completely agree. It's a great point that you're making about what we're talking about external forces, but in fact we're making those internal forces in the process of getting government and the private sector to come together with something that is acceptable for public involvement, and I think that's key to moving forward.

Ian Voparil:

Jim, we're talking about these things with the benefit of long careers that have given us great hindsight, but I don't want everybody to think that you need to know a lot about everything in order to be successful in offshore energy. In fact, once you find your passion and you get really good at it and you're in the industry, you have a lot of opportunity to learn on the job. In my case, for example, I learned project economics getting ready to take a role that I was going to be responsible for project economics.

Jim Bennett:

Yeah, if I could add to that. To be responsible for project economics yeah, if I could add to that in my career. One of the directions that I had and I didn't have a clear path from here to there I knew generally what I wanted to, how I would be satisfied in my job. But one thing that came along that I spent a lot of time on, that didn't even exist when I started my career, to speak of, was geographic information systems, and these are computer applications that came along. I had no plan to do that, but it led to that. It led to oil spill modeling, it led to environmental mitigation based on the information provided there. So, in addition to those other fundamentals, I would suggest that analytical skills are very, very valuable, and the tools like GIS but there's a lot of other tools as well that developed over time are going to become available to you and if you have the passion and the competitive spirit to move forward into those areas, you're going to be successful.

Ian Voparil:

Well, m, we've covered some of our experiences and some of our insight getting into the industry. You know, I hope we provided some actionable intelligence r, I?

Jim Bennett:

I hope so as well. U, I do think that, uh, as folks are trying to get in into the industry, they should keep in mind uh, uh, is certainly important, uh, and keep in mind that this is an industry that needs you. It's it's not an industry with a set number of positions and, uh, limited possibilities. It's growing at a at a rate of like 10 or 15 a year, and that's that's. That's incredible, and the industry really needs you, but it also needs you to know where you can make the best contribution.

Ian Voparil:

Yeah, that's great, Great advice, Jim. So much of offshore wind feels very adventurous. There are a lot of people out there doing first of a kind things and making this industry really come to life here in the United States. Jim, we are living in interesting times and listeners. Our next episode will be about how changes in presidential administrations impact offshore energy development.

Jim Bennett:

Yeah, I think we definitely have to cover that. We will take a look at what the real impacts are going to be, as opposed to the fears and the campaign slogans and the like. Let's talk about the reality of it, but also, of course, we have to talk about the Gulf of Maine. This is a huge, huge development in offshore wind and we'll cover both of those very timely issues in episode two. Well, Ian, it's been great talking with you.

Ian Voparil:

Jim great seeing you and talking to you too.

Jim Bennett:

And I'm looking forward to meeting with you again beyond the horizon On the next.

Ian Voparil:

Offshore Energy Podcast.