I’m going to start this book with some bad news for you if you didn’t already know:
Meritocracy alone in oil and gas doesn’t cut it. In fact, meritocracy alone in male-dominated fields doesn’t cut it.
You’ve probably been told that those who put their head down get rewarded proportionately. Unfortunately, that is farther from the truth, at least from my experience.
Come layoff time during my first job at an independent company in Midland, I relied on my network and sharing my past work to introduce me to the next opportunities.
I’ve found that being visible and having the ability to communicate impacts have gone a long way in my career. It is a form of leadership in your own destiny, your journey. There is a stereotype that women tend not to self-promote or hone in on the harder one works, then the work will be recognized automatically. I’m here to tell you that I defied that stereotype; however, I didn’t realize I was doing so.
Let me explain. I have the natural habit to share (or even overshare). Whenever I accomplished something, I told someone or I would post on social media. If I was experiencing trouble, I spoke up. I realized the accumulation of reporting helped me develop something I had no idea what it even meant: I built my brand.
When I was a junior in high school, my mom encouraged me to apply for the gifted and talented mentorship program. This is different from a traditional gifted and talented program, where select GT students from the school district participate in an industry mentorship program. As someone who was still deciding my career path, I vaguely remembered petroleum engineering from my summer camp before I went to high school. After doing some research, I realized petroleum engineering was a degree plan that existed in Texas schools, and I was set on learning that career. I also happened to find CO2 flooding and carbon capture topics on the internet, and I managed to finagle through that interview process for the mentorship program by talking technical details about those technical subjects. Apparently, I impressed the school administrators and got admitted into the industry mentorship program.
During the program, we were tasked to write cold emails to potential industry mentors in the Houston area. Out of the 20 cold emails I sent, I received only one response – and that reply made the whole difference.
That reply ended up being the first mentor I ever had in the oil and gas industry – Claude Thorp. Through his mentorship, he introduced me to the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the importance of networking, and I went to my first conferences and SPE short courses in the industry. I also managed to get a scholarship through the local SPE section as well.
I noticed putting myself out there was the first step to what I later learned as building my experiences – hence, building my brand.
Fast forward to university. I competed in the Student Paper Contest through SPE, where one wrote a paper over research or past internships and would present on that work to an industry audience. While I did not advance past the first local level my first three years of school, in my senior year I advanced to the international level and won the Bachelor’s Division.
I applied my skills in networking throughout my career, and I managed to mention my accomplishments at every opportunity I approached. Come layoff time during my first job at an independent company in Midland, I relied on my network and sharing my past work to introduce me to the next opportunities. As a result, I was able to land a role a month after being laid off.
It wasn’t until I started working for a non-operating oil and gas company that I started increasing my visibility by writing papers, showing up to SPE interviews, volunteering in the largest local section of SPE in the United States. It was through an accumulation of efforts I had an SPE staff member say that I had “built my brand.”
At the time, I did not know what that meant, so I reflected after each year of work experience to figure out what she meant. It wasn’t until recently that I recognized the patterns and habits I developed to earn that reputation. Meanwhile, I was merely trying to survive in the oil and gas industry and have a stable job.
I found that when I shared my accomplishments, I built credibility and reliability, providing me with leads for job opportunities. I found that when I shared troubles, I showed vulnerability and that I am a human being. These components added to developing trust in my relationships with people. And, slowly, I realized that was what it meant to build a brand.
Whether you’re on a frac site or inside a data room, your story matters – and Fueling Impact begins by showing readers why telling it is the most strategic move you can make in today’s energy landscape.
Excerpted with permission. Fueling Impact: How to Improve Personal Branding in the Oil and Gas Industry (Productivity Press; July 23, 2026) by Yogashri Pradhan.
