8/4/2019 Career Tips From J Pastor
1/2
Page 1
Career Tips from J. Pastor A Summary Report
Jerry Pastor retired from the Chevron Corporation on May 31,
2010 after 42 years of meritorious service.
This report is a summary of interactive session Jerry had with
some members of the CNL community on
May 27, 2010.
The lessons learned during the one hour session are captured in
a summary format and Q&A type report
below.
Jerry opened the session after a brief opening by the meeting
convener with a safety moment (exhibiting
one of the Chevron Way Values) on walking safely during the
rains to avoid slips, trips and falls.
1.0 BACKGROUND
Jerry Pastor, a Chemical Engineer by education, started his
career 42 years ago working for Chevron
(Gulf) under the synthetic fuel research group. This endeavor
involved making liquid fuel out of coal. He
worked in this group for 15 years before moving to the Global
Upstream line of the Chevron businesswhere he worked for another 27
years prior to his retirement.
1.1 GENERAL CAREER ADVICE
y Seek mentors in the system and from other technical outsiders;
develop effective mentoringrelationships.
y Ensure you have lots of grounding in any chosen function. Move
into various roles in yourfunction to gain an overall understanding
of the function e.g a Facilities Engineer should getinvolved in
onshore projects, offshore projects, projects running through Phase
1-4,contracting, procurement etc.
y For an effective mentoring relationship, be open to learn from
someone who can share with
you their experiences.
y Always seek to build a good spirit of team work we all work
better when the team is cohesiveand without friction.
y Develop the habit of delegating as a display of good
leadership. When you do delegatehowever, Jerry cautions that you
set clear expectations, provide trust to the employee andmonitor
what the employee does (mentoring).
y Always have an attitude of How can I contribute to the overall
business goal of Chevron looks for solutions and add value to the
company.
y Look at what you can do at the next level in terms of
expectation and performance.
y Always ask the question how does my deliverable affect the
overall picture. Always ensureyour output is in line with the
Companys desired goals.
2.0 Q & A SESSION
What would you do differently looking back at your 42years
career with Chevron?
y Learn the language of the people of Nigeria and other foreign
nations where I worked (CulturalDiversity).
8/4/2019 Career Tips From J Pastor
2/2
Page 2
y Learn how to better work (effectively/efficiently) with our
Partners (NAPIMS, DPR, NCDMBetc). Effective working relationships
will lead to lots of time and cost savings.
y Learn how to maintain a good relationship with our Partners a
key recipe for our businesssuccess.
What do you mean when you say one should be grounded in your
discipline?
y Grounding implies using the knowledge gained from ones
tertiary education days in your earlyyears in the company. Such
exercise will enable you to understand and fully apply theknowledge
gained during your school days on actual field experiences.
y After a couple of early years in the company, it is encouraged
that you seek other crossfunctional experiences (Ops, Planning etc)
to give you a broader perspective of the variousaspects of the
company.
What will be your definition of a successful career after 42
years with Chevron?
y A successful career is one where you:
o Have the ability to perform and deliver to expectation
o Are given jobs of increasing responsibility ( sign of valued
performance) and gainingexperience from the new challenge
o Enjoy the work you do and have personal satisfaction
o Have job satisfaction (looking forward to the next day at
work)
o Meet so many people and get recognition (people acknowledging
the work you havedone)
What is good work ethics?
y Good work ethics is a display of commitment at work with the
desire to:
o Delivering a good days work for a good pay
o Add value to the company daily
What is the ideal career route?
y There is no ideal career route but one needs to be mindful of
the following:
o Moving through various functions too often does not give an
employee the required depth(no form of mastery of the function)
o Know that if you make a career change, commit to it for a
period to be able to broadenyou base
o When on foreign assignment, do not stay-out for too long so
you do not get forgotten byyour parent work group. Gain the
experience and get back to your organization
How do you manage time effectively?
y Keep a daily list of what needs to be done
y Set priority on these lists
= END =
