petroleum engineer

production engineer

engineer

administrative assistant

it analyst

Occidental

A typical day as a Contract Administrator involves reviewing and drafting various types of contracts, coordinating with legal, procurement, and project teams, and ensuring all contractual terms align with company policies and compliance requirements. I spent a large portion of my day managing deadlines, organizing contract files, and tracking key deliverables or renewal dates. Attention to detail and consistent communication were essential every day.

Through this role, I learned the critical importance of risk management, negotiation tactics, and how to interpret legal language in commercial contracts. I also became more confident navigating ERP systems like SAP and using contract lifecycle management (CLM) tools, which helped streamline our processes.

Management was generally supportive and encouraged professional development. I appreciated how they provided clarity on expectations and deadlines but also trusted me to work independently. Workplace culture was collaborative, with a strong emphasis on accuracy, teamwork, and cross-functional communication, especially when dealing with high-value or time-sensitive agreements.

The hardest part of the job was managing competing priorities from different departments. At times, I had to juggle urgent contract requests, complex revisions, and last-minute approvals — all under tight timelines. It required strong organizational skills and the ability to stay calm under pressure.

The most enjoyable part of the job was seeing a contract go from draft to execution, knowing that it directly supported a larger project or strategic goal. It was also rewarding to collaborate with legal counsel and vendors to find fair and compliant solutions.

Overall, the role sharpened my analytical and communication skills and offered a great balance of independent work and teamwork. It’s a fulfilling position for anyone who enjoys structure, detail, and playing a vital role in business operations.

I started woring on this new tool-Bambino hardness tester to develop a methodology where I can capture hardness of core sections using this tool.
After developing the methodology I used this tool to capture hardness of cores from 3 different field.
My next part was to correlate this hardness with core data such as grain density and core porosity and sonic log derived rock parametrs such as elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio.
And then I found the reasons of different correlation of this hardness data acquired by Bambino to parameters-porosity, grain density, elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio.
I learned that this tool captures a high resolution heterogeneity compared to sonic log which reads an average of 2-3 ft. And this is one of the reason that sonic log overlooked the laminations or heterogeneity.
This hardness data is being used right now in FracPro model to optimize the hydraulic fractures and develop a brittleness index.

What is the best part of working at the company?
pay day.  Occasional process improvements when working with maintenance.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Technical manager knew precious little about process and project engineering.  Technical staff has very little experience.  The experienced engineers have been driven into retirement.  The replacements are new college hires.  Oxy is more concerned with the salary that an engineer receives instead of the competence.  Engineers at Wichita are limited to the "Senior Engineer" title.  Engineers at Houston receive the "Senior Engineer" title with 5-7 years of experience.  Experience is not valued at Wichita.  Don't apply there. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
At Wichita, it is very stressful.  The managers aren't familiar with the process equipment.  Since the experienced engineers have retired, not sure who will make technical decisions.  At other sites it may be better.

There isn't a culture or camaraderie at Wichita.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Get to work, review emails, review recent plant performance.  Participate in daily production meeting.  Work on projects and assist with plant troubleshooting.

My experience with Oxy was great overall; the people are generally engaged and great, the work was extremely interesting and the culture was in transition, with HQ having recently relocated to Houston from LA. The corporate team in which I worked was still stuck in their old-school LA mindset - which sounds contradictory in a way, I know, but these individuals were apparently used to being catered to, totally coddled by upper management (CEO), and brooking no new ideas or innovative suggestions. Their every whim obeyed with whip-crack alacrity, and if you suggested even a whiff of change to an existing process or a new approach, a creative solution , it was first beaten down, and then promptly portrayed as their own if it wasn't discarded outright out of fear of change and loathing! This was a terrible but unique situation and my experience with certain individuals turned out to be unexpectedly negative. Unfortunately, they didn't get the memo that Houston is a nice place to work, we are all very supportive of each other and of diversity (in every way, including ideas), and we come to Houston from all over the world to work in the oil industry and other businesses. This team should be replaced with people who really understand the nature and culture of the oil business.

Occidental Chemical was a great company to work for. It was a high learning experience for me because I had the opportunity to become a buyer for the plant which entailed, purchasing parts, equipment, etc. and having equipment repairs, getting bids for contractors to do work inside the plant. This job was very high stressed but I loved it. I worked directly with the planners to keep the plant operating to make the chemical products to sell to our clients. Previous to being a buyer I was an executive to 4 top managers, general manager, manger of human resources, manager of marketing and manager of accounting. I learned to multi-task due to working for different department heads, which was challenging.Occidental was a fair company in salary, benefits and 401's, and retirement. I found it to be one of my most enjoyable jobs even though the hours were very long. I had to work sometimes 14 hours when I was a buyer because I had to stay on for the meetings for shift change managers to find out what was needed for the plant to continue its operations.
I began working at 7:30 AM and worked until 6:30 to 7:30 PM. It was long hours but the work was interesting and challenging. I enjoyed working with all the employees. I am a team player.

Overall, Occidental is a great company to work for.  It has all of the things a professional working in Corporate America; great work/life balance, 9/80 work schedule, flexible work schedule, laid back work environment, and hands-off management who are approachable if desired.

My complaint concerns the job tasks and duties and not the Company itself.  Though initially somewhat challenging (mostly attributed to not having any previous experience in an industry role) the job tasks became monotonous and mundane after a few months of working there and has not grown to be challenging since.  Most of the tasks have become routine and require little-to-no train of thought.  I have discussed my frustration with management; however, their idea of career progression is doing a similar job in a different commodity.  Although the job would be ideal for those looking for great work/life balance and predictability, I feel like I am being pigeon-holed into a back-office accounting role, when I am looking for more professional development that would allow me to do things other than record journal entries, set up payments, perform month-end close, etc.

What I was sold in my interview was not what I received on the job.
I was told about the teamwork and camaraderie, great work/life balance, little to no overtime (would be working towards no overtime with my addition), little employee overturn, and open communication.
In actuality, most people don't speak to you (even when you speak to them with a friendly hi or good morning), overtime at month end was expected and not going to change (with no extra time off or anything to make up for losing days off or working extra time; no give and take), at least five people quit in the three months I was there, gossip was everywhere, and people were very two-faced. I was so unhappy that I became physically ill after my first two weeks on the job. I was literally sick to my stomach at the thought of going to work, which caused me to miss a lot. I didn't speak to many people who enjoyed working there, peer and manager level.
The compensation/benefits will wow you, but the atmosphere is awful. You have to figure out what is important to you. Money or liking your job.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Oxy has a good leadership team.  Some were among the best I have worked for.  The company has a broad variety of assets that offers excellent experience opportunities for a midsized business. Prior employees that I knew who worked for Oxy more than 15 years ago claimed the company was "roothless" with its employees.  This was absolutely not my experience with the more recent leadership team. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I was late in my career and did not experience unusual stress.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The culture tends to give employees broad responsibilities and freedom to creatively learn the job.  Team structure and multidisiplinary teams provide good supervisory oversite to learn the job.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Pretty much standard stuff.  Brainstorming to list the opportunities you saw to help meet business goals, prioritizing, working the problems, presenting to your manager, measuring results, and applying what was learned.

o	Managing drilling and completion operations as an onsite 24 hour supervisor.
o	Ordering and scheduling delivery of materials and supplies.
o	Coordinating tug barges with other islands and locations up to two weeks in advance.
o	Managing crews, third party contractors, and supervisors. Up to fifty employees.
o	Performing daily meetings with personnel to go over tasks, goals, and safety.
o	Generating daily “plan forwards” to describe daily tasks for onsite personnel.
o	Attending daily conference calls, pre job meetings, and coordination meetings with other departments.
o	Calculating and planning depths, lengths, and volumes for casing and cement jobs.
o	Work with state officials to obtain permit approvals and generating reports on work performed.
o	Reporting hourly information to the company’s data base on the progress of the drilling operations.
o	Managing daily spending and rental charges. Reporting charges in the company’s data base.
o	Scheduling jobs and tasks to certain daylight hours for noise control in urban environments.
o	Required to make important decisions based during time sensitive issues using experience and common knowledge.

Oxy as a company is fantastic and their culture reflects that. The company offers great benefits and the people you work with are fantastic. There is a diverse group of people on the accounting side. Sure it's cliquish but what major company isn't? Let's be honest if you went to a school with 20k or more people it's second nature to you or should be.

I work in accounting at Oxy and my big gripes are the insane work loads, small pay raises, it's hard to move around the company and your job satisification is very much determined by who you work for. If you are interviewing at Oxy you're best bet is to talk to people you know there. Usually they will tell you who the difficult managers are. I like who I work with for but there a few on my floor I wouldn't work for.

However, I feel like its a great first job out of college or if you are early on in your career. You get to learn about the industry really well and it will open up excellent exit options once you leave. Just don't buy what they sell you in the interview and that should go for any company you interview with.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Petroleum engineer 3 salaries reported	$171,667 per year
Production engineer 3 salaries reported	$130,067 per year
Engineer 4 salaries reported	$138,750 per year
Administrative assistant 10 salaries reported	$27.00 per hour
It analyst 5 salaries reported	$112,840 per year

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