It’s funny because prior to going to university, I did not know a single engineer in my life. There was no engineer in my direct family and I am not sure if any of my family members then (besides my father) even knew anyone who works as an engineer.

And since I knew nobody personally who works as one, it’s one of those hazy profession that I never much thought about except knowing that they construct buildings, build roads and all those things.

Then when I was in the university, my biggest group of friends were made up of engineering students. Later, not only did I marry one, our household is also made up of another two other engineers!

So what do I think about engineers now?

Their work knows no calendar.

Generally oil & gas engineers are well paid but what some may not realized is that they work on a calendar and time of their own.

Public holidays and weekends can mean nothing and when there is a project going on and they are involved, you can expect phone calls at odd hours or they can leave for work at 3 o’clock in the morning!

And those on shift work for 12 hours.

They work with weird structures

Before I came to Brunei and specifically, the Belait district, I have never thought about how we get oil from under the ground.

“Platforms” were for shoes, “donkeys” were animals and “flare stacks” were not in my vocabulary at all.

Now even my kids know the “nodding donkeys”, which is the Belait landmark.

While I can tell you what this missile-looking structure is for.

Their job can be dirty.

I used to vaguely thought that since engineers are paid well, they must work in comfortable environments too.

But two of the engineers in my household often came home with overalls full of grease much to the exasperation of their wife and mother who struggled daily to wash these stubborn stain away.

And you don’t want to see these grease which no store bought detergents can get rid of.

They live in overall and boots.

They may have high flying job titles but many of these men (and women) can’t wear any designer shirts (blouses) and ties (or skirts) to work.

In fact, their most common attire is the ubiquitous overall donned not only by labourers who cut grass on the roadside but also graduate engineers, senior engineers and even the big bosses in oil & gas companies (during certain times).

And you can bet that even though some engineers can afford to work in shirts and pants (or blouses and skirts for the lady engineers), they have overall, boots, hard hat ready in their trunk of their car.

And a lady engineer friend told me that at some factories, one can’t even wear make-up.

Their work area can look chaotic.

Since they use overalls for work, you can imagine the kind of things they work with.

These are just some of the objects lying around oil & gas companies which to me, not only looks alienish but what bothers me most is how untidy they look and stressful to the untrained eyes.

And you can bet that this chaos is the least of their stress.

They are handy with machines

Perhaps its only the men at my home but they are sure handy with machines. We need only holler whenever something are not working (water pump, lawn mower or computers) and we can count on them for jobs like cleaning the air-con which saves us servicing cost.

Their offshore trips can be unpredictable

Engineers whose duty involved going offshore have to be prepared for last minute change of plans (arriving back later than scheduled and sometimes at a different port).

Worse, the spouses of engineers’ who went offshore might get news that their offshore trip has been extended another week…

But that’s just life with oil & gas engineers.

It might be hard in the beginning but after a while, it’s just something that engineers and their family members get used to sooner or later.