In her two decades at Wood in Aberdeen, Jamie Simmers has moved from a junior finance role to leading a team of 100 engineers to operate critical offshore infrastructure in the North Sea.
Wood is investing in people like Jamie, by providing opportunities to gain hands-on experience across a range of disciplines and projects, empowering them to share their passions and ideas with their teams, and addressing global challenges in energy security and the transition.
It’s been almost twenty years since I started my career at Wood, stepping into the company as a time writer supporting our North Sea oil and gas operations.
It wasn’t long before the company recognised my potential and I learned that if I worked hard and took ownership of my own development, the opportunities at Wood would be boundless.
So, with my sights set on learning and absorbing as much as possible, as quickly as possible, I took on new opportunities across project controls, business services, commercial and operations. One of the main reasons I love Wood is the variety that you are given, you aren’t siloed and are free to gain experience in a wide range of roles across the company. I have also had great opportunities to travel across the world as part of a global company.
I don’t have an engineering background, but my career pathway has led me to an operational role, where today I manage a multi-discipline team of 100 talented engineers and designers. When I started my career, I perhaps had the assumption that as a woman I would remain in business support roles rather than operations, I guess it was typically seen as more ‘male-dominated’. Hopefully now that there are female leaders in operational roles, the next generation can see it as an achievable career path.
I work with a fantastic team and every one of my teammates inspires me, in the way that they tackle complex challenges for our clients operating critical oil and gas infrastructure. Everyone says this at Wood, but it is true – the best thing about the company is the people and the culture.
I have been asked by friends and family: why Wood? My answer is always the same. I work for a company that is committed to building an inspired culture, investing in people, and supporting them to learn, grow and feel empowered to try something new.
The highlights of my career have always been the people I work with and the relationships we build. Although there are often hurdles and challenges to overcome, everyone rallies to support one another and remain results-focused to ensure we deliver performance excellence, always.
Being part of a high-performing team and going home at night knowing that we have delivered for our clients makes me so proud. Our standard of delivery is why we are retaining contracts and winning new work, propelling this period of growth. And all this growth creates opportunities for our team to progress, innovate and grow. Knowing that I am playing a small part in the career journey of my team gives me a great sense of achievement.
At Wood, we have a formal mentoring scheme. For the past twenty years, I’ve always had a mentor and would encourage everyone to have one. I picked out people within the business that inspire me and now owe a huge amount of my success to my mentors, particularly for my move from project controls to business services, they were able to coach me and give me the confidence to progress within the company. As a people business, we have a wealth of talent and expertise within the business and the opportunity for mentorship is a key benefit of working here.
After twenty years at the company, I do often get the question: what’s next? For me, it’s continuing to learn, develop and safely deliver for our clients.
We have a clear strategy for growth, the company is adapting, evolving to deliver for clients in new ways, and solving complex challenges in critical industries. To be part of designing the future of energy is genuinely rewarding and I’m excited to see what’s next – I know that it will be as fulfilling as the past two decades have been, if not even more so.
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