Oil and gas giant Chevron Australia plans to more than double the number of graduates it will employ this year as it ramps up its recruitment to meet increasing demand for exploration and development, including its $11 billion Gorgon gas project in the No
Oil and gas giant Chevron Australia plans to more than double the number of graduates it will employ this year as it ramps up its recruitment to meet increasing demand for exploration and development, including its $11 billion Gorgon gas project in the North West.
The company is one of several resource giants upping their intake in anticipation of bigger workloads, with fierce competition on wages and conditions.
Chevron is looking to increase its graduate intake from 18 graduates to 40 graduates, or about 5 per cent of its total Australian workforce. Chevron recruited just five graduates in 2005.
Woodside is increasing its graduate intake to 60, up from 50 last year and more than double the 25 it recruited in 2005.
Meanwhile, Rio Tinto is increasing its graduate intake as part of a wider recruitment drive to employ thousands of people for its $1.3 billion Hope Downs iron ore project in the Pilbara.
Attracting the right people in an increasingly competitive marketplace has led many companies to offer big salary packets and incentives as well as focusing on their brand and reputation.
Rio has placed its corporate videos on You Tube, the video-sharing internet site popular with young people.
Conditions currently on offer for graduates yet to spend a day on the job include nine-day fortnights, gym memberships and other health benefits, and international travel opportunities.
Graduate Careers Australia research manager Bruce Guthrie said the median starting salary for a mining engineer under 25 years of age and in their first full-time job was $64,500 last year, up from $47,100 in 2001.
“That’s a 36.9 per cent increase in the median starting salary between 2001 and 2006 compared to a 16.6 per cent increase for all graduates,” Mr Guthrie said.
Scotford and Fennessy senior consultant Penny Stapleton said many of the miners were adding to pay packets by offering incentives, such as paying a 13 per cent superannuation contribution and offering allowances of between $10,000 to $12,000 for employees who work on mine sites.
“All up, some graduates can earn about $85,000 or $90,000,” she said.
Ms Stapleton, a former geologist, said the biggest change she had seen in entry-level positions was a focus on the bottom line wage.
“The advertising now all leads with the money, it’s not about the career opportunity. It has been a complete shift in the past five years,” she said.
Ms Stapleton said many graduates were presented with several offers and often the determining factor came down to the company’s reputation or the particular mine site.
Not only are the big miners increasing the pay packets, they are also trying to sign them up earlier than previous years.
Chevron has been heavily marketing its offerings at career expos and is currently assessing applications.
Chevron human resources manager Simon Hogan said the oil and gas giant began advertising and working with university groups at the beginning of the year, the earliest it had ever done so.
By the time the program is completed, the company will have spent about $500,000 on a national advertising campaign and recruitment roadshows across Australia.
Ms Stapleton said Chevron was not alone in trying to lure graduates early into their third year of study.
“It’s a rarity to find a candidate [graduate] that has not had any contact from a mining company,” she told WA Business News.