Patrick’s Journey to Operations Support, Principal
“I would always joke that I never would work in an office,” says Pat. “But circumstances lead me to this role where I now have the opportunity to be a voice for our rig operations and help integrate their perspectives and needs in larger company decisions.”
While bridging the gap between field operations and corporate, Patrick enjoys paying it forward.
From roughneck to the corporate office, Patrick Gustafson, Operations Support Principal, says hisexperiences at H&P allow him the unique opportunity to be a liaison between drilling operations and theengineering department.
“I would always joke that I never would work in an office,” says Pat. “But circumstances lead me to thisrole where I now have the opportunity to be a voice for our rig operations and help integrate theirperspectives and needs in larger company decisions.”
Although he did not envision himself working in a corporate setting when he first joined the H&P teamin 2005 as a floorhand on Rig 239, he considers himself fortunate to have started his journey with thecompany under leadership that supported and encouraged him to work his way up to the role he is intoday.
“I was able to come up under mentors and senior supervisors who wanted to see all their personnelsucceed,” Pat reflects. “I think the fear of failing holds people back, but at H&P I always felt nobody wasgoing to let me fail if I didn’t want to and that pushed me to take the leap. “
In his current role, Pat often reflects on his time out in the field and uses his first-hand experience toserve as a sounding board for the different departments, and ultimately helps the engineering teammeet their goal of fostering a positive relationship with field operations through consistent and effectivecommunication.
Aside from his liaison duties, Pat claims that the part he enjoys most about his day-to-day has been theability to become the kind of mentor and leader that helped him grow in his own career to the teamsaround him now. He advises new rig employees to leverage every opportunity to connect with and learnfrom the great mentors that surround them, because keeping an open mind and working hard with agood attitude are the only prerequisites to be successful at H&P.
Patrick sees his story as the perfect example of the impact quality leaders and their guidance can haveon a young employee.
“I’m just a roughneck,” he says with a chuckle. “It’s a unique opportunity to be able to work within theengineering department because most other companies wouldn’t have a non-engineer working in thisrole. I feel very fortunate that H&P gave me this chance and the confidence to take it.”