Abstract

One of the factors that controls success in the petroleum industry is success of the exploration program. The exploration geophysicist is one of the exploration team members that plays an important roll in bringing about that success. However, a competent and skilled exploration geophysicist is not naturally born, he or she must be formed. Hence, a proper mentoring and training program becomes a must. It seems that time and budget constraints constantly challenge a successful personnel development program. To balance the need for a successful development program and the time and budget limitations an effective, efficient and committed mentoring and training program is the only solution. Factors controlling success are mentoring and coaching techniques, project difficulty versus experience, types of courses taken, timing of courses, breadth of exposure, work environment, serious career planning and committment on the part of both the supervisor, mentor and the developing geophysicist. A general guideline that the authors believe will be beneficial to the development of Indonesian geophysicists is herein offered. But remember, training and development programs should not suffer because their success may be difficult to measure today. Sometimes success of a training and development program can only be measured by exploration success five years in the future.