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HR Discussion - Interview with Jorrit van der Togt, Shell What influenced your choice of a career in the oil and gas industry? I joined Shell via an internship program in South Korea where I worked on an IT program. Although I found Shell a great company to work for, I didn’t really like IT, so I opted to join HR instead and have been in HR ever since. Ironically, in my third job in Shell, I worked as an HR manager in IT, which turned out to be one of the best jobs I’ve ever had. What continues to attract me to Shell are the people I have worked with both on a personal and professional level, the global network I’ve established, the global technical and commercial challenges in the upstream and downstream worlds, and the strategic importance of the oil and gas industry that’s literally affected by just about any major event in the world. Classroom training is an important element of Young Professionals’ (YPs’) development plans. How should YPs decide which courses to select? Frankly, young engineers should not be selecting courses on their own. Instead they should be guided along the way. In Shell, we invest heavily in our technical professionals and especially in new graduates by providing a deep technical curriculum. The development plan is tailored to individual needs, determined through dialogue between supervisor and graduate, holistically looking at on-the-job training, coaching, formal training, etc. You need some skills to be productive now, but the majority of your formal training should be laying the foundation for the years to come. So don’t focus on courses alone, but focus on building a good launch pad for the future.