Enabling self-growth while helping build the energy future
As a young graduate joining Shell, Badrul was attuned to delivering what was assigned to him. Today, he talks about the pursuit of growth and aligning himself to energy transition goals.
Badrul has known and looked up to the Shell brand since he was a child. Growing up in a town in Malaysia, he recalls seeing the expansive presence of Shell stations during visits to Kuala Lumpur with his family. After graduating with a degree in Logistics and Supply Chain Management in 2017, when a friend mentioned an opening in Shell, Badrul leapt at the opportunity but was also nervous about finding his place in one of the largest companies in the world.
Badrul joined the order-to-delivery department which oversees tanker operations and is tasked with ensuring that retail sites and end customers receive energy consistently, reliably and in the most cost-effective way. He spent his initial months absorbing the scope and scale of the task at hand and learning the ropes from collaborative professionals with several years of experience managing global supply chains and deliveries.
“As a fresh graduate joining a company you wouldn’t know anything,” he says. “But the people in my team are always open to sharing knowledge and expertise. They’d always check in with me and ask if I needed help.” Nearly a year into the job he realised how fulfilling the role is to him and how the work he did, contributed to the lives of millions of people in his country, fulfilling their energy needs by ensuring stations are always stocked to pump out. “It’s exciting to come in each day knowing that the work I do ensures that communities never fall short of good quality and affordable energy and that I can continue to find more carbon efficient ways to deliver that energy.”
A little over five years into his career, Badrul now leads a team that manages delivery scheduling for two countries – Indonesia, and Singapore. He attributes a large part of his growth to having the opportunity to collaborate with experienced colleagues and to the Shell culture that encourages curiosity, enables open conversations, and provides an incredible environment for professionals to learn. “My colleagues taught me the true meaning of having a learner mindset,” he recalls. “It does not matter how young you are, how much experience you have or how bizarre an idea you may have, everyone here is encouraged to express themselves and every opinion is taken into consideration.”
He has innumerable examples to illustrate how his colleagues, the company’s culture, and the opportunities it gives have helped him grow his skills on the job. However, one noticeable growth that has helped him throughout his career is in his personality, he says. “I was reluctant and hesitant. Working at Shell has changed that for me as a person.”
A tangible outcome of this positive shift in personality was seen when Badrul, after delivering good results for the Singapore region, actively sought to expand his scope of work and requested his line manager to add Indonesia to his portfolio. “I wanted to learn and expand into a new territory and the company recognised my work,” he says. “This opportunity was a huge steppingstone for me.”
The opportunities to grow and a culture that promotes learning keep Badrul motivated as he delivers reliable energy to communities today and contribute to finding energy solutions for the future.