When Ahmed Al-Harbi finished his geology degree in 2016, he felt ready on paper but unsure in practice. He knew the theory well. What he did not know was how that theory worked in real projects, with real data and real deadlines. On his first day at work, he realised he had never followed a full subsurface dataset from start to finish. A senior colleague suggested he attend a DGS technical talk, and that one evening became the start of a long journey with the society.
Ahmed went to his first DGS talk mostly out of curiosity. He came back the next month, and the month after that. Within a year, he had signed up as a member and joined the society’s early career program. The talks gave him something university had not: a chance to hear experienced geoscientists explain how they solved actual problems. He learned how teams make decisions when data is incomplete, how they test ideas, and how they present results to people outside geoscience.
The turning point came during a DGS field trip to outcrops in the Eastern Province. For the first time, Ahmed stood in front of the rock layers he had only seen in seismic sections and core photos. Seeing them in person changed how he read his data. He started thinking in three dimensions, and his interpretations improved a lot after that trip. He also met people from different companies and backgrounds, and some of them are still the people he calls when he needs a second opinion.
Through the DGS workshop series, Ahmed took short courses in seismic interpretation, reservoir characterisation and technical presentation skills. The last one surprised him the most. He used to avoid speaking in meetings, but the workshop taught him how to tell a clear story with his data. A year later, he gave his first talk at a DGS evening session. It was a short case study, but it helped him get noticed inside his own company as well.
Today, Ahmed leads a small team of geoscientists working on exploration projects. Many of the habits he uses every day came from his time in DGS programs: asking good questions, sharing knowledge openly, and always checking ideas against the rocks. He now gives back as a volunteer mentor and works each year with two or three young members who are where he was not long ago.
“DGS gave me a community when I needed one,” Ahmed says. “Now I try to do the same for others. If a new graduate walks into a talk feeling lost, I want them to leave feeling they belong.”
Ahmed plans to complete a technical certification next year and hopes to lead a DGS field trip of his own. For him, the journey from trainee to team leader is still going, and the society remains a big part of it.
