Reservoir Engineer Intern (PERE) Review

The work was enjoyable and I was given plenty of opportunities to steer my project into areas of interest to me.

My team was extremely welcoming and always happy to help whenever I was struggling.

My supervisor was organised and had everything sorted upon my arrival. Support was always available if you are simply willing to ask.

The work was full on at times, meaning I was often pretty busy – but this was not a big shock. At the beginning it is outlined to you what your project is, so if this seemed to much you are given every opportunity to speak up. Also, the work life balance in BP is extremely good – we were given every second Friday off and only worked a 36hour week. So it sometimes meant a few busy days so that you can take a long weekend without doing any work, which to me is still rather fair.

For my limited experience (none) as a reservoir engineer I was given a lot of responsibility. A colleague stopped working on the project when I came into BP and it was passed over to me. For the next 11 weeks I was the day-to-day reservoir engineer assessing the long term plan for the field. At the end of the placement the work was passed back over to the team.

We were given a presentation skills workshop which gave us the opportunity to practice our presentation techniques in a safe environment. This was of some benefit. Second to this the work I was conducting will be covered in more detail during the MSc I have chosen to study. For this reason the training and development provided by BP was enormously beneficial.

I wouldn’t say the fun never stopped. Everybody is hard working and focused, but that is not a bad thing. It is good to have a productive day at work and leave on time, rather than chat all day and not deliver your targets. In saying that the atmosphere did always perk up when it was time for cake, which is a regular occurrence in the office - at least one feast per week.

The internship was extremely well organised. Everything was set up on the first day – laptop, training, desk, project aims and so on. The recruitment team was always available when help was required too.

BP has committed to every student as if they were a full time employee. Many students were taken offshore, and so received the full offshore training. I personally have been provided more support than most students within BP, having been awarded a scholarship to study my MSc with financial aid from the company. BP also looks to convert as many interns into graduate starts as possible. This means there is enough positions for everybody to be offered a graduate job so long as they meet the required standards during the internship. I do not thing many other companies operate in such a way.

As I said, so long as you meet the standards during your internship the odds are in your favour that you will be offered a job.

Many of the students lived on halls together which provided a lot of opportunities for socialising.

Aberdeen is pretty cheap – a lot better than London anyway!

You can’t beat a night out in Aberdeen! But in all seriousness, it is quite a studenty place – and when the Aberdeen students leave during the summer, lots of summer interns from all sorts of companies flock to the city, meaning lots of students are still about.

With 40 interns based in Aberdeen the opportunities are endless.