Intern Review

My week at Shell arguably remains the most amazing spring insight experience I have had to date. I enjoyed everything right from the lovely, warm welcome by our two enthusiastic hosts for the week and the impeccably organised schedule to the sociable mix of students and variety of evening activities we took part in.

Our two hosts and the other Shell employees we met put a great deal of effort into making sure all students were enjoying the experience. On the day of our arrival, they made sure we were happy with our hotel accommodation and knew where to go for food: Shell covered the expenses incurred. I felt extremely valued indeed.

A fair amount of the presentations were tailored towards demystifying the Shell application process. Opportunities were also given for me to ask questions I had which were related to my options at Shell, their graduate programme as well as the weeks activities. They also provided each student with financial support by reimbursing travel expenses up to a £200 sum.

The analytical and negotiation skills I developed through engaging in activities like the case study and the Stress Nexus Energy Challenge simulation have proved very useful to me when I have taken part in similar group exercises for example. In terms of my degree studies, the information I received has helped me decide to stay on my MEng degree as offers the most straightforward path to becoming a chartered engineer.

Very well structured indeed! Prior the beginning of the insight, I received emails detailing the schedule for the week, important addresses to note as well as the names and emails of all other successful applicants I would be meeting on the program. Upon arrival, this information helped me to hit the ground running and transition smoothly between activities as the program progressed.

The atmosphere was very friendly but also silently competitive. The universities represented there were limited to Cambridge, Oxford, LSE, Warwick, and whilst the pool of talent was a great motivation to perform at my best, I also sensed strong selfish motives from some students. Examples of this include some students constantly speaking over less confident team members in group meetings and completely taking up others' share of time during the team presentations.

I met graduates who had full time roles at Shell and was able to ask them about the activities they engage in as part of their job on a day to day basis. In most cases this would be in an informal networking setting, such as bowling or dinner, so I was able to ask some graduates a wider range of questions about their Shell experience after building rapport with them.

Before the spring week, I knew very little about how energy companies were structured and how a fresh graduate might fit in to the organisation. After absorbing the week's content, in terms of presentations about the division within Shell, I was able to decide that a career in the upstream division was most suited my aspirations.

Yes, Shell provided social activities such as a bowling night out and dinner at different restaurants in Canary Wharf during our stay. These events were also networking opportunities as we would be accompanied by Shell employees on the graduate programme. One notable observation I made was that the ratio of graduates to students was fairly generous; giving each student more opportunity to ask their own questions.

Brilliant! The 'work hard, play hard' ethos really was really very evident in way the morning's business activities were balanced with social activities in the evening. These events were a great opportunity to bond with other students as the social setting was always very relaxed and generally allowed for a great evening!