Wells Intern Review

I really enjoyed the internship because I received lots of support from my team and also people outside my team. It was especially challenging this year because it had to be conducted virtually. However, I still feel that it has been really well structured with appropriate "lessons" about different areas of the company throughout the internship. There were a lot of opportunities to network with people throughout the company even though it was carried out remotely. We had the chance to ask questions to people with really senior position to understand the company values and direction in greater depth.

At the start, I thought I would just be handled a small project that isn't too significant or challenging because I only had 6 weeks. However, throughout my internship, I learnt that my project really adds value to bp in the future in financially, environmentally and also improves the safety of operation. This was gave me a great sense of satisfaction while working. I also realized that colleagues from different team has been consistently working on similar projects as mine, but on either a much larger or smaller scale. It was great to know that I had a real taste of how it's like to work at bp.

My supervisor was very actively involved with my internship. We had a check-in of two times per week, minimally. On certain weeks, we met up for up to 3 or 4 times per week. I could also drop him a message using microsoft teams and he would answer really quickly because he does so as soon as he can. This made it much easier for me to learn quickly, despite the steep learning curve that is present since wells engineering is barely related to what I'm studying at university (Mechanical Engineering).

I was very busy on certain days but on some days, it was a bit more relaxed. However, I never had a day where I had no commitments or nothing to do. On the busy days, I would be speaking with people and collecting information. On the more relaxed days, I would be compiling and analyzing the information gathered. I had to balance the time to work on my project, as well as the time to learn about the company, networking and developing other soft skills.

I was given a lot of independence and freedom to define my project. I also had to speak with people from different teams and external contractor for my project. I was responsible for gathering the right information from the right people, without much help from my supervisor. I also was responsible to set my goals and track my own progress by using a self-evaluation form. My supervisor was there to guide me when I have any questions or when he thinks I am steering away from the project objectives. Most of the time, I had to decide and think about what I need to do next.

I have learnt a lot of soft skills throughout this internship. I learnt about the collaboration between bp and external contractors, and how to ask the right questions to the right people. I've also learned about career paths that different people took and took in their general advice about studies and careers. Most importantly, I learnt a lot about the importance of safety and how it is maintained throughout operation, or even as simple as in our home and office. I also learnt about the importance of speaking up and always asking the right questions to keep on learning.

Unfortunately, the internship was remote so I couldn't visit the office. But, the working atmosphere was great because help is always provided when asked. Everyone was really friendly and welcoming. The interns were introduced to the rest of the company/office through an email with our pictures and a short paragraph about ourselves. Many people reached out after receiving the email to have a short chat with us and always reassured us that we could schedule a meeting with them if needed even after the call.

I think the company invested a lot in me. They even brought in an external trainer to improve our presentation skills through a workshop. We had to prepare a presentation based on a "lesson" that was given. We then immediately get feedback after the presentation to improve before our intern competition and final internship review. The whole process of the competition and review were very transparent. We knew exactly the scoring rubric and what they were looking for. After the competition, we also received our exact marks with all the feedback written on it.

bp usually pipelines their intern for graduate jobs. They only open the graduate jobs for application when they do not get enough people to fill the jobs from the internship. Getting an internship with BP is definitely a plus! We are also made aware from the start that this internship is an 'assessment' to determine whether we will get a graduate job. We were even given the form that our assessors will use to evaluate us, so we can demonstrate our strengths and work on our weaknesses. I haven't heard back yet, but I should know the outcome within a month or so.

Even though it was remote, we still tried to keep in touch with the rest of the wells intern. They were all really helpful and friendly. We had a few social events virtually to get to know each other better as well. We made a group chat to regularly ask questions or give support and motivation to each other during the intern competition or final assessment. It was really nice to speak to them because we got to share our experiences from different teams.

There was quite a lot of opportunities to get involved even through it was a virtual internship. We could volunteer as STEM ambassadors and speak to young students. There was also a lot of networks such as bp pride and business resource groups (BRGs) to offer support and advice to employees about diversity and inclusion. We had the chance to join the network with them to get to know more about how we could make the office a safe space for everyone.