Chemical & Process Engineering Summer Internship Review

Day to day I worked within the Process Safety and Integrity Squad looking at past HAZOP and LOPA actions for the North Sea Platforms. My day to day involved meeting with the squad and the other process engineers to discuss my project and completing calculations to aid the knowledge around a certain safety scenario. Through out my time there were also many chances to discuss other roles process engineers can go into within the company and learn more about all different areas of the business.

My presentation skills have been massively developed during my internship. bp give you many opportunities to present to different audiences from fellow interns to judging panels made from senior people within the company. Not only has this improved my public speaking, but also my ability to quickly make a presentation without much notice. I've also had the chance to develop basic office skills such as email etiquette and the use of different software such as Teams.

Yes! It is very clear when you start this internship that you are given actual project work that will add value to the company. They don't give you anything that has been specially created for just the summer. Instead I ended up working on projects very similar to that of the rest of the team and it was clear to see the impact my work would have after I left. I was also given the opportunity to join different committees which gave me added responsibility.

A lot and from many different people! The internship gives you a line manager and assigned supervisor who are there to support you with all of you daily work but you are also given a buddy and put in an intern family. Your buddy is someone who does a similar role to you and is currently in the graduate programme. They are there to help you with settling in to the company and area as well as answering any stupid questions you might not want to ask your line manager or supervisor.

The company culture is one of the main things that attracted me to working for bp and I've been happy to find out it is exactly how I thought (if not better). Working in this industry, safety is something that should be of utmost importance and this is something that is definitely true at bp. They constantly encourage discussions around safety with the use of safety moments and they also encourage acceptance of everyone at work through DE&I moments. This overall makes for a very friendly and inclusive culture.

I really enjoyed this internship! Despite having to move to a new city and be thrown into work as a process engineer, I felt supported along my whole journey. The other interns based in my office were very friendly and I've made connections I know I'll keep for a long time to come. Ultimately, this experience has given me exactly what I wanted from it in terms of finding out more about the company but has also given me things above and beyond what I expected in terms of the friendliness of colleagues.

Yes

Go for it! The application process is tough but 100% worth it! Really learn about the company values because they are an integral part of working here and that really shows in the types of questions asked during interviews. The technical interview may seem scary but really it's just a chance for you to display your engineering knowledge and your way of thinking. If you don't know something just say and maybe give a suggestion of where you might go to learn more. It is perfectly alright to not know something and the interviewers would much rather have you be honest and try give an idea than pretend you know and end up wafflign your way through an incorrect answer.