Entry-Level Oil & Gas/Petroleum Engineering

uaprophet
Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:30:28 +0000

The overall goal of NSBE (and respectively for SHPE) is to increase the number of culturally responsible black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally, and positively impact the community. It is essentially a very large student run organization which strives to ensure the development of current & future black engineers. It was started in the early 70s and though the primary goal was to help black engineers, it is by no means exclusive. There are several non-black members at my school.
Anyway, we have various goals - we like all our members to be able to attend the conferences as they provide additional benefits, but they can be expensive depending on where they are located (our 2009 national conference is in Las Vegas and I live in Alabama). Now, internships or whatever are not given away but just the fact that you can meet a representative in person always comes in handy. At many conferences though, several companies explicity state that they are looking to hire ‘X’ number of people for internships, co-ops, and even full-time positions. At the national conventions there are hundreds of employers ranging from oil companies, financial institutions, R&D companies, etc. I remember speaking with one representative at a company booth just to receive the gift bag, next thing I know, I am in the back room for an interview. The opportunities aren’t restricted to just blacks. The majority of our members are black so it may appear that way. And yeah, pretty much just open your mouth and introduce yourself- you never know what will come of it, even if it is just a business card. I am normally a quiet guy but am learning to become less of an introvert. Some representatives will stop you and introduce themselves and start a conversation. Anyway, I’ll stop here to save from changing the topic of this discussion.