I’m currently a Petroleum Engineering student at OU (graduating December 2017) with a 3.2 Cumulative GPA, 3.75 PE GPA, but haven’t had any luck getting an internship thus far in my college career. However, I do have the opportunity to work in the field as a floor hand over winter break and the summer to supplement my internship requirement. Will I be at a disadvantage with this experiences vs my peers that have had internships when I graduate and am looking for a job? Or will this experience prove to be advantageous?
https://careers.slb.com/recentgraduates/engineering/internships.aspx
http://www.whiting.com/2015-engineering-intern/
http://careers.chevron.com/disciplines/index_of_disciplines/engineering/internships.aspx
how about these companies?
Thanks for replying! I’ve applied to all three of those companies and like 20 others but with no luck. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. That’s why I posted this thread to see if some field experience on a rig crew would pay off since I have the opportunity to do that
Disclaimer: I don’t know all that much about PE in particular.
My initial, gut reaction is twofold.
First, you will be at a disadvantage relative to your peers if you have no internships on your resume. A job as a floor hand would be (possibly) good if you get experience that would translate to full-time work (you can be VERY loose with identifying whether something “translates”). If, however, the job is completely unrelated, then it would probably be good from a personal growth point of view, but not from an attractiveness to companies point of view.
Second, I think there are some reasons behind your difficulty. You are trying to enter the market at a difficult time - with oil trading below $50/bbl for the better part of two years, losses are turning from short-term to long-term, which means that they need to cut back on domestic exploration and production. Cutting back on exploration and production reduces the need for petroleum engineers, thus making it a tough market to break into (especially compared to five years ago, when the shale boom was in full force and companies needed to hire like mad). This you cannot control, but it helps to know your market. You can control your quality of resume. Have you had career services review your resume? If you can get help retooling it, you may be able to make yourself more attractive to companies. It’s late for PE internships now, but you may be able to find a handful of companies that do spring recruitment.
Consider expanding your search. Petroleum engineers are obviously needed for oil companies and exploration companies, but think through the entire supply chain. Companies that produce drilling equipment, pipeline manufacturers/installers, refineries (both conglomerates and stand-alone shops), etc. all use PEs, and that can help you in the long run.