How I Landed Internship Roles at Chevron and Schlumberger
Landing an internship role as a Nigerian student can be so daunting.
Except, you have that family member that knows everyone and has mad connections shaa…
So, as an average Nigerian student from the University of Ibadan, studying Mechanical Engineering with not so much as rich uncle connect, I’ll be sharing how I got to intern in Chevron and Schlumberger for 3months and 6months respectively.
As you know,
Every journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. The first step towards your internship dream is…
● Being prepared for opportunities. I already had my updated resume and cover letters, so applying for internship opportunities was quite straightforward for me. I applied for the internship role at Chevron online and I was required to attach some documents to back up my registration. It wasn’t required, but I went ahead to attach my resume and cover letter. I’m certain that my extra effort in attaching my resume and cover letter must have given me an edge over some other applicants.
● I also utilized LinkedIn very well. There are some Influential people like Austin Belcak, Jerry Lee, Adam Broda, Jonathan Javier, etc. that I follow for content on landing jobs and getting opportunities. Their contents have always been instrumental to my resume and cover letter building and sending out cold emails to hiring managers and recruiters.
● Connecting to recruiters and hiring managers of companies you want to intern with can also go a long way in landing roles there. A trick I always use is to send out connection invites with personified messages. This will give them an idea of what you want and how they can be of help. When reaching out, you should show hiring managers how you can add value to their organizations and your skillsets.
● When I was shortlisted for a test, I had no idea how to go about it so I reached out to senior colleagues with experience with psychometric and dragnet questions for advice on how to ace those questions. Reaching out to people with experience will give you an edge in your internship application.
● Follow up. After concluding the tests for internship roles at Schlumberger and Chevron, I reached out to their recruiters and followed up on the application. With this, you have created an impression on them, and they’ll most likely follow through on your application. However, give them some space if they’re not responding to your messages, they’re humans and might not be in the mood to reply to messages. Always read the room!
My internship experience at Chevron and Schlumberger was great. At Chevron, I was at the CNL/NNPC JV division where I worked closely with the Terminals and Infrastructures team. My role was to read Piping and Instrumentation diagrams and interpret them, and also communicate with contractors on projects. It was a great experience with peculiar challenges.
Here, I developed my soft skills and was exposed to how the Oil and Gas industry works in Nigeria. I was also educated on how to use tools like Autodesk Navisworks, and PDMS. Chevron Nigeria Limited’s diversity and inclusion policy also gave room for people from different backgrounds and races to contribute to the development of the company, which I commend.
At Schlumberger, I worked with the Well Constructions division of the Oilfield service company. Here, I was assigned to different departments to have an idea of how each department is contributing to service delivery and their roles.
I was exposed to the BHA (Bottom Hole Assembly) tools and their components and how they’re being used in drilling oil wells and getting data. The BHA is comprised of the Rotary Steering Systems, Logging While drilling tools, and Measuring while drilling tools with the drilling bit.
As compared to my experience at Chevron, this is more mentally and physically demanding.
To learn more about career opportunities at Schlumberger, visit their official website.
You can also do the same for Chevron
Y’all can also reach out to me on LinkedIn🤓 for more contents.
