Recruits fuel oil industry
By the time Travis Swallow finished his 2004 internship at Devon Energy Corp. in Calgary, he already had a job offer on the table.
Today, after more than 10 years with Devon, the petroleum engineer says accepting that internship was one of the best decisions he ever made.
“The one thing I found really critical about the internship period is that it gives you enough time to get up to speed, get some confidence in your abilities and then they start throwing you some real tasks — actual material projects,” Swallow says. He quickly began learning the ropes and turning classroom theory into practice.
Jack Gray, director of the engineering internship office at the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering, says the process is all about relationships.
“One of the things the employers are really keen on is early recruitment,” he says. “They really want to lock them down. Internships are a great opportunity to validate some of (the students’) career choices.”
Swallow attributes much of his current success to the relationships he formed during his university years and his internship with Devon.
“It gives you some exposure to the office-work atmosphere (and) the expectations that are put onto the employee,” Swallow says. At the end of the internship he was offered a job, which would be his when he graduated. It’s a common scenario when the student and the company find they’re a good fit.
Brian Spiegelmann, manager of development and reservoir engineering at Devon Canada, says creating those relationships early pays dividends later.
“We can’t have gaps in our hiring practices,” he says. “We spend a lot of time and energy going to the schools across Canada.”
Petroleum engineers are in high demand. They command lucrative salary packages and, depending on where they work, can see a variety of global opportunities. The problem for the industry is that today’s retirees are creating a shortage of highly skilled talent in the energy sector.
Last year, the University of Calgary put 372 interns into the field. It now has 550 job postings for a class of about 400 students — 175 of whom have already secured employment.
“We have more opportunities than students,” Gray says. “If an employer isn’t engaged in this early recruitment, they’ve probably lost anywhere from a quarter to maybe as high as a third of students. It’s absolutely critical for them to get involved in early recruitment.”