Oil and Gas E&p Company with best New Grad program

[bigeagle]

I was wondering which company has the best New Graduate development program?

I am graduating next may from Dept. of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at UofC and am not sure which way to go..

Drilling/Reservoir/Production/other

Personally, I loved drilling courses I took at school but don't have personal industry experience (couldn't get a summer job last year but have a few interviews this month for next summer.. none for new grad positions yet)..

so the best situation would be to get into a rotation program and then have a choice to decide which way to go..

Is this possible? If so, which companies do it?

[2007RS4]

Cenovus.

[zain123]

I am in new grad program at Cenovus. You can msg me if you have any questions.

Main thing you want to look for is the length of rotations, some are too short (you barely learn anything) and some are too long, you don't move at all. Depending on what kind of experience you want/have, lay out your expectations and apply at all of them. If you have done summer terms somewhere, makes it easier to get into their new grad program as well.

Lots of my friends are in the same exact boat and we have made a small page on fb called "Calgary Jobs", usually try to post updates on there regarding these entry level/ summer/ new grad positions. Keep checking there if you can as well.

[JDMMAN]

Many of the major E&P's have great GRAD programs. Shell and ConocoPhillips put heavy emphasis on rotating you from group to group to gain as much broad experience as possible.

[ExtraSlow]

As for what discipline to get into, that isn't an easy answer.
Drilling and reservoir for instance, are worlds apart.

Sounds like you didn't do a co-op program. That's a pity, because that is 16 months of "no risk" career counseling.

Nearly every large company will have some form of rotation. But don't think you have to get yourself into a big company to get varied experience. Some smaller companies train engineers to be a jack-of-all-trades.

New Grad positions are always pretty competitive, since there are lots of new grads every year. If you find yourself having trouble getting the "perfect" position, my advice is to just get any position, then start building experience.

Good luck.

[bigeagle]

Thanks for the input guys..

looks like I don't have a choice but to take what I get for now.... I have applied to several summer positions as well and am ready to start as a summer student ans see where it goes..

I just saw lots of posting by TAQA on career services.. I haven't heard about them before.. except at the univ. career fair

Does anyone know anything about TAQA??

[davidI]

I've got a buddy who is a drilling engineer at TAQA I could put you in touch with if you want. He wants to take off and do rotation work again though (as in international rotation work). I can ask him what he thinks of it though. I also know a land girl there who enjoys it.

If I could go back in time, I would have been a drilling engineer, and worked international rotations my whole life.

[dirtsniffer]

^^ is it possible for new grads with little experience to get international rotations?

[msommers]

Originally posted by davidI
I've got a buddy who is a drilling engineer at TAQA I could put you in touch with if you want. He wants to take off and do rotation work again though (as in international rotation work). I can ask him what he thinks of it though. I also know a land girl there who enjoys it.

If I could go back in time, I would have been a drilling engineer, and worked international rotations my whole life.

Any geology work you know of and the experience required (internationally)?

[flipstah]

Originally posted by davidI
I've got a buddy who is a drilling engineer at TAQA I could put you in touch with if you want. He wants to take off and do rotation work again though (as in international rotation work). I can ask him what he thinks of it though. I also know a land girl there who enjoys it.

If I could go back in time, I would have been a drilling engineer, and worked international rotations my whole life.

Sorry to be off-topic, but what does TAQA stand for?

[davidI]

No idea what Taqa stands for - but it's Abu Dhabi's National Oil Company.

It's tough for new grads to go international but it is possible. Not really an opportunity you search for but more one that is presented to you.

There is a bit of geology work in international rotations, but it's not in as high of demand and once again, not really something you find but something that is offered to you.

[ExtraSlow]

TAQA doesn't stand for anything. It's not an acronym. I used to work for them, and they probably spent the first six months in Canada answering this question. Apparently the Word "Taqa" means energy in Arabic. No idea why they insist on capitalizing it as if it were an acronym.

They are also not related to the Abu Dhabi national Oil Company
(Wiki ADNOC)
aside from the fact that they are both majority owned by the government and royal family of Abu Dhabi.
TAQA has no oil and gas assets in the middle east. They were originally a power generation and water desalinization company.

I worked for Northrock Resources when it was taken over by them, and back then, they couldn't organize their way out of a wet paper bag. These days, I hear it's much better, but I split long ago.

[davidI]

I hadn't heard of ADNOC but this is from the TAQA website:

TAQA (Abu Dhabi National Energy Company PJSC), a global energy company majority owned by the Abu Dhabi Government

[ExtraSlow]

Yeah, I know, it's confusing. They do power generation in Abu Dhabi, and they branched out into oil and gas everywhere except the middle east.
ADNOC is in charge of the oil and gas inside Abu Dhabi.

[bigeagle]

I spoke to a couple of EIT s in Nexen.. one in reservoir and other in ompletions.. they siad they dint have a specified rotation program.. kinda like learn on the job... but the company would support you to change departments and try different things if you want to.. Also.. they have put together a rotation program starting this year it seems..

[sabad66]

The supermajors will all have some sort of new grad development program. Shell's is 3 rotations over 5 years for engineers. Don't know the specifics of other companies, but I can't imagine them being much different (they all benchmark with eachother). Best bet is to apply at as many companies, then weigh your options if/when you get offers. No point in limiting yourself while applying. Even if you know you won't work for them, do the interview for practice.

[badatusrnames]

I've heard that TAQA isn't the strongest company on the technical side, which probably isn't what you'd want as a developing engineer.

I'm with a company that rotates you every six months through everything in random order... not sure how I feel about that just yet. It works for some people who are trying to figure out what they want to do, but for others who have a good idea of where they want to end up and are looking to build specific skills, it may not be the best.

[dirtsniffer]

dang, six months is hardly enough time to get your feet wet. i would prefer a year in each department to figure if it's the right fit for me

[badatusrnames]

Originally posted by dirtsniffer
dang, six months is hardly enough time to get your feet wet. i would prefer a year in each department to figure if it's the right fit for me

Tell me about it man...

[ExtraSlow]

As someone who has to work with the people getting rotated through, it takes minimum four months before you know anything useful. Probably 8 months before you can be trusted with any "real" work.
a 6 month rotation is waaaaaay to short.