<p>I'm a Sophomore at Texas Tech studying Petroleum Engineering and despite several interviews I didn't get an internship for the upcoming Summer. My GPA was a 3.11 during recruiting season, and I am determined to get that up to a 3.2-3.3 next semester. My question is this.... is a Sophomore Petroleum Engineer not getting an internship that big of a deal? Will recruiters offer a Junior who has a 3.2 to a 3.3 GPA a job without any experience? Oil prices were down during recruiting season, so I think that hurt me a bit and they appear to be on the rise. Also, I plan to go to many SPE meetings in Houston and Dallas so I can put that on my resume so it looks like I have SOMETHING that is related to Petroleum Engineering. Any thoughts are welcome.</p>
<p>The recruiting season for intern is still going strong. Make sure to sign up and attend the upcoming job fair at your school. Also sign up for any internship position that you might quality at your school’s job postings. Do not give up. You might still land an internship for the summer. Last year my son, a sophomore at that time, did not get an internship offer until February. He is a Supply Chain major.</p>
<p>In the oil and gas industry they fill all of their intern slots before December for the next summer. They come as a wave and then disappear. I have already contacted everyone I interviews with, as well as all of the companies that denied me an interview and they all confirm this (they say all of the slots are filled). I also sent out a few resumes to companies that weren’t at the job fair. I told them to give me a call if anything opens up but realistically speaking… it probably won’t. TTU gets a lot of oil and gas traffic as well, I feel like my interview skills weren’t quite there and my GPA was a little to low. I’m just wondering how this will affect my chances next summer because my chances of getting anything this summer are very low. If you were a recruiter… would you hire a Junior Petroleum Engineer with a 3.2 GPA for a summer internship if that Junior had no prior experience but a good attitude and could show you that he tried his best to learn a thing or two about the industry by going to SPE meetings and such? Or is the lack of an internship a really, really big deal.</p>
<p>Realistically, you should be fine next year. Your junior internship is most important anyway… so long as you improve your interview skills and find a job in some area, you will likely have little trouble. That said, be prepared to interview with smaller companies that don’t pay as well as Chevron, Shell, BP, Exxon, etc.</p>
<p>You could always see if there’s a professor at your school doing some sort of research that needs help in their lab over the summer. That’s how I filled up my sophomore summer when I couldn’t get a fellowship (and I really enjoyed it!).</p>
<p>I’ve seen a LOT of engineering internships explicitly state they’re looking for people that have completed at least 2 years of their degree, but never the other way around. You’ll be fine.</p>