<p>Kind of new here. I have an internship this summer at an oil refinery and was wondering what should I know before starting. Do they just teach you everything when you get there? I am a sophmore mechanical engineer student by the way.Please share your experiences with your first engineering internship. Also is a car internship a better resume builder than an oil industry internship? Just wondering which will be more valuable in the long run and which would you prefer to do?/</p>
<p>Hi. I will agree with Ken. The better internship is the one that will better position you for a future career that you will enjoy. If you want to work in the auto industry, absolutely get the auto industry experience on your resume!</p>
<p>With that said, I started as an intern at an oil refinery just over two years ago, and ended up working a winter and two summers there. I really enjoyed working in a refinery, and I’ll be starting full-time at a refinery later this summer. Won’t be working for the same company I interned with, but I’m pretty happy with the position that I took. I was really happy with all the training I got while I interned, very valuable experience.</p>
<p>I looked in your recent posts and see that you are bouncing between GM and ExxonMobil. If you are interested in oil and gas, XOM is the way to go. The kind of resume-builder that in the future will get you interviews at any oil/gas company you like. I have to say that I am from Michigan and while I would have loved to stay in Michigan post-graduation, engineering jobs here are so dependent on the auto industry, and I still question how the Big Three will perform long-term. Did they really learn their lesson during the bailouts, or will the Big Three go through the same mess again 10 years down the road? I felt that the oil industry would offer a lot more stability in the future and am pretty pleased that I got started down this road a few years ago.</p>
<p>I’ll just point out that I am an electrical engineer. I started out working with instrumentation (process measurements, safety systems, etc.) Later on I worked on the electrical power side of things. Some stuff I had done in class sure, but there was a lot to pick up as far as reading drawings, learning new computer programs, how to solve the problems I was facing, etc. You’ll have a rough idea of some things from class, but you are going to have to be able to pick things up on the fly. Don’t let that freak you out…any position you take is going to be the same way. And as you are an underclassman, you may not have even hit some of the things you will be doing at work in class yet. Again, don’t worry about it, your mentors will understand. Everyone I worked with was more than willing to explain things when I started working. And when you return back to school, you’ll already have some real-life experience that will make things a bit easier on you.</p>
<p>As far as what an ME might do…typical intern assignments I saw for MEs included reliability work for heat exchangers or rotating equipment (pumps, compressors), or some small project engineering work to do things like install new pumps, piping, vessels, etc.</p>
<p>Bottom line: Don’t make a big issue out of what you have or have not done in class. Companies bring in interns to train them and see if they might be a good fit for a full-time position later on. You probably won’t be expected to do a whole lot, just go in with the attitude that you want to try and pick up whatever you can. You’ll be fine.</p>
<p>Thanks for the words of encouragement. I will take your advice and stop worrying so much. I’m just really excited about the opportunity and don’t want to mess up.</p>