The most challenging and interesting project was one to reduce the amount of taxes paid on the refinery’s electricity bill. This required a lot of work to determine how much of the electrical consumption could be considered tax-free. I had to rely both my electrical engineering degree and my management minor to get the task done. The great part was that my supervisor and I had semi-monthly meetings to ensure that everything was going ok.
Working for Shell Canada has been my best work experience to date. What I appreciated most was the level of respect received from my colleagues, even though I was only a summer intern. The fact that they answered my questions and were willing to help me made my internship less difficult and quite enjoyable. Even when I traveled to Calgary for the annual student conference, I found the same type of qualities in both the other hired students and the employees located there.
I recommend to any newly hired student to take advantage of the accessibility of Shell employees and to go talk to their operators, plant manager, human resource manager and anyone else that could give them an idea of what opportunities are available at Shell.
