My Internship Experience: Shell, Bengaluru

Connecting with the humane in Human Resources

One of the remarkable events of my experience at Shell Technology Centre, Bengaluru was the shattering of a lot of misconceptions about the HR Department. The HR at Shell is not an ironic body that fires people while calling themselves Human Resources. In fact, they were one of the most generous and considerate bunch of people that I had the good fortune of meeting. This holds especially true for Vinay Shende, the Graduate Recruitment Lead at Shell and the focal point of contact for all interns (Thank you Vinay, for all your time and effort). He was a perfect amalgam of a sauve corporate employee and an easy going, fun loving student at heart. Hence, he could understand students way better than expected of an experienced employee. From hand-written welcome greetings to constant feedback about hospitality and other office related issues, the HR surely lived up to its name.

Shell is one of the most prominent companies that recruit during the second (or the even) semester of the academic year. In terms of monetary incentive, it comes second to only HUL and ITC among core companies but takes a staggering lead over all other companies (core and non-core) when it comes to the conversion of the internship to a Pre Placement Offer. But this is not where this company’s true worth lies. I believe that Shell is one of the most ethical companies that come recruiting on campus. In my experience, it’s the one multi-national company that stands true to its proclamations. You will have big names coming up and vehemently claiming that they do not have a prejudice against 6 pointers and 7 pointers and then go on to produce a shortlist that takes away every ounce of credit from their claims for you can clearly see a blanket CPI cut-off. They just cannot look beyond that big blotchy 6 on your resume, regardless of what the rest of the resume looks like. Shell is one company that I have noticed has the spirit to look beyond the norm, to judge you by the parameters and tests they have set and not by your CPI. Twice Shell has come for recruitment and both the times it has welcomed a 6 pointer within its realm and for that Shell will have my eternal gratitude because I happen to be one of those 6 pointers.

My internship period was a breeze, it was so short and busy. I was interning as a Reservoir Engineer (RE) even though I had applied to be a Process Engineer. And this is the best thing that could have happened to me. Yes, simply the best because the work was fantastic. Considering that there has never been any love lost between me and Chemical Engineering, a lifelong career as a Process Engineer was not exactly what I had in mind and this internship gave me the perfect out from that dilemma. It was slightly difficult to get a hang of things in the first few weeks but then the employees were really amiable and were ready to help me out at the slightest indication and I decided to choose Upstream over Downstream (Upstream is all about extraction of crude oil while Downstream is about the processing of this crude oil into various products) as a prospective job position only after taking their feedback and suggestions. Not just feedback from peers, an upstream position matched better with my career aspirations. It gives me more opportunities for travel, more challenging projects and a faster career growth (more monetary incentive in the long run too, but that wasn’t a parameter I was considering).

Another extraordinary aspect of my stay at Shell was the transparency of the entire selection process. We were told exactly what we were supposed to do in order to extract a Placement Offer and the only part that we had to focus on was how to go about achieving what the recruiters were looking for in prospective employees. This transparency combined with the supportive nature of my team helped me in making my eight weeks at Shell highly productive. The environment at Shell was friendly and welcoming, to say the least. There are no cabins in the workplace and a friendly chit-chat with one’s immediate and not-so-immediate neighbors is highly common. Every employee, from the freshly hired graduates to the highly experienced bosses possess the same kind of desk. People were ready to help me out at the drop of a hat and that made my path a lot easier. It’s an environment where I can envision myself working for the rest of my life.
So that was my experience and the merits that I think you should be judging Shell by. When you’re looking for an internship, don’t just apply to any and every company in chronological order. Think things through, think about whether you actually want to work for that company or not, regardless of the stipend. If you’re looking for challenging projects and a company that cares for its employees then Shell is the perfect fit for you.

This article was written by Iffat Siddiqui, final year undergraduate student in the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Kanpur and Chief Editor, Vox Populi.

This article is a part of the thread My Internship Experience, as a part of the Career Series to help and guide students in their internship and placement preparations.