For students looking to begin a career in the oil and gas industry, internships offer a means of obtaining valuable work experience and making critically important connections. The right internship can help students demonstrate that they possess the innovation, creativity, intelligence and drive to add value to a company where those traits are in demand.
Recently, the Human Resources team at Range Resources conducted a look-back at internship hiring data compiled over the last six years.
“Our analysis showed that out of 29 employees who also completed summer internships with us dating back to the summer of 2010, we had only one example of voluntary turnover. That group is mainly engineering but also a mix of Geosciences and Land,” says Recruiting Manager Josh Edwards.
Former intern and current Senior Reservoir Engineer Matt Ockree has watched the program develop over the last six years.
“The interns complete value-add projects. Meaningful projects. We’re not just giving them busy work,” says Matt. “I can think of two or three projects that are in place, in the field today because of interns.”
Matt was hired full-time at Range after completing an internship in the summer of 2010. “When I told my fellow classmates at Penn State that I was going to intern for Range – the reaction at that time was: ‘who’s Range?’ Other companies were better known for their intern programs. But now that we have an intern program and reputation that we’ve built over the last several years – we have some of the best students waiting for us at the schools we visit. Almost all of our candidates have a 3.75 GPA or above, many have had prior internship experience, and they’re involved in the community and on campus.”
Production Engineering Manager Ryan Tyree was among Range’s first interns in Southpointe in 2007. “There were maybe 15 full-time employees in the office at the time, and there were four interns,” says Ryan.
Ryan ended up overseeing the intern program after he was hired to work full-time at Range in 2009. He turned it over to another member of the team in 2013, but still maintains a connection to the program and helps the group as needed.
“A successful internship program requires a lot of work,” says Ryan. “And not just from the coordinator, but also from the mentors assigned to each intern. There is a sense of pride and healthy competition among mentors who want their intern to be the best represented intern in the company at the end-of-summer presentations.” Interns present their projects to senior management at an Intern Summit at the end of each summer.
The majority of interns populate Range’s Engineering departments, but the company also periodically takes on interns in Land, Geology and other departments.
Landman Nate Mountain grew up in McCandless, just north of Pittsburgh. Nate interned for Range in the summer of 2013 while attending Duquesne University School of Law. He joined the company full-time in 2014.
“I was drawn to Range because I was aware of the quality of the company,” says Nate.”I was attracted to the message Range was sending – a message of stewardship – of the environment, community, and landowners’ property.”
For Southpointe GIS Technician Hannah Robison who is originally from Ruffs Dale, Pennsylvania, the comprehensive nature of her 2012 Range internship was her most valued experience. “I was given the opportunity to participate in the field tours alongside the engineering and geology interns, where I witnessed all phases involved in the life cycle of a natural gas well including: road & well pad construction, drilling, completions, production & processing.”
As Ryan looks back, he is proud of what the interns and their mentors have accomplished since the inception of program close to a decade ago. “The team has done a great job at making our program competitive, and making it stand out. And I know the team will work hard to keep it that way.”