BP Employee Reviews for Engineering Intern

"Small company, within a large company offers the best of both worlds."

What do you like about working at BP?

"The Cherry Point Refinery is like a smaller company within a bigger company. So you get the best of both worlds: the wages and benefits you can only get at a large company; but, also the sense of community that a small company offers.For an engineer, this is an ideal work environment. You have an office, not a cubical, which you sometimes share with other employees (one, maybe two other). And then the 'field' is right outside the building. This allows for a very hands-on understanding of what you are working on, and what problems are arising. Being that you will venture out into the field frequently, every employee is issued tyvek coveralls and hard hats. This means that the attire inside the office is pretty laid back too.The site is very environmentally friendly. BP Cherry Point takes their environmental responsibility very seriously. They also take safety very seriously. Once a week my group met to talk about safety issues on the job and also at home.The location of BP Cherry Point is beautiful. It is a short drive from the beach, as well as the Canadian border. It is also very close to Bellingham, and other locations which allow for plenty of activities to occupy your time off. Cherry Point is located close to I-5 and takes approximately 30 minutes to drive to from Bellingham, during peak commuting times. The traffic situation is generally very light. The site has a mile long nature trail that many employees walk while on lunch or break. The site also has a small fitness center, which employees may use while on the clock (for a reasonable length of time only; no 5 hour workouts). Cherry Point also has a wellness program which incorporates healthy eating, physical fitness, and heart health. Each quarter, employees who successfully participate in the program are eligible for a small cash payout."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Don't get worried if you don't hear back from them for a while. Its still a very big company, and the hiring process involves a fair amount of bureaucracy"

What don't you like about working at BP?

"BP Cherry Point contracts most functions out to other companies, which typically did not present a problem. However, the company they had contracted to set up all the pre-hire medical testing, etc. was terrible. The physical exam required prior to hiring was pretty rigorous, including fasting blood work, EKG, pulminary function test, hair as well as urine drug screening etc. The physical was supposed to take about 2 hours (but took me nearly 4). The contractor called me in April, 3 weeks before the end of my semester, and told me that I would have to drive 80 miles away for the appointment within a week, or they wouldn't receive the results in time and I would have to push my start date back. I had signed my offer letter in December; they could have contacted me a bit earlier so I wouldn't have had to miss an entire day of school at the end of the year. When I asked the contractor if I could go to a clinic that was on campus, she lectured me about how great a job BP was and that hundreds of people would be happy to have it if I didn't want it, and that I shouldn't complain. Oh, a the lady was calling from the east-coast and didn't think to check my area code before calling. She called at 8:30a her time, which is 5:30a my time. And the clinic she did send me to was not very on the ball so the physical took twice as long as the lady told me it would. All the pre-hire contractors were pretty bad, but the medical was definitely the worst.Also, the style of engineering was a bit archaic. Because of the nature of the oil refining process, if you make one bad engineering decision, it will result in multiple problems in multiple places in the process. It seemed like a couple of bad decisions were made in the past and that most of the engineering involved in the job is just making up for those decisions. So, it doesn't feel like you are really getting anywhere.The group in BP Cherry Point that I interned for had never had an intern before. They set up a project that was very easy from my perspective, but required a lot of other peoples time (contractors), and required a longer timeline than just the summer (the duration of my internship). This left me with a lot of unsupervised time on my hands, because my employer took several long vacations that summer. It was also a bit unsatisfying because the project was passed off to someone else when I left, so I don't know the outcome."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Find differently contractors for the prehire HR stuff, or consider doing it themselves."