Gaurav is a maintenance engineer and joined bp’s early careers rotational program two years ago. He tells us what attracted him to the company and the opportunities he’s enjoyed since joining.
What attracted you to bp?
I did an internship during the summer of 2021 and that was my first introduction to the energy industry. I thought it would be a wonderful experience and it was. The idea of working with a company that is so future focused prompted me to take a full-time offer.
Tell us about your engineering rotations
My first rotation with bp was as a unit maintenance engineer for the wastewater treatment plant at the Whiting refinery. My next rotation is unit maintenance engineer for hydro-processing South. So I’ll be moving from water treatment to hydro-processing, to more of the oil side. The technical requirements will be fairly similar but what is significantly different is my level of responsibility as well as the consequence for my actions. There’s more risk but also more support.
What’s your day to day like?
On a normal day, there’s morning meetings to get a basic idea of how the unit is doing in terms of health, what work is ongoing and what work has been completed. Usually I perform field walks, verifications and get photos and measurements after those meetings. Typically the afternoon is devoted to diving deep into technical documentation.
What other activities do you get involved in?
Research shows, across Asian and Pacific Islander-identifying employees in the workplace, that there's a leadership gap across many industries. I want to see if I can do something about that at my site. I’m working with the core team on getting more professional development resources available to help give others the chance to have greater visibility, as well as raising cultural awareness.
What do you gain from being part of a BRG?
It gives me the opportunity from a professional standpoint to interact with a lot of people who may not be in engineering at all. And it’s helped me get closer to my culture by sharing it with others. That's something that I love and I think it's wonderful that bp supports that.
What core skills and attributes does someone need in your role?
Technical skills are a must but, beyond that, being able to seek out problems is a really big one. At least from a maintenance engineering standpoint, there's going to be information that's given to you, but then doing that detective work to find the root cause and having that passion is key.
Tell us how your skills have developed since joining
The technical trainings have been immense and there is always more to learn. This is particularly true during turnarounds, which involves taking all or parts of facilities offline for planned periods of maintenance. I feel like I'm drinking from the fire hose, but that is what I love doing. It's one of my favorite parts of my job.
What’s your favorite part of working at Whiting?
The BRGs, culture and people, and everyone being so supportive and helpful is half of it. The other half is being able to learn something every day and the fact that I can do so flexibly. Being able to work remotely and prioritize family life, and know that there's no ceiling, is wonderful.
How would you describe the team culture at bp?
Supportive. There is a huge culture of ‘one team’ and making sure everybody feels safe. I was impressed by how prioritized safety is, both physically and mentally. During turnarounds and periods of high stress, everyone knows to have more patience. That's not what I had expected when I came into a refinery setting. I envisioned the typical rough and tumble of ‘you can get through it’, right? It's a small community and it is very tight-knit.
What's one piece of advice you’d give someone interested in working at Whiting?
It feels like the refinery has infinite opportunities. If you're interested in learning, there's no better place to be. If you want to learn, grow and take your career in new directions, check out our early career opportunities.
