Career Ready Internship

My name is Ana and I have just finished a 4-week internship here at Mintra as part of Career Ready, which is a programme working with employers and schools to provide young people aged 15-18 with combined mentoring and paid internships, masterclasses and workplace visits.

During my 4 weeks, I was firstly based shadowing Cara, who is an Office Co-ordinator and was my mentor throughout this programme, undertaking admin-based assignments and completing the on-boarding e-Learning courses. Then I spent time with Liam who is the Team Leader Customer Service in the Technical Support department. I assisted in daily tasks, including resolving ticket enquiries on the Service Desk regarding forgotten details, merging accounts, course resets, and creating demo courses for potential customers on the Mintra Learning Management System called ‘Trainingportal’. I wanted to share 4 things that I have learned during my 4-week placement:

1 – I learned that, in the oil and gas industry, oil and gas training and competence are major components. Training is what you are taught and what you learn, whereas competence is proving what you have learned and your ability to do something successfully. It’s a bit like when you’re learning to drive; first, the theory is the training aspect when you are learning all the necessary skills and rules and preparing, then competence is when you need to go and do the practical test and prove that you have the skills to get a license and drive.

2 – I got the opportunity to talk with lots of people across the business. I really enjoyed speaking with the sales team and got the chance to interview Kevin Cruickshank, Account Director, about what his role entails. He explained the difference between sales and marketing and the importance for these two departments to be on the same page and get along for the overall success of the company. Sales are the direct contact with a customer, convincing a person to buy your product, whereas marketing is the collection of decisions you make about the market that leads to successful sales. Marketing is the planning part of sales.

3 – Whenever I’ve thought about jobs within the oil and gas industry, I’ve only ever thought of people working offshore on oil rigs but, since I’ve been here, I now know that’s not the case and there are many different jobs in various departments that people do to support the industry. I really enjoyed getting to speak to everyone and learning about their jobs, and wouldn’t have considered a job in oil and gas before, but it has been very valuable for me to speak to people with many years of experience in the industry and, after getting a deeper insight into all the job possibilities, I am now considering a career path in oil and gas.

4 – Being in school is a lot different from being in a workplace, but it’s not as scary as I thought it would be going to a new place and adapting to a new environment. I wasn’t aware of the way people communicated in a workplace. During my internship, I experienced a few different forms of communication, for example: Skype meetings, face-to-face meetings, and emails, and gained experience of communicating with clientele. I now have the ability to speak professionally and format an email adequately.

Career Ready has been a very beneficial programme for me. Before coming here, I really wanted to experience being in an office working environment, so I am so grateful that I have been given this opportunity and I have enjoyed my placement very much. I’d like to thank everyone at Mintra for making my experience so great.

About the Author

Ana - Mintra Intern