Vacation students join ExxonMobil Australia for a summer with a difference

15 students in their penultimate year of study at universities across Australia and New Zealand recently joined the ExxonMobil Australia team, participating in our Vacation Student program.

The students come from a range of science and engineering fields including Chemical Engineering, Environmental Science, Mechanical Engineering and even Aeropsace Engineering.

Each student is allocated a set work group and project to complete during their short-time with the company.

While most students will spend their time working in our Melbourne office, just like in the real world, some students are assigned to work at the Longford Plants or Altona Refinery. Wherever they work, all students participate in business orientation and training sessions which give them the opportunity to learn about all aspects of our business.

Gavin is studying a Master of Professional Engineering at the University of Western Australia and is working with the team at Longford Plants on improvements to the crude oil process.

“I applied for a placement with ExxonMobil Australia due to their long-standing reputation for excellence within the energy industry,” said Gavin. “I’m looking forward to furthering my capabilities as a process engineer so that I can achieve my goal of a career in the oil and gas industry.”

Kurt and Wayne, both from Curtin University, are working with the process engineering team at Altona refinery on ways to improve the efficiency of processes and increase production rates.

“I was drawn to ExxonMobil due to the fact it has a full portfolio of oil and gas assets within Australia, from offshore, through to terminals and product marketing, said Kurt.

“I value diversity and opportunity and these are two things I felt I would get from working with ExxonMobil.”

Wayne chose to apply for a placement with ExxonMobil Australia because “ExxonMobil has an admirable reputation for being a world-leading energy producer.”

“It was a chance to experience working for an organization with a vast global network and a variety of operations, which provides opportunities for diverse experiences during my vacation placement,” said Wayne.

Program coordinator, Alex Catto-Smith, said that the vacation student program was invaluable to ExxonMobil Australia’s operations.

“Not only does the vacation student program expose us to a whole new pool of potential future employees, but more importantly, the students bring a fresh perspective and new ideas to our teams,” said Alex.

“We get the students to work on real issues and set them some very complex challenges. It’s really rewarding to see the students not only applying themselves to their work but also contributing to the wider team and learning how to work and get along with others while they try to complete some very challenging tasks.”