The UK’s energy and utilities sector comprises the oil, gas and petroleum, and also nuclear power, coal, renewable energies, waste management and water industries. The UK’s oil and gas industry has been self-sufficient since 1980. It is expected to remain self-sufficient in oil until approximately 2016, and in gas until well into this century. However, the UK’s oil reserves are declining.
The petroleum industry consists of more than 200 companies refining, distributing and marketing petroleum, including large multinational oil companies, supermarkets, retailers and rural filling stations.
The nuclear industry employs over 50,000 people in the UK. Nuclear power provides about 22% of the UK’s electricity. Approximately 15,000 well-trained, highly skilled people operate and decommission nuclear power stations in the UK. The industry needs 9,000 graduates over the next decade to maintain existing operations. There will be a further need for scientists and engineers due to the approval for a new generation of nuclear power stations.
The UK’s coal industry employs around 5,600 people, the majority of whom work in England. Nearly 80% of all coal is burnt for electricity production, and 34% of all electricity generated in the UK comes from coal. About 5,500 people in the UK work in this new industry, with employment steadily increasing (London Energy Partnership).
The UK waste management industry employs around 141,000 people, dealing with approximately 100 million tonnes of waste generated annually from households, industry and commerce.
The water industry in the UK collects, treats and supplies over 16 billion litres of high quality water to domestic and commercial customers, then collects and treats over 10 billion litres of wastewaters.
Approximately 160,000 people work in water and associated fields. Currently there is a shortage of skilled workers such as modellers, planners, environmentalists, ecologists and operational engineers.
BP is a global business that employs over 16,000 people within the UK.
BP has a reputation for being a diverse employer and a firm that looks after its employees. The firm has a positive attitude towards flexible working hours, although the amount of hours worked each week is quite high. Managers tend to work on average 11-12 hours a day although this depends on which area you work in. In Sunbury and Aberdeen the offices can be empty at 5pm. The company is high powered and successful but also relaxed, for example the dress code at BP is generally casual (i.e. no suits).
Candidates must choose and apply for graduate schemes at BP on the company's website. On submitting an application, the applicant will be sent online aptitude tests covering both verbal, non verbal and numerical reasoning.
Candidates will be invited for an initial competency based interview. The interview will focus on the candidate and try to find out your achievements, goals and ambitions. There will also be some technical questions if you have applied for an engineering or science based role.
The BP assessment centre lasts for one evening and then the following whole day and consists of several interviews, a presentation and both competitive and collaborative group exercises.
Day 1
Attendees are advised to arrive at the assessment facility (usually a hotel) by 4pm and gather to meet with those administering the event to check in, have their photo taken and receive their schedule for the event. The day then proceeds with:
Technical Interview
Science and engineering graduates face a technical question during the technical interview. For non-science candidates, this interview consists of one or two scenarios
involving the day-to-day decisions facing a BP manager. The scenarios are likely to be based on a real life example. Two assessors lead the candidate through the decisions to be made and develop the answers with further questions.
Group Exercise
Each group exercise will be a group game with a number of other candidates. There will be lots of information to assimilate on an individual basis, followed by a group discussion to reach a consensus. A number of assessors will be present to look at each candidate's behaviour, assessing them against the skills and key competencies the firm is looking for.
Competency Interview
This is based on the four key competencies identified by BP as important for its recruits. Many companies make detailed information about the competencies they look for available on their website and in their recruitment marketing. See competency based interview for more information.
E.ON UK is an energy company in the United Kingdom and a subsidiary of E.ON, the world's largest investor-owned power and gas company. E.ON generates, distributes and supplies energy in the Midlands region, and in the electricity and gas supply markets.
The international head office of E.ON is based in Düsseldorf, Germany.
There are several different types of graduate job at E.ON:
It is either a competency or technical based interview, sometimes both!
PLEASE HELP OTHERS BY EXTENDING THIS SECTION OF THE PROFILE!
EDF Energy is a vertically integrated energy company in the United Kingdom, with operations spanning electricity generation, electricity transmission and the sale of gas and electricity to homes and businesses throughout the United Kingdom. It employs over 13,000 people and handles 5.5 million customer accounts.
The company is wholly owned by the French energy company EDF SA and was formed in 2002 following the acquisition and mergers of SEEBOARD (formerly South Eastern Electricity Board), London Energy (formerly the London Electricity Board), SWEB Energy and two coal-fired power stations and a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power station.
The Exxon Mobil Corporation, or ExxonMobil, is an American oil and gas corporation and a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company. It was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil.
Successful applicants (most applicants) are invited to complete an online test focusing on numeracy skills, such as ability to read graphs, calculate percentiles, and other statistics and accounting based skills
Exxon will conduct a 15-20 minute telephone interview with successful candidates following the online test, this consists of questions about examples of times when you have achieved something or demonstrated a skill, for example:
Following this personality test, successful candidates will be asked to attend a formal interview
The interview and assessment process at ExxonMobil is as follows:
The interview may last longer than 30 minutes.
The ExxonMobil assessment centre is 24 hours and includes an overnight stay. It begins at about 6pm in the evening, with dinner. The dinner consists of you and about 12 other candidates, with one or occasionally two ExxonMobile HR staff.
The following day, exercises will start at 9am. The day includes a:During the case study there will be lots of material to read and to take notes on (which will be taken and marked). After this, you will discuss the material and choose the options with the other candidates.
Teams will be of about six people.After drawing your conclusions you will have to give a presentation to the ExxonMobil HRs. Each candidate will need to present and each presentation lasts about 10 to 15 minutes.
Maersk is one of the largest shipowners in the UK, and own various vessel types ranging from product tankers and container vessels to some of the world’s most powerful offshore support vessels. The company has over 5,000 staff operating on both land and sea. Maersk handle about four million container movements in the UK and Ireland each year. Maersk is also active in the oil and gas sectors.
Maersk UK is part of the global A.P. Moller - Maersk Group, which has more than 110,000 employees in more than 125 countries across the globe.
Maersk hire around 10 graduates each year for a two year graduate programme. The main stream are: General Business and Finance.
Maersk has its head office in London and offices in 20 locations across the UK and Ireland.
For more information on Maersk visit the WikiJob forum.
Shell offer candidates a range of technical and commercial graduate schemes.
TechnicalShell recruits 250 graduates annually for its activities within the regions of Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia. Graduates recruited from the UK could be working in any location within these regions, although most are usually based in Britain for their first assignment, either in London, Manchester, Aberdeen or Cheshire.
Applicants for graduate schemes must have a degree, but this can be in any discipline for applications to the commercial side of the company. For technical graduate schemes, applicants must have a specific technical degree.
The student and graduate recruitment process at Shell can take between two and six months. Prospective applicants should apply as early as possible. The recruitment process consists of the following:
Graduate candidates must complete the Global Graduate Application Form found on the Shell careers website to apply for a graduate scheme. This must be sent, together with a candidate's CV to Shell’s human resources department.
Applicants may also be asked to complete two online questionnaires as part of their application.
If successful at the initial screening stage, candidates will be invited for an interview. This will either be a face-to-face or telephone interview if a candidate cannot make it to the proposed interview location. A Shell assessor or trained business manager will conduct the interview.
It is very important to prepare well before this interview. Find out as much as you can about the work Shell do, the history of the company and their plans for the future. Think about how your skills and experiences would be of use to Shell, so that you can sell yourself in the interview.
Candidates should expect the following CV based and competency based questions:If an applicant does well in their first stage interview they will be invited to the final selection stage, the assessment day, which takes place at an assessment centre either in London or in The Hague in the Netherlands. A Shell assessment day typically lasts from 7am to 6pm.
The assessment day is divided into four main sections, with a break for lunch in the middle:During the interview and assessment process your academic credentials and results will play almost no part in determining whether you're a suitable employee for Shell. These are only really important for getting past the online application stage. During the interview and assessment stages your assessors will predominantly focus on analysing your: personality, inter-personal skills, presentation skills, communication skills, ability to influence other people, maturity and ability to work in a team.
Presentations
The first interview session at Shell assesses candidate's presentation skills, by asking them to give a short talk on a general issue. The candidate group will be given a sheet of paper that consists of information about several related issues, e.g. the environment, the state of education, employment, fuel prices, etc. Each candidate in your group will need to pick a different subject to present on, and then you will all be given about 20 minutes to prepare. After this time your group will be told to stop writing, and you will take turns to deliver your presentations. The presentation session will be attended by two assessors, and last about one hour.
Role Play
The second interview session will involve a role play session between candidates and two different assessors. These assessors are managers and executives normally picked by the HR department from different areas of the company, e.g. finance, HR, off shore operation, sales and trading or procurement.
Candidates will be assigned a role to play (e.g. the CEO of Shell) while the two assessors act as your right hand people (e.g. VP Sales and VP Operations). Your task is to attend to problems raised by the two assessors, make decisions and advise them. For example, your VP Sales may tell you that a group of people are planning to stage a nationwide protest against oil companies, and as the CEO you will need to advise them what to do.
Lunch
Although your lunch hour will not be officially assessed, you will almost certainly spend it dining in the company of your assessors. Use this opportunity to ask questions you may have about the firm, your training and the specifics of the job you have applied for.
Group Exercise
For this session, each member of your candidate group will be given a different location and asked to individually analyse if it would be a suitable location for mining activity. After this, the candidate group will work together, as a team. The group will be asked to discuss each member's location in turn and discuss each member's primary individual analysis. The team must finally come up what they believe to be the best location in which to start mining.
This task is used to determine which candidate had the best skills in terms of leadership, communication and teamwork. It is important that you try to lead the discussion, offer intelligent input all the way through the discussion and defend your opinions if criticised by another candidate.
About five assessors will observe this group exercise and group discussion.
Individual Interview
The final interview session is an individual face-to-face interview that lasts approximately one hour. This will include several competency based questions, general CV based questions and questions about the assessment day itself.
Following the assessment day, successful candidates are invited to a attend a more informal meeting with a relevant business manager to find out if their personality is suitable for the particular department of the company they have applied for. If the meeting is successful, a formal offer will be made.
Below is a list of Energy firms and similar companies (such as Petrochemical and Process companies) with graduate schemes. If you would like to create a new profile for any of the firms below, simply click on it and begin writing.
For more information about careers in this type of company, see Energy.