Humans of Kent: Mohammad Yamar, Summer Intern 2020

My summer internship

Houston being the world’s energy hub, I thought that an internship at Kent was a perfect opportunity to learn more about the Oil & Gas industry.

Interning with the Specialist Technical Solutions group, I was assigned to a Social Network Analysis project and had the opportunity to put my Data Science knowledge into practice and derive insights that would help in making business decisions. My job scope included the handling of Salesforce data, carrying out Network Analysis, and accordingly developing dashboards in Tableau.

It was an enriching experience to take part in the Summer Internship Program at Kent because I have had a chance to gain professional expertise and valuable practical experience in my work. Moreover, I had opportunities to participate in many organizational activities that connected my colleagues and fellow trainees to make friends.

What I like about my internship experience

Having the chance to work with a lot of wonderful people way more skilled and smarter than me was my favorite part of the experience. Jim Rohn once said, “You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” This was something I realized rather quickly. Being a grad student, I was reminded within time how energetic sophomores could be by my fellow intern Claire. She always had the drive to improve upon what we had done and continued to come up with fresh ideas.

I learned valuable insights about managing challenging projects from a fantastic business leader David who lead our team. I was always fascinated by his vision regarding analytics applications within the company. Our HR Manager, Victoria, was compassionate and understanding of any of the problems that we faced. Besides that, I learned one of the key life skills on how to better grill steaks from Sheldon, another important member of our team.

Another one of my favorite experiences was attending the weekly check-in meetings. My initial expectations with these meetings were to be mundane work updates. These meetings turned out to be a lot more fun. Senior people were sharing their experiences, what they have learned over the years, and how that transformed their work. Apart from serious matters, folks often had good-natured fun cracking jokes at each other. Sometimes, it was about their misplaced soccer familiarity. I consider the best part of the culture in Kent that people worked hard but didn’t forget to enjoy themselves during the process.

Challenges that I met during my internship

Being in the STS group, I handled company project data which demanded skillsets which were not covered in the school curriculum. There were times when I made mistakes and had to go back to the drawing board to figure out the next steps. During these times, I was provided with a chance to learn from and build upon my mistakes while receiving valuable guidance and feedback from my peers and seniors. Moreover, they were always open and willing to advise and direct me in the right direction. I was trusted with responsibilities for our shared goals and was always treated just like a full-time employee and got assigned actual and meaningful tasks that were crucial and beneficial to the business.

What I learned from my internship

I have become more aware of the manner in which the Oil & Gas industry works, and my career preparation has greatly improved. I have gained a deeper understanding of a data scientist’s role in the Oil & Gas industry through my internship, which helped me make an educated career choice.

Working amidst COVID was one of my biggest concerns before joining the internship, as I was worried that it would affect my work. With ample support from the team, I realized we can overcome difficult situations if we work together and continuously look out for each other.

Having worked with the Houston team, I can say that I’m now more energetic, better at managing projects, compassionate and more understanding of others. The new long-term ties and relationships with my fellow staff and my fellow interns at Kent will be my biggest takeaway.