Confessions of an Intern - Part I:
Stories from the Summer 2022
Caterpillar® Oil and Gas Interns

Beginning

“The big yellow construction equipment company has an Oil & Gas Division?” my roommate says. I don’t blame him though because I thought Caterpillar was just bulldozers and excavators until I started my internship. The Oil & Gas Division is a whole new world to me, filled with terms and operations I had never heard of before. Fortunately, the support from the Houston team has helped me tremendously as I navigate this new, exciting experience.

Middle

After interning for 4 weeks now, I would say that I am currently on the path of becoming an expert in carbon capture and gas compression engines. My projects and daily work have consisted of familiarizing myself with these technologies and manipulating data to make it useable. Every day, I am collaborating with coworkers, contributing to projects, and completing assigned tasks, all which is very similar to aspects of my college career. However, my internship experience is far more rewarding. I have turned in so many school assignments that only give me a grade in return and improve my GPA. But the work I am doing here at Caterpillar is creating significant value for the company.

There are so many great aspects to this internship that I had no idea I would benefit from that cannot be fully explained in a job description on a website. From learning the ropes of working in a corporate environment to quickly adapting to sudden changes in projects, I am learning skills every day that I could never learn from reading a textbook. Ultimately, Caterpillar has given me an incomparable experience that will help advance me to even greater success in the near future both as an individual and a leader.

End

Re-reading my original blog post submission makes me realize how far I have come during this internship and the growth I have experienced. With my efforts, the first phase of the project that I was helping with was able to be completed. I became more invested than I thought was possible and I’m going to miss the work when the internship is over. This summer has flown by, but I have soaked up everything I could because I did not want to waste a second of this internship. I have strengthened my technical skills and benefitted in many other ways that I will surely never forget. Thank you to everyone who has given me an incredible experience this summer and helped me as I Do The Work That Matters.

Beginning

In these first few weeks of my internship, I have hit the ground running. I was able to meet my fellow interns during an amazing in-person orientation in Peoria, IL, where we got to see an array of Cat® machines up close. Following that, I had the opportunity to join my team in Oklahoma City for two days where we focused on drilling services customers. I have been assigned 9 projects for the remainder of the summer, all of which I have been given the opportunity to lead. Though the prospect of being responsible for many projects was originally a bit daunting, I have since realized that the assignments were a testimony to the confidence my team has in me and have therefore been able to make excellent progress.

Everyone is more than happy to help me and my fellow interns in any way they can. I can approach anyone to introduce myself or ask questions and am always met with smiling faces and ready answers. My team is also committed to helping me accomplish my personal goals for the summer, which are to learn more about the intangibles of being in a customer-facing role. Skills that I am especially eager to grow are learning how to navigate business meetings, reading body language, and engaging with customers.

Middle

I began this internship simply hoping to gain a basic understanding of a customer-facing role and have received far more in just the first half than I even thought possible! Caterpillar Oil and Gas, and the larger company, has contributed so much to my professional and personal development in such a short time. Similarly, the projects entrusted to me have had (and will have) real impact and allow me to give back to the division and company. I truly could not have asked for a better internship experience!

End

This summer I was able to have a meaningful experience at such a large corporation. I took charge of my projects, met with managers around the office, and was able to build a network professionally and socially here that I will keep for years to come. This internship opened the door to many opportunities. I met with customers, visited the Caterpillar Seguin Factory, the SPM factory, and even traveled to Oklahoma to for a customer presentation about our drilling solutions where our equipment was displayed. I am incredibly grateful for the account manager team I worked with this summer, as I have gained a lot of mentors and have been given invaluable advice to help with my future career. I am most proud of my contributions to the projects I worked on. Overall, I had an amazing experience at Caterpillar Oil and Gas and am very appreciative of all the friendships I have made with the other interns and coworkers.

Beginning

If you told me a year ago that I would be interning at Caterpillar Inc., I would have laughed and told you that you were crazy. Flashforward a year later and I am a Marketing Intern for the Aftermarket Services Team in the Oil and Gas Division! This situation is the true definition of taking chances where you see them come up for yourself and not looking back. I am receiving a degree in Advertising and Public Relations from the University of Scranton, and we all know that this degree can have its connotations of being broad. This internship has been such an exhilarating experience learning about the aftermarket services and sales portion of marketing through hands-on scenarios.

Middle

My focus is maintaining the iconic Caterpillar brand throughout our internal sites that dealers access to help our customers, such as by creating a cohesive design and proper flow of the materials. You may be surprised, but I am no expert when it comes to Oil and Gas. That’s when I turn to my team and fellow interns to seek out a little more knowledge on the matter. This phase of my life as a young twenty-something, breaking out into the job industry has been an overwhelming experience to say the least, but I cannot express to you enough how thankful I am that my feet landed at Caterpillar.

The brand oozes organizational structure that other companies dream of having, and that is not only present to someone who has only been working here for a little over a month. As I learn to navigate the ins and outs of what it means to communicate for one of the largest industries and companies in the world, all I can say is that I am so happy to be here.

End

As I write about my internship a month or so later, I am pleased to say that I have many more experiences under my belt and have more knowledge of what it means to work for one of the largest forces in the business. One of my main projects consisted of gathering and coordinating information regarding the upgrade kits found on cat.com. In doing so, I was able to cross paths with people across the Oil and Gas division to produce content for a site that can be seen by employees around the world. My favorite experience in the past few months has been the opportunity to travel to Houston, TX from my home in PA to visit my team and the office in person. Getting to see the people behind the Microsoft Teams screen was such a fulfilling experience, and it provided more of a purpose to the work I was doing. You really do not understand the impact your work has until it is staring at you in the face, adorned with people in office spaces and subtle chatters coming from the break room. The brand of Caterpillar is not just what one sees in a brochure for a new engine build or a tour to a local dealer, but the people who create and organize all of it. Those who make up the Caterpillar brands are those who are the internal and external voices of what it means to really “bleed yellow.”  I have never met a group of people more passionate about the work they do, because they genuinely want to make a positive impact on their company and the world. 

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the intern stories to be released in October!