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Overall the discovery day was a valuable and interesting insight into the oil and gas industry. The advantage of this particular experience over previous BP events I've attended was that it was more tailored towards the career path you wished to pursue. For me personally this is the integrated supply and trading branch of BP. The discovery day provided a mock technical interview within this field which provided knowledge that I believe will be useful in applying for internships/grad roles within this field.

BP are very successful at making you feel like you're a valued by them. Any questions about travel or provisions on the day will be happily answered by their helpful human resources team via email. On the day itself, regular breaks with tea, coffee and snacks are provided. They also bring a variety of employees from the diverse range of sectors within BP to provide talks, which shows they care about you enough to take these employees out of their normal day job to chat with you.

A significant amount of guidance/support was provided during the insight. There were members of the BP recruitment team around to answer any questions about the internship and grad scheme application processes. Any other questions or queries would be happily answered by the human resources team that are always present and run these kind of experiences.

The skills developed and information received were very specific to the oil and gas industry. So attending the discovery day hasn't assisted me in my degree studies at all. However it will be invaluable when I look to apply to internships and grad schemes within the sector. Having a mock technical interview in the sector that I want to work in and being able to experience the kind of task they'd give you in an assessment centre, which are both common application process steps for many companies, gives me the knowledge and confidence I need to hopefully succeed in applying to work in the sector in later life.

The insight was very well structured. There was a timetable for the day that allowed ample time for each event to occur. There were also regular breaks provided throughout the day which gave a good opportunity to rest and interact with BP staff and others attending the event. The only negative about the structure was that it could've been more tailored towards my personal interests. Having a mock technical interview in the sector I wish to apply in was great but having to listen to a couple of hours worth of talks by engineers, a sector I don't wish to work in, wasn't the best use of my time.

The general atmosphere was relaxed and fun. A lot of information is thrown at you on the day, but BP do a good job of breaking this up with relaxed breaks and by getting you to play an oil and gas industry related game. The game provides a good opportunity to get to know others attending the event and provides a useful insight into how the oil and gas industry will look in the future.

The event was very helpful in providing understanding of how I'd successfully manage to navigate BP's application process in my given field. However, in terms of understanding what exactly I would be doing in a full time role within integrated supply and trading, not much was mentioned. It's a broad sector so it'd be hard to pinpoint exactly what I personally would be doing in a full time role within that branch, but an example of an average workers day to day life would've been useful.

The content of the day was very useful in helping me decide my future career path. Before the event I had decided I wanted to work within the integrated supply and trading sector of the company, and the mock technical interview with an employee that helps to recruit within that sector provided a useful explanation of the different roles available within that sector. This explanation of the kind of tasks each role takes on, helped me to choose to apply within the commercial sector of the business in my internship application that I've just sent off

BP provided plenty of opportunities to liaise with employees working for the company. At the start of the day talks were given by employees in many different sectors of BP, with a brief explanation of their responsibilities, what their daily work life looked like and their highlights in working for BP. They all seemed engaged and motivated by their work which was good to see as a prospective applicant.

On the day, BP dedicated some time to explaining their BRGs (Business resources groups). These are are employee-networks, set up by employees for employees. The groups come together voluntarily to help achieve BP's diversity and inclusion goals. Much of this is achieved via regular social events which were explained on the day. The leaders of many of the BRGs gave talks on the day to explain their role within the company and the social opportunities that they provide.

Overall I would definitely recommend this insight to a friend if they weren't sure which sector they wanted to work within, or thought they might like to work within the oil and gas industry. It provided a broad range of insight into what its like to work for BP and more generally the oil and gas industry, whilst giving useful experience of steps that are common to many large company's recruitment process.