While more than 80 percent of MSU College of Engineering students participate in a co-op or internship during their undergraduate years, recent graduate Rami Janoudi didn’t complete just one—he completed four. Janoudi graduated in December 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, and he was a member of the MSU Honors College.
He landed his first internship the summer of 2010 with Nexteer Automotive in Saginaw. He performed noise testing in the labs and worked in manufacturing plants disassembling faulty power steering components and preparing them for repair.
As a sophomore, he was encouraged by a BP company representative to apply for a summer internship with the company. Janoudi had first connected with BP when he participated in the College of Engineering’s 2010 Spring Break Corporate Tour, during which a group of MSU undergraduate students visited several corporations in Texas.
Janoudi spent his first internship with BP, during the summer of 2011, as an operations-mechanical engineering intern in the Houston area and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. His second was the following summer as a facilities engineering intern.
During Janoudi’s third internship with the company in the summer 2013, he worked on the subsea operations team for BP's largest Gulf of Mexico asset—the Thunder Horse platform.
“During my first two internships with BP, I worked on the ‘topsides’ team; I worked on the equipment actually above water, on the platform itself,” said Janoudi. “This past summer, my offshore time was spent on a vessel, assisting engineers and technicians with inspections of subsea oil and gas equipment on the ocean floor.”
Other projects included future subsea construction projects, maintenance of currently installed equipment, and work on a subsea equipment inspection vessel in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Through this experience, I applied my technical background but also got a chance to build great relationships with the others on the vessel, who came from diverse backgrounds and were of all different ages and expertise.”
Janoudi’s advice to engineering students in their first or second year of college: “Never underestimate your ability to get an internship. Demonstrate your drive and show employers that you have made the most of your past experiences—even if not directly related to engineering. But don't think that you are above any internship, or company, or salary when starting off. Take whatever opportunity you get. Just because you start out at one company, it doesn't mean you will work for them forever.”
Janoudi began his full-time job in subsea operations in June at BP in Houston. He plans to pursue a master’s degree in subsea engineering.