Work experience in a summer job at TotalEnergies in Pau
After the cohort of tenth-grade interns, the summer job students took over at the CSTJF and the PERL. Teams on site take advantage of the opportunity proposed by the Company to hire a student for a month’s summer job. This year, in Pau and Lacq, our employees welcomed 27 students in June, 47 in July and 12 in August.
Mission accomplished in the IT department
Sébastien Kaiffer, who works in the support functions and in I.T. and Telecoms, is one of the employees who wants to take advantage of the summer period to address certain issues with the help of a young person on a summer job. He also finds it interesting to pass on his knowledge and so has volunteered to be a tutor. "My work focuses on automating processes and the service catalogue in particular. It’s a web portal that allows users to request access to an application for example, or the installation of an application, the creation of a user account, etc. Today part of the work is done manually, and we want to automate it to speed up the different processes and make them more reliable." Sébastien wanted a BAC +5 student from an engineering school if possible.
The recruitment team sent him Alexandre Pauly, a student in his second year of an Engineering course (i.e. BAC +4) at the CY Tech in Pau. "We offered Alexandre an interesting assignment, working on code development for automating two processes. He really met, and even exceeded, our expectations, as he completed two projects in a month, which is a real challenge given the complexity of our systems and the time needed to appraise the environment," explains the tutor, very satisfied with Alexandre’s work.
As for Alexandre Pauly, he thinks that "a summer job at TotalEnergies is a valuable opportunity to gain skills and ascertain where you’re at with your studies." The assignment looked quite difficult to tackle and seemingly complex, as Alexandre had no prior knowledge of the topic. However, after detailed explanations from his tutor, he was able to understand the challenges involved in the "interesting and pertinent assignment in a lively and inclusive department." The experience has also helped him assimilate the managerial challenges underlying the Tech professions, beyond the specific characteristics of the job and its technical competencies. "Thanks to the various meetings on the work methods and the relationships between the teams worldwide, I realized that just being good at what you do in technical terms isn’t enough. I also understood that working in a multinational group like TotalEnergies has its advantages and disadvantages: on the one hand, we’re a link in the chain, which you have to accept. On the other, it’s really motivating to be able to work on wide-reaching projects, especially when you’re looking to acquire experience." The future engineer, who has completed his summer job with a wealth of experience under his belt, aims to test his skills in the world of work and then get a job in a slightly smaller company.
Summer jobs: a comprehensive experience
For young people of BAC to BAC+5 level, it’s an experience that helps finance their studies or projects, or which simply enables them to discover the world of work and its codes. In most cases, it’s a unique first professional experience in a world-renowned industrial group, completed by CV coaching workshops. External speakers come to give them advice to prepare their HR interviews, optimize their LinkedIn profiles and, more generally, adopt the best approach to obtain an internship, a work-study program or a long-term contract.
Summer jobs are open to employees’ children and also to external candidates (over 18s, students, who have never had a contract with TotalEnergies and are available for the entire period they are applying for), some of whom came from the Mission locale pour les jeunes Pau Pyrénées, as part of the partnership with this structure responsible for professional and social integration.