Swag

The last couple of weeks have been even busier for Glenn at school because it is recruiting season. This is the time of the year when all of the oil companies descend on the school to fight over which students they can recruit to work for them in internship or as new hires next spring. These oil companies really pull out all of the stops to get the students attention. Almost every evening after classes there are a couple of info sessions where the companies set up a buffet for the students and hand out a bunch of free stuff and then give them an hour long presentation about their company. After those presentations there are often nice dinners at restaurants that some of the students are invited to so they can shmooze some more. So depending on how many info sessions you have in a given evening, you could be eating three free dinners on a given night. This past week Glenn was invited to one such dinner and he asked if I could come. That was nice considering I wouldn't have seen him that day if I didn't get to go. So, I was able to join him that evening for two info sessions. One info session was for the Devon energy company. They gave the students box lunches with really yummy sandwiches, cookies, soda, chips, etc. It was my lunch at work the next day. Then we had an info session with a company called Newfield. They also had a nice buffet table set up with tons of food and they gave us a goodie bag with free stuff. After their presentation we went downtown to a nice Italian restaurant called Carmellos for a dinner courtesy of Newfield. The food was fairly expensive and it was SOOOO good. We just sat at a table with three recruiters and four other students and chatted and ate delicious food.

Each company is usually in town for another day or two after their presentation doing interviews with the lucky students who they have selected to interview for a position with them. Glenn has interviewed with 9 companies in the last two weeks and at many of these interviews they give out an interview gift. One last parting gift to impress. One company gave Glenn an Ipod Shuffle after his interview. Glenn has started a "swag hall of fame" in his office. He has so much stuff. Tons of ear bud headphones, mints, pens, t-shirts, water bottles, a wireless mouse, and other goodies.

This is all after 2 weeks of recruiting and because this is the best program for petroleum geologists in the nation, every company wants to recruit from their program. More companies are coming for the next 4 weeks.

What is the deal? Does this sound like the typical grad school experience to you? It's so crazy to me that the oil industry has this much money to throw at people they want to recruit. I would love to get my masters here at UT. They have an amazing program in Applied Theatre that is easily one of the best in the country. However, after I finished would there be anyone fighting over me? Who would take me out to dinner and give me free stuff? Does this process even happen with good lawyers and doctors? It blows my mind that none of these students will have to look for a job when they graduate. So many companies want them that it's not going to be an issue of if they get a job, just with which company.

It's been a very eye-opening week. They had a similar recruiting season with the geology students at BYU, just on a much smaller scale and I never witnessed it first hand. This week I had dreams about oil companies and their pitches about who could make my family the most happy. It was a bit disconcerting. However, for a boy who loves free things, this week has been really fun for Glenn. I haven't cooked dinner for Glenn for a little while now. That is kind of nice. Especially when I get to eat free food with him!