Halliburton Interns
On location: Middle East and the business of war
Business may be business, but the stakes are much higher when it comes to managing the intricacies of procurement, transport and accounting in the midst of war. That's the lesson nine Mays students learned in summer 2005, when they embarked on a labor-intensive internship with Halliburton subsidiary KBR in Kuwait, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. It was the first such collaboration between Halliburton and Mays, and the first time Halliburton enlisted student help in its Middle East projects.
"This is not your typical, 8 to 5, weekends-off internship. You have to have a strong work ethic and discover that you can deal with conditions that are out of your hands to do anything like this," says Graham Gilkerson, a senior accounting major who spent his summer auditing employee records, accruals and inventories for KBR subcontractors in Kuwait City.
Many of the interns spent two and a half months working 60- to 80-hour weeks that mirror the pace of trade in Kuwait City and Dubai. Gilkerson, who studied Arabic with a tutor last year, sees his experience as a first step to an international career.
For Halliburton, the internships aren't just a way to tap the talents of enthusiastic business students — they're also a way to seek out future employees. About half of KBR's interns in the U.S. return as interns or are hired full-time. "These bright Mays Business School students are working in the Middle East to get a flavor of what we're doing and add value and knowledge," says KBR staffing specialist Gary Gerber. "We see these folks as our next generation of managers."