Employer Profile - Shell

Shell - The Gourami Business Challenge

If you're keen to get some work experience under your belt, there could be a more enjoyable way of going about it. Cath Quinn observed 'The Gourami Business Challenge', held by Shell as part of their work experience recruitment process.

Larger companies are fast realising the merits of attracting top talent ahead of the competition, and are devising innovative ways to do so. This is good news for graduates, who get to enjoy the various schemes in place to lure them onto the payroll, in addition to building valuable work experience. Primarily the recruitment strategy takes the form of interactive programs and games, which give students a taste of life in a corporate environment. This might include

• Business games

• Tutorials about the company

• Paid internships

The schemes often work on attracting candidates by limited advertising and word-of-mouth, so a certain amount of initiative is required in securing a placement. Once signed up, however, the student is in the enviable position of a kind of reverse-work-experience. Having established a lucrative pool of potential talent, the company are often falling over themselves to impress participants with what life could be like under their corporate banner.

In contrast, all that is expected of the student is to enjoy the experience and form an opinion of the company as a potential employer. Generally, these projects are incredibly successful at attracting graduates, and are particularly useful for companies who have suffered a negative corporate image within the student community.

A key player in the field of taster schemes is Shell, who have been running their popular "Gourami Business Challenge" for over ten years. Initially, the scheme took a handful of students and set them up planning oil production in the fictional country of Gourami. As the talent attracted by the scheme became apparent, Gourami Business Challenge developed into a regular annual feature of Shell's recruitment drive. This year, the project brought together forty students, from a variety of countries, and set them up for a week in Portugal. In addition to the exotic location, the students took part in the latest version of the challenge, which is the result of year on year improvement. Sarah Webb has been in charge of the project for the last two years.

As she explains;

"Every year we try and improve on the project, and make it better for the next lot of students. I took part in Gourami before I joined Shell, so it's really nice to come back and help with the organisation. Gourami's been especially good this year, and the students are certainly enjoying themselves. Last night I had to come down at midnight and tell them to stop working!"

The students become involved in various roles within the project, and their position within the project is not necessarily related to their degree discipline. This year Gourami's "HR Department" is indicated by a hand-written sign on a hotel room sidelined for the project. Inside are students of Maths and Engineering as well as students of subjects more traditionally associated with Human Resources. Other departments deal with issues such as supply and marketing, or the management of offshore oil. The students work as a team within their appointed departments to put compose a five year business strategy for investment. The group aims to coordinate their various departmental projects into a coherent proposal, which they present to real-life Shell executives at the end of the week. The executive team then decide how much money to invest from a potential budget of £1 billion.

Judging by the frenetic atmosphere, and dawn to midnight working hours, the students become deeply involved in the project. More importantly from the company's point of view, there has been a definite swing in favour of Shell as a potential employer. From a sample of ten students, all readily state they would consider employment with the company, with a few conceding that this represents a change of opinion.

Sarah Nouwen is a law student from the Netherlands. Her initial response to the project was uncertain; "As a lawyer, my first reaction was; 'Shell and me?'" she admits. But by the end of the project, Sarah found herself considering employment with Shell more seriously, in particular as "a paradise for self development".

Unsurprisingly, Gourami Business Challenge is something of a secret weapon in Shell's recruitment strategy. Although few other companies could boast such longevity in innovative recruitment, interactive projects have recently become more widespread. Tanya Ross works as press officer for Buro Happold, a leading consultant engineering practice whose involvement in the design of the Millennium Dome may explain their need to rally undergraduate esteem.

As Tanya explains;

"We don't have gimmicks in our recruitment process, but one of the key successes in our graduate programme is the 'Grad Week' that we run every November. The week is arranged to allow the grads to get to know each other as well as to take part in a virtual design project." With the recruitment market for graduates becoming ever tighter, it's comforting to know that there are still some companies taking a proactive attitude to recruitment"

Case Study: Warren Bennett is a student of Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He attended Shell's "Gourami Business Challenge" in December this year.

I heard of Gourami through a former participant and I attended a dinner hosted by Shell in Cambridge where it was mentioned. Once I had heard the name and mentioned it to people, I found that actually quite a few acquaintances had applied and has become something of a student legend. Gourami was held in a foreign country, the international element of the teams was fascinating for me as I love seeing the different ways of working in different cultures. Especially the French, it can only be described as a laid-back urgency! The most interesting part of the experience for me was the opportunity to see how 'the other side' of the business operates. Coming from a very technical degree in Engineering, I have had very little contact with departments like Human Resources and Sales & Marketing. It is the synergy between the departments that makes a business great; without the connections between departments the company could never function as a unit. We are constantly being told about the importance of teamwork in everything that we do, but the fact is that, at university, we are not placed in many situations where teamwork is absolutely essential for the success of a project. The great thing about Gourami was that without teamwork and real cooperation we could not have succeeded, and in the doing we became quite a close-knit group which made the whole atmosphere very pleasurable. The Gourami Challenge cemented my opinion of the company as being a challenging place to work. There is no denying that the event is a great recruiting ground, but the focus is on what the participants can get out of the week. All participants were encouraged to move outside their realm of experience and try new things that they wouldn't otherwise have the chance to do.