About the author: Hi, my name is Andrea and I began my career at Williams as an intern in the summer of 2012. I was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I am a proud Oklahoma State University alumna.  I graduated in May 2014 with a degree in Industrial Engineering and Management. As of June 2014, I became part of the Williams engineering development program.

Although my time at Williams only equates to a year and a half thus far, I feel like Williams has been a part of me for quite a while. I had been studying engineering at OSU and was at the breaking point where you decide if you are going to stride forward in the journey ahead or play catch up. It’s a pivotal point to learn confidence and assurance in what you are doing, or just go through the motions.  And I can confidently look back and say that my Williams experience encouraged me to stick with it.

Being from Oklahoma, oil and gas flows in our blood, but my knowledge was limited to filling my gas tank. Williams provided the opportunity to assist in training and building a process to measure best maintenance practices. I was introduced to the importance of maintenance on equipment and learned the different types of assets that exist within a natural gas driven enterprise.

I returned to Williams in the summer of 2013, with a few more statistics and process driven classes under my belt, and a much greater confidence in asking the right questions. I learned the importance of managing and retaining knowledge and not just capturing data.  I met people from almost every team across Williams, and learned what vital knowledge led to their successful operations. I gained the confidence to present in front of groups and make thoughtful, educated decisions. This benefited me in ways I cannot even put into words as I completed my final year at OSU.

I currently am a reliability engineer in my first year of the rotational program. I work intimately with the same software I helped implement my first summer, and combined with knowledge learned from my second summer, now assist in developing and building out infrastructure that allows for convenient and organized ways to capture and standardize processes.

Williams has shaped and molded me not only as an employee, but as a person. It has given me knowledge, relationships and lessons learned that have positively infiltrated into every area of my life.  It has taught me that impact is not measured by longevity, but influence.  It’s a place that has invested in me not just for the here and now, but for the future. My experiences here at Williams do not stand alone, but build upon one another to create a continuing education, in and outside the walls of a downtown building.