Internships

Bonneville Power Administration - Summer 2020 to Present - COVID Edition

I really enjoyed my experience at BPA. I highly encourage anyone interested in the utilities industry to apply for their Pathways Program (internship for sophomores and juniors) or Recent Graduate Program. I know that not everyone looks for the same things in an employer so I will try to give a realistic look at BPA so that you can decide if it's a good fit for you are not.

Application Process: It's a really simple process. The application usually opens in mid-December and closes in 2 weeks to a month, so it’s not a super long period. The listings are on usajobs.gov and it asks for basic personal information, a resume and a transcript. They're really looking for personality and life experience so don't take off service jobs or anything you might think isn't "related to engineering".

Company Culture: Work-Life balance is very important at BPA. 40 hour work weeks are the standard, unless immediate action is absolutely necessary. Safety is always the most important thing at BPA, nothing is ever too important or urgent to not be done safely and everyone at BPA has the ability to stop an unsafe work they observe. They really focus on maintenance to avoid safety risks caused by poorly maintained equipment. Another cool thing is that the pay scale is public knowledge. You and your coworkers all start at the same salary and there is a timeline for pay increases that are based on a standard set of reasonable expectations. Finally, although you work for the government, BPA is funded by selling electricity, not by taxpayers. Since funding isn’t given by Congress and it’s an essential agency, it is not affected by government shutdowns.

Engineering: BPA has both field and office jobs, although with COVID these definitions aren’t exactly what they used to be. My team is a field team so I can only really speak to that. Field engineers work closely with Craftsmen to perform maintenance and tests at substations. The main difference between teams is what types of equipment they work on. My team works on telecommunication equipment which includes everything from old school telephone systems to optical fiber. It’s a really interesting team to be on because there was so much variety in what I learned about.

The not-so-glamorous parts: At the end of the day, it is still a government agency. There’s lots of rules and regulations, which also includes paperwork. This means that BPA doesn’t have the most cutting edge technology but they do keep up with industry standards. There will be slow days and no one loves bureaucracy so if you want a really fast paced work environment, BPA is not for you.

Final Thoughts: If you want a low stress but interesting job, then BPA might be a good fit for you. You can go home from work knowing that you helped provide affordable and clean electricity to the PNW. When I first heard about BPA, I thought everyone was being fake about how much they liked working there, but after working there, I can confirm that it is genuine. People will admit that it’s not perfect, just like any job, but that they still wouldn’t rather work anywhere else.