Internships play a crucial role in shaping career paths, either by guiding individuals toward potential career fields or by confirming their chosen direction. This was precisely the case for Maggie McGurran, who utilized her multiple engineering internships at Koch Methanol St. James to gain clarity and inspiration for her career journey.
Maggie took advantage of consecutive internship opportunities as a process engineer intern in the summers of 2022 and 2023 — but not for the typical reasons you would expect.
“I studied engineering because I had no idea what I wanted to do as a career and I knew engineering would give me a great foundation and many options,” Maggie said. “In all transparency, when I accepted my first internship, I was sold on going to law school to study energy law. I thought it would be valuable to work in a plant for a summer to prove to myself that it was something I was not interested in. Turns out I proved myself wrong; I loved the people, challenge, and hands-on application and just kept coming back to Koch Methanol.”
Maggie’s success in her internships led to an opportunity to co-op in fall 2023 while she finished her last semester in school, and a career at Koch Methanol following graduation.
Now a full-time process engineer, she specializes in production engineering and works closely with the operations team to support day-to-day problem solving and troubleshooting. She also actively monitors the operating state of the plant to optimize the process and variables that go into methanol production.
“I started my role specializing in our water treatment units,” Maggie said. “This was a great way for me to be out in the field, learn the process, and troubleshoot smaller scale issues. As I have grown in my role, I have shifted some ownership to the front end of the process. I have been able to take greater responsibility over my units and own projects that utilize cross disciplinary support.”
Maggie recalls one of her first memorable projects that was leading the cleanout of a basin in the wastewater treatment unit. The basin must be properly mixed for environmental compliance, and the cleanout is anything but glamourous. She says the project taught her the value of humility, credibility through leading by example and the value of operations knowledge. It also helped her develop the skill of conveying technical agendas to the business team.
Beyond the technical aspect of the job, a major influence in her career has been Principle Based Management, Koch’s business philosophy. According to Maggie, applying the principle of comparative advantage stands out because work is divided in a way that allows the team to create the greatest value.
“Learning how to utilize your own strengths in collaboration with your team is an important skill,” Maggie said. “This optimizes the way the team operates and makes everyone more successful in the long run.”
For students looking to pursue a career in engineering, Maggie recommends starting with an internship or career that lets you have hands-on experience to build your credibility and base knowledge. She also encourages students to learn as much as possible by staying curious and asking questions.
“Regardless of where you want to end up long term, some of the greatest leaders I know started their careers in the field developing hands-on capabilities,” Maggie said. “They developed the experience and credibility to be able to lead people with a unique knowledge set. I also recommend leaning on your operations team. They are some of the most knowledgeable people you will meet and utilizing their experience is so beneficial as an engineer.”
To learn more about Koch Methanol visit the careers page at www.kochmethanol.com or see what internships and careers are available near you at www.kochcareers.com.
