Written by: Joshua Baey, VMI Class of 2018
Major: B.S Civil Engineering
Best Time to Apply: Early Fall (Runs from September to early February at the latest)
A Guide to Work: Dominion Energy
The process of getting hired and working for Dominion Energy can be summarized as follows:
- Have a properly formatted resume.
- Create an account on https://careers.dominionenergy.com/ and fill out the relevant profile information to include education and previous employment; and applying for relevant job positions.
- Apply for positions and wait for interview offers.
Once you have applied for any number of positions by searching Dominion’s career website, the process for hearing back about an interview can take any amount of time depending on the type of position and the window in which you applied for it. The interviews are usually held over the phone or via video conference, and the interviewers will be made up of at least one HR representative and two employees of the work group you are seeking to join. The questions they ask will be standard hypotheticals seeing how you would respond in a situation, followed by a QA where you can pose any questions to them about work environment and pay.
As an example, last year I applied to several of their positions available to Civil Engineering majors starting in late fall, but the rate of hearing back for interviews was all the way up until mid-January when I interviewed for a position as a transport network intern. I received an offer from Dominion approximately two weeks after this interview and was given two business days to accept or decline since the position needed to be filled soon.
Upon accepting an offer, they will initiate the hiring process which will take a month or more; this will be caused by the background checks they will perform as well as the drug test that you are required to take at a local clinic. The job also falls under both the US Export Laws and the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which requires you to be a US national with full work authorization. After passing the relevant checks, Dominion will put you in contact with your group supervisor as well as the housing coordinator if your work location is more than 50 miles away from your permanent address.
The benefits of working at Dominion include hourly pay that scales with how many years of school you have finished and a monthly housing stipend if you need to be relocated. The pay for sophomores last year was $20.10 per hour, with a monthly housing stipend of $1000. Depending on the manager, it is also possible to go on an unpaid vacation during the internship period. There are also a lot of networking events available to interns where they can not only connect with interns from other schools but with senior level executives within the company.
Should everything go well at your internship, your supervisor at Dominion will either extend a job offer to you or invite you back to work with their group the next summer as an intern. There is also the possibility of applying for any other position within Dominion and being accepted without the need for an interview, as you are already in the Dominion umbrella.