How, why Commercial Excellence?

So what are my assignments for the summer and how did I land in Commercial Excellence? Shell has such an over-developed HR system (I mean that in a nice way) that they take care of the placement. An eager intern-to-be like me applies to a general pool rather than to some specific jop posting (e.g., global supply chain finance) and then HR works their magic to find a suitable placement.

For me, I had worked on some major oil and gas tax legislation and natural gas pipeline deals before coming back to school. I think it's that background that landed me in Commercial Excellence, with a primary task of compiling case studies of differentiated (complex) contracts into a course to be offered internally to Shell commercial teams. OK, let that sink in. My job is to talk with people who did really cool/interesting/disastrous deals, learn from them, and then distill it all down into case studies so the people making the next round of deals are smarter about how they put them together. Awesome. And, from talking with other interns, typical for Shell. This is meaningful work that will contribute to Shell's future success, but it's also designed to facilitate networking broadly within Shell... so I can get a good feel for them and they can get a good feel for me. It's like an extended meet-and-greet. Or a three-month interview if you want to be more stressed out about it.