Recognizing the potential of TRIP graduates, Kinder Morgan’s Natural Gas Commercial team was motivated to launch a program of their own. In 2022, the Natural Gas Commercial Development Program (CDP) was created and offered exclusively to TRIP graduates. The program focuses on preparing participants to be knowledgeable and effective commercial employees with a thorough understanding of Kinder Morgan’s pipeline organization. All participants are offered a full-time role once they have completed the program.
Allison Kaczynski, now a full-time Kinder Morgan employee in the Natural Gas Pipelines group, was one of the first to take part in the CDP. Allison did not intern at Kinder Morgan during her TRIP program and received several offers to go elsewhere after graduating from Texas A&M. However, after meeting a few Kinder Morgan employees and learning about the unique opportunity to rotate through different departments, she knew CDP was the right fit for her. For Allison and other participants, this ability to work on diverse projects and experience different business areas is what sets the CDP apart from other companies.
Allison emphasized that the program equipped her with valuable skills necessary for a commercial role. During her time in the CDP, Allison rotated through three key areas.
- Scheduling: One year was spent learning how Kinder Morgan facilitates the movement of gas through pipelines.
- Account Services: Six months were spent learning about the billing and contracts of our customers.
- Regulatory: Six months were spent learning about the rules and regulations that must be followed throughout these processes.
Allison discussed numerous technical skills that she learned during the program, including how to utilize Direct Access Request Tracking (DART) applications in scheduling. This is Kinder Morgan’s internal platform that helps to streamline processes in the department, which focuses on managing the movement of gas.
“The most memorable part of my time in the CDP was meeting our customers face-to-face,” said Allison. “It’s difficult to conceptualize another person while just emailing back and forth. Getting to know our customers as more than just an icon on our screens made business run much more smoothly and efficiently.”
Kinder Morgan is working to expand the program to young professionals outside of TRIP and looks forward to reaching more students in the future.