Business Operations Analyst Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year at Oracle. Throughout my year I was given numerous opportunities to develop my personal and career level skills, I was given the responsibility of a permanent worker, and I was also given a range of external charitable activities to participate in.

I felt extremely valued by my colleagues and team, and was treated as though I was a permanent worker, with respect and kindness.

My manager was extremely supportive during my time at Oracle. He did this by having 1-2-1 meetings every week with me, to discuss how I was finding my job/workload, and just to have a catchup on personal life. We also had team meetings with the other interns in my team bi-weekly, which was extremely helpful also, as it meant I could get involved in their projects also if I so wished.

My worklife balance at Oracle was very good, there was always something I could be getting on with, whether it be a project or a task set by someone I worked with outside of my team.

I was given a lot of responsibility during my placement, as I was treated like a normal full-time worker. I organised and hosted my own events, liaised with government individuals and companies that we are members of. The level of responsibility was ideal for me to develop my project management and leadership skills, alongside my organisational and time-keeping skills.

The skills and knowledge I learnt at Oracle will be extremely helpful with my degree studies, as I am an Economics student and am planning to do my dissertation on Artificial Intelligence, which I learnt a lot about and saw first-hand in my time at Oracle.

The atmosphere in the office was very respectful and laid back, meaning you were not micro-managed constantly or made to feel inferior. I was given my own responsibility to complete tasks on time and to a high quality, which meant I gained invaluable skills such as prioritisation and time management.

The work placement was extremely organised, with many training opportunities and meetings with the most senior leaders in the country organised for us, that helped us to see how the hierarchy of an organisation really works. We were also given extra opportunities to be involved in charitable events Oracle got involved in, such as the Palace to Palace bike ride.

Oracle invested a lot of time and effort into many different training outlets for us. For example, as an intern I had full access to LinkedIn Learning, and Oracle Academy which is Oracle's online training platform, where you can choose which training course you wish to do and enroll yourself in it. We also had a lot of face-to-face training days, from presentation skills training to story board telling.

Future employment prospects within the organisation are appealing, as they run a graduate programme for once you have graduated from university.

With 48 other interns based in Reading and London, the social scene was very good. All of us interns got along very well and had many nights out together with all of us! Having flexibility between working in the London and Reading office also helped us all interconnect with others.

Personally, my cost of living was very low as I lived at home during my placement.

Reading nightlife is good and always lively :)

There was an endless amount of opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work, with numerous charitable activities to sign up to and take part in.