Business Operations Intern for UK Key Accounts Review

I loved my time at Oracle. I had a wide range of responsibilities, working with various teams throughout the organisation and either taking part in, or leading, a variety of different projects. With plenty of support and contacts from across the org I could get involved in plenty, whether it be customer workshops, partnership events or volunteering opportunities (to name a few). As an intern it's easy to think you won't be of much value, but those thoughts are quickly erased when you work at Oracle, being given responsibilities of your own from day 1 and plenty of support throuoghout your time. Even during the Covid-19 pandemic, they made efforts to make sure everyone throughout the company was doing well and staying connected, with the head of our intern program consistently checking in on us and making efforts to keep up our morale. Admitedly I haven't had much working expereince before this placement, but I am now nearing the end and have a lot more experience to fill up my CV and a much better idea of the kind of place I want to work at.

I felt quite valued by my colleagues, they always had good things to say about my work and I was frequently given chnaces to work with new people through these colleagues. The people throughout Oracle are friendly and approachable, I have been able to make acquaintances with people, simply by going to get a coffee from the kitchen, who I would then be able to look into working with closer in the future. Everybody is happy to help and have a talk (time permitting of course).

I was supported well by my manager, who had regular one-to-one's with me. He was easy to approach with questions, and always made time for us - which was impressive considering how busy he was. However, his busy schedule was in a way a double-edged sword: it meant my colleagues and I had to learn to think independently and work quite autonomously, which we did very well, but it also meant that if we encountered something we didn't know what to do about we couldn't progress until he was available again for 5 minutes. Although, after networking a little this became less of an issue as there were plenty of other people I could turn to now knowing they could help.

The workload varied often from day-to-day or week-to-week. My main role was around the key accounts teams, so I would be given tasks ad-hoc by them, which meant some days I was almost overwhelmed by the workload, being at my desk from 8:30-5:30. But on other days it would dry up, and I would use the time to catch up on admin, training, networking or other side-projects, mostly only doing the latter 2 after the first few months as I was still finding my bearings. All that being said, I did still have some regular tasks that came about every week, and they were a good way to ground myself through the varied workloads across days.

I was given a lot of responsibility, especially with some projects that I ran, almost completely, on my own. I was trusted to get my tasks completed well and in a timely manner, as the results would have an impact on the running of the business. Although it could be stressful at times, it felt amazing to finish a task and know that what you had done would be of actual use to the functioning of the wider business.

I have learned and developed so much in my time at Oracle. Whilst what I have learned may not affect my ability with Accounting and Finance exams, I do have a much better undersatnding of business practices to help contextualise these subjects. I have also developed many soft skills such as time and workload management, team working, communication and networking that will prove invaluable in any and all my future workplaces. Furthermore, by taking this year out to work in the industry I now better understand the field I would like to pursue, and I have built a network of contacts I will be able to reach out to in the future, for information, reference etc.

The atmosphere was mostly positive and lively. With colleagues chatting or sharing a laugh, there was almost always plenty of noise - especially towards quarter end. It was semi-relaxed, people were left to do their work and if they wanted to take 5-10 mins for a short break and a chat it was never frowned upon, if anything it was encouraged, as a bit of healthy work-life balance. So long as you weren't falling behind on work you were alright to take short breaks in the day (although this was also dependent on your manager's attitude).

The placement was very well organised, thanks mostly to the fact that Oracle had a full time member of HR dedicated to looking after the interns. She set up plenty of events for us, such as meeting senior leadership to hear about their roles, get advice and hear about their story. We were often invited to attend special events such as the 'Early Career' events held by 'TechUK'. I believe I was quite privileged being an intern at Oracle, as I had many opportunities I don't think a lot of undergraduate interns would get elsewhere.

On top of learning on the job, we had access to special internal training platforms to learn about sales ploicy, sales practices, etc. and we were given access to many other learning platforms such as LinkedIn Learning, so that we could learn other skills in our free time (i.e. business analytics, statistics, etc.) There were also some special training workshops that we could take part in: Presentation workshops, Visual Story telling workshops and I was even able to go on a diffibrilator taining course.

I am very interested in working with Oracle again in the future. However, this depends on available openings and where they could take me. So I won't cancel out other organisations but Oracle definately are a preference.

There were about 50 interns in this year's intake, the largest ever for Oracle UK. There was lots of socialising amongst the interns, however with so many different people it meant small groups would socialise more amongst each other, as tends to happen when you work more with and in proximity to the same groups of people, however this didn't cause any issues as everyone was friendly with each other. Some of us would socialise out of work, some went on nights out, others did sports together or went for meals together. However, the socialising tended to die down towards the winter as everyone just wanted to go home when it got dark and cold at 5pm.

I was based in te Reading Offices, which was only a short train ride form my home town, so for this year I lived back at home with my parents. The only real cost I had was paying for an annual train ticket, as there was a free shuttle bus that ran from teh station to the office at Thames Valley Park. But this did make it harder for me to socialise, as I was at the mercy of the train timetable - It was a one hour commute door to door. I do know that the rent and cost of living in Reading can be quite steep. So it's worth checking where you'll live carefully, one of this year's interns apartments was very beautiful, but was not water-tight and flooded whenever it rained.

I didn't go out much in the evening's during my time at Oracle but having been a student at Reading University I did know the nightlife a bit. Reading Centre has a main road with lots of the clubs, called "Friar Street", but there also numerous bars/pubs dotted around Reading and plenty of great places for food (I would recommend Las Iguanas, as they have great food and great cocktails)

I was able to take part in networking events at the university of Reading, and with TechUK thanks to the connections in Oracle. Oracle also has an entire Corporate Social Responsibility Team dedicated to helping it's employees take part in volunteering events with charities. In my time at Oracle I was part of a bake sale & pub quiz for MacMillan, the palace to palace cycle ride for prince's trust and the Reading 5km santa run. There were many others open for people to take part in, and Oracle gives its employees 40 paid hours a year they can take out of work time to take part in (approved) volunteering work