Cloud Engineer Intern Review

My role revolves around using the Oracle Cloud platform to create solutions to business challenges for both external customers and internally for Oracle. My day will often include one or more scrum or "stand-up" calls to report my progression on a particular project. This is in addition to sporadic calls regarding new opportunities and other internal affairs. I get a generous amount of daily flexible spare time with which I can develop new skills.

I have developed my skills regarding the development of Cloud solutions. Via training and day-to-day experience I have gained a knowledge of the various cloud services offered by Oracle and how these can be used to create business solutions. I have developed some of my coding skills while working at Oracle, through more technical project work I have been involved in.

I was not given as much responsibility during my internship as I would have liked. It felt like I wasn't contributing much to the company and that my role was fairly redundant at times. I am glad I wasn't given too much responsibility this early in my career because of the stress factor but at times I think it would have been nice to have a bit more of a reason to get out of bed every morning.

I had weekly 1-2-1's with my manager and quarterly check-ins with the intern cohort supervisor. Overall I think support was adequate. I also took advantage of the mentorship scheme which allowed me to have someone else observe my development and guide me towards achieving what I wanted out of the placement.

The company has a friendly culture and you are made to feel very welcome as an intern. There is a strong focus on equality at Oracle which is made clear through the optional groups one can join regarding things such as women in leadership, environmentalism, neurodiversity and other good initiatives. Overall, the staff have been very pleasant to work with and the atmosphere is positive.

On the whole, I found my internship enjoyable as I was given a lot of flexibility in the work I wanted to pursue and the projects I wanted to dedicate my time to. I was in a great team with a lovely manager which made it a really pleasant experience. However, I wish my daily work better reflected what I was sold in the job description, as I did not find the role to be as technical as I would have liked and perhaps have not developed the skills I would have wanted going into my final year of university. The lack of responsibility also meant that I have felt a bit useless at times and that it wasn't as engaging of a placement as it could have been. The emphasis on finding your own projects and seeking out work yourself as opposed to being given work has is benefits but requires you to be very motivated from the start and not opposed to pestering full-time staff for work. Overall, I think Oracle has been a good company to work for and I could consider returning, given the opportunity.

Yes

Invest some time in learning about what the company does in order to look interested and curious. Do not worry about excessively technical interviews as I found the interview process to be the most pleasant and personal of all of the companies I did interviews with.