The View of Professional Field and Potential Future Directions - Case Study Example

Final Internship Report Student Name: Fatima Hasan Al Ameri Student ID: u2915298 Internship Supervisor: Dr. Abdallah Tubaishat Workplace Supervisor: Sakher Darawish Company: ADMA-OPCO Date: 28-October- 2015 Full 2015 Contents Introduction 3 Company profile 4 ADMA-OPCO Vision 4 Job description and work plan 5 Internship objectives 6 Technical Objectives 6 Personal Goals 7 Business Objectives 7 Accomplishments 8 Communication skills 8 IS planning and analysis 9 Website creation using SharePoint 9 Creation of an internal communication system 9 Networking and friendship 10 Identifying a mentor 10 Lessons learnt 11 Conclusion 12 Introduction The following report describes my experiences and activities carried out during my 8-week full time internship at the Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (ADMA-OPCO). The internship is part and parcel of the learning process and my course requirement. The internship program at Zayed University offers students an opportunity to gain experience of working in a real-life workplace and further sharpening and adding to their knowledge gained in the duration of the course. In my case, I have embraced the internship program as an opportunity to learn, grow, and develop further professionally and personally. From the very beginning, I recognized that the opportunity would also give me a detailed view of my professional field and potential future directions. Prior to starting the internship, I made necessary preparations by identifying my objectives and goals of the process. Throughout the internship, I made a conscious effort to learn and achieve what I set to achieve from the beginning. The report is more than just a simple account of my experiences throughout the internship. It also reflects on the experiences vis a vis the objectives set out at the beginning. The first section of the report offers an overview of ADMA-OPCO, and its business followed by a brief analysis of my roles and job description in the organization. The next section details my objectives and provides reflection on the same. The next section addresses the accomplishments followed by lessons. The final part concludes the report and offers implications of the internship experience on me as a person and as a professional. Company profile Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (ADMA-OPCO) is one of the major 18 subsidiaries of the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company in the UAE. The parent company is responsible for managing oil and gas reserves in the UAE which are estimated to be in excess of 137 billion barrels. As a subsidiary, ADMA-OPCO is mandated to manage gas and oil reserves in the offshore waters in the jurisdiction of the UAE and close to the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The firm’s main activities include offshore exploration, drilling, development, extraction of crude oil, transfer, export and storage of crude oil and associated products. The firms operations are largely located in two main oil producing areas namely Shaif and Lower Zakum. Crude oil is transferred to Das Island for processing, storage and export. ADMA-OPCO Vision To be the Premier Offshore Oil and Gas production development company, aspiring to operational and technical Excellence and highest Effectiveness of resources utilization through innovative teams to maximize Value. Mission Develop Oil and Gas production to maximize sustainability towards 70% recovery using state-of-the-art technology, in a socially responsible manner, while maintaining the highest HSE, Operational Integrity and Cost Effectiveness standards Values Transparency Respect Courage Professionalism Innovation Job description and work plan As an IT security and networking major, I had made my desired area of work in the organization known. I have applied to work in area that I knew best utilized my learned knowledge and also offered me growth opportunities. As an organization that is highly innovative and employs the latest technology in various work process, the IT department at ADMA-OPCO is huge. In fact the department transcends the entire organization given that many functions are computerized and automated and thus the IS department is there to offer support and ensure smooth running of operations. This implies that the department plays an integral role in the organization which also means that my assignment and role in the firm was very sensitive. To maximize my time at the firm, I served in a different section every week which also implied a different job description. The IT department had six sections in total. Week 1: IT Client Services Department. Working alongside the IT client services team, I was responsible for providing general IT related assistance to employees in the company and also carry out minor repair and maintenance work on IT systems Week 2: Information Technology infrastructure department Working under this section, I was charged with ensuring the proper functioning of network systems using Nexus 7000 witches alongside the resident team. Week 3: Information system planning department Learn about the work processes of the resident team in the section which is responsible for overseeing all change in IT policies, standard and processors Week 4: Business solution teams Learn about the utilization of non-production applications, i.e. business applications Week 5: Cyber Security & information Assurance TL Alongside the resident section team, understand, manage and mitigate cyber security threats to the organization. Week 6: Telecoms team Together with resident team, manage and over all telecommunication activities such as Ground to Air Radio communication systems. Internship objectives Having completed the duration of the internship, I believe I have benefited immensely through valuable information that is essential in making decisions about my future employment and studies. Since the internship was my first introduction to the working world, I looked forward to accomplish a set of carefully chosen objectives that touch on technical, business, and personal development aspects. At the moment, I can report on the progress in meeting these objectives. Technical Objectives On this area, I had developed several objectives that touched on software, hardware, managing multiple systems, designing networking and security infrastructure, analyzing the problems with the existing networking and security systems in the company, and sitting in teams and learning about communicating in technical information. I managed to achieve much of these objectives such as managing hardware, software and other network components. I was impressed that ADMA-OPCO has the latest installations in hardware and software that proved not exciting but also challenging. However, one thing that I did not get to do was to design a network and security infrastructure as there already numerous design at work. However, I reviewed the existing designs and learned some helpful tips. Personal Goals On personal goals, I had planned to link my academic theory to practical work in IT security and networking, get to apply my knowledge and skills in a working environment, demonstrate my professional skills, develop networking and mentoring relationships that are strong during my internship, develop multicultural competence and advance interpersonal skills. I am glad that I have managed to achieve these objectives. In fact, I was more than impressed with my multicultural competence and interpersonal skills. These skills were critical in me landing a mentor who happens to be from a different cultural background. Business Objectives This area of my objectives aimed at improving my business language skills, team participation and management, and generally experience the language, mood and culture of a workplace environment. I am happy to report that in the short duration of the internship, I had managed to build rapport and with ADMA-OPCO employees in the various sections of the IT department that I worked. I did not experience any trouble in keeping up with organizational rules and the culture, both the spoken and unspoken. On the overall, I can say that I managed to achieve much of the objectives that I set out to achieve. However, on the few objectives that I did not meet, I have come to acknowledge I must have overestimated the experience. For instance, I had hoped that I would probably get the chance to lead a team, even if it was a team made of interns only. However, I never had the chance and through my experience I observed that team leadership positions in most cases are assigned to people with exceptional leadership qualities and those with the top knowledge in the area of the task that the team is expected to handle. Accomplishments Through the internship experience, students should not only get to know what it feels like to be working in a given organization and adhering to organizational rules and regulations, but also be capable of making key achievements. Such accomplishments help to develop self-confidence and also self-belief in one’s skills. Specifically, there are several areas where I feel I have made accomplishments worth highlighting. Communication skills I improved communication skill and my performance became better than before. At first, I was very afraid to speak to my seniors. At first, I was worried that I had little to offer to experienced hands in the field. However, I realized that I had fresh ideas largely based on theory that some employees had never encountered. I was more than ready to explain such ideas. In doing so, my confidence in communication was largely improved. In fact, towards the end of the internship, I had managed to build my confidence well enough to approach employees form various sections in IT department for assistance where necessary without any worry. IS planning and analysis I learned useful information and knowledge regarding IS Planning and how this concept can be employed in controlling financial operations and how they can save the IT budget cycle. This is a very important aspect in modern times where organizations are very much interested in efficient and sustainable utilization of resources. IS planning also ensures that organizations develop effective policies to protect resources of an organization from hacks and cyber-attacks. Such plans need to be regularly evaluated and tested for their effectiveness. Working in the cyber security section, I was part of the team that was tasked with the processes of IS planning and developing additional plans to analyze and evaluate such plans. Website creation using SharePoint I learned how to create a simple website with Microsoft SharePoint. The website was intended to provide employees with information on their rights at the workplace. This was exceptionally to me because I took just a few hours to learn the general steps in website creation using SharePoint before I created one. Additionally, I learned about updating a website developed on SharePoint to enable it to store, organize, share, and access information from almost any device. In the process, I also learned basic steps in ensuring website safety on my own. Creation of an internal communication system I understand and learn how to create a great system to communicate the employers and the stuff in ADMA Island. The System was intended to provide employees with information to how they can share the data by telecom. This was intelligence to me because I did not imagine how easy we can communicate clearly with the people who work in oil fields. Additionally, I learned about upgrade the system to be easier when we need to link it. Networking and friendship Creating new friendships and professional relationships with established IT security and networking personnel was one of the key objectives. I must say that overdid myself as I not only established healthy professional links with people in IT security and networking but other people in the general IT department and even outside. At first, I was interested in interacting with employees in the IT department only but I found it worthwhile to interact with people from other departments. For instance, I managed to strike a cordial relationship with a young lady working in the HR department. I believe that I can benefit from such a relationship in case of my future interest in working at the firm. Identifying a mentor On my first day of the internship, I was very interested in my supervisor as a mentor. I was impressed with her knowledge of the organization and her cordial relationship with nearly all employees in the IT department. However, after several days I realized that she was so much into office politics such that she was likely to irritate several people. I found this to be a sensitive issue with me as I did not to irritate people in my short stay. After observing the supervisor more closely and working alongside her, I realized all that was needed was to understand her. Her interest in office politicking was largely due to her talkative nature and friendly nature that saw many people open up to her. In the next few weeks, I talked to her repeatedly during the lunch breaks and sought her ideas on my skills and possible openings in the firm. She was in fact very supportive and made it clear to her that I would be interested in her offering me guidance as a newbie in the IT profession. She was more than ready to help and just joked about it in the lines of having to bribe her with a cup of tea occasionally. Lessons learnt During the first week, I learned the importance of having strong interpersonal and communication skills. This coupled with self-belief and confidence especially for people like me who are about to enter into the workforce. Such skills are important in creating the right impression on colleagues and potential employers. Furthermore, it enables on to more correctly present his or her ideas in manner that can be easily understand. On top of that, knowing how to relate with people by accepting people have weaknesses and strengths as human beings goes a long way in making oneself a dream colleague in the workplace. In terms of technical aspects of IT security and networking, I learnt that large organizations such as ADMA-OPCO need to have better backup systems to safeguard their data and operations. In the case of ADMA-OPCO, the best way to protect backup is to have two good mirroring and striping. The sensitivity of the industry and vulnerability to cyber terror attacks demands that firms operating in the oil industry should be more stringent in how they approach and safeguard their systems through effective backups. For large firms such as ADMA-OPCO, in-house systems preferred to commercial systems supplied by various vendors. While the systems supplied by various vendors are easier to implement and maintain, in-house systems require huge resources in terms of manpower and hardware. Throughout the internship, I observed that the firm relies on Oracle in-house development system. This system, though based on commercial version is customized to address specific needs and processes of the firms. Thus, I learned that small organizations have no choice but to rely on commercial systems which may not be optimized to meet their specific needs and thus affects their performance. For me, this was an indication of the reasons why small scale enterprises are failing to compete effectively with big firms due to availability of such technical knowhow and resources to develop in-house systems. Conclusion To conclude on this exercise, I must admit that I have been equally impressed and challenged at the same time. For one, I never expected to feel the pressures of being a student again. However, to my surprise, there is a lot of similarity in the content learned in class and the ones learned during the internship which I was required to document and in the process ushering in the student pressures that I had expected to ease. Secondly, the exercise was fun. At one point, I felt like I had been working at ADMA-OPCO for longer simply because of the way the employees at the establishment made me feel at home and were ready to guide me wherever I was lost or facing difficulties. They were also very open to new ideas from the classroom. From another angle, taking stock of the challenges that I have encountered, the lessons I have learned and things that I have accomplished, I think I am more than ready to take on the world. I believe that I can make a great colleague to anyone by honing my people skills and also improve more on my communication skills. The concept of geeks associated with people working in IT should be done way with through active measures. I believe this includes fostering better interactional skills to ensure that employees in other departments understand people in IT and vice versa. I believe this, organizational performance shall be improved and better workplace environments will be created. References ADMA-OPCO website. http://www.adma-opco.com/en/Menu/index.aspx?PriMenuID=2&CatID=11&RefID=0&mnu=Cat Read More