Occidental Petroleum Corporation - Merit of the Internship Training and Rating of Work Environment - Example

Summer Final Report Maytha Nasser Al-naimi ID: 00133 Internship company Occidental petroleum of Qatar LTD Semester Summer 2014 Field Supervisor Sabyasachi Mahapatra Field Supervisor’ contact Work Address: Navigation Plaza , C Ring Road Email: Sabyasachi_mahapatra@oxy.com Academic Supervisor Dr. Said Mohamed Mokhtar Mohamed Elbanna Internship Student Final Report Index Section Page Introduction to Organization 3 Organization objectives and mission 3 Internship position description 4 Training completed 4 Intern’s contribution to organization 6 Academic training and organization’s expectation comparison 7 Usefulness and merit of the internship training 7 Assessment of the organization’s work environment 8 Suggestion for program improvement 8 Conclusions 9 References 10 1. Introduction to Organization Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: OXY) is an international oil and gas exploration and production company (Oxy.com, n.d.). The company was founded in California in 1920. Its first major discovery Oxy made in 1961 in the Sacramento Valley. Nowadays, Occidental is operating in three regions: the USA (California, Colorado, South Texas, North Dakota), the Latin America (Bolivia and Columbia), and the Middle East (Bahrain, Iraq, Oman, Libya, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen). In addition to the oil and gas exploration and production, the company operates in the midstream and marketing segment, where the key activity involves gathering, processing, transporting, storing, purchasing and marketing oil, natural gas and gas liquids, condensate, power and carbon dioxide. Also, the company has a wholly owned subsidiary – OxyChem, which is a major North American chemical manufacturer of chlorine, polyvinyl chloride, and caustic soda. The corporation is recognized to be one of the largest American based oil and gas companies, which has employs more than 40,000 people and contractors worldwide (Oxy.com, n.d.). The company has strong financial position. Net sales of the Occidental have been showing continuous growth. Thus, for example, during the period from FY 2009 to FY 2013, the company’s net sales have grown from $14,814 to $24,455, respectively. The company’s net income has almost doubled during the last four years: $ 2,915 billion in FY 2009 versus $5.9 billion in FY 2013. 2. Organization Objectives and Mission On order to achieve its strategic goals the company has developed a set of objectives that are listed below: To grow oil and gas production by developing programs focused on large, long-lived conventional and unconventional oil and gas assets with long-term growth potential and acquisitions (Oxy.com, n.d.); To grow Occidental’s oil and gas reserve base by adding substantially more reserves than the company produces (Oxy Annual Report 2013, 1). To ensure consistent growth of dividends; To allocate and deploy capital with a focus on achieving returns well in excess of Occidentals cost of capital; To maintain financial discipline and a strong balance sheet (Oxy.com, n.d.). The mission of the Occidental could be formulated in the following way: “To be globally respected, financially sound, and positioned to generate future value for our stakeholders” (Oxy Annual Report 2013, 1). 3. Internship position description During my summer internship in Oxy I was entitled a position of an assistant to senior specialist in the contract department. This job title suggested performance of a set of the tasks, including: Learning to use the Oracle system and working with this system for purchasing order; Making service order by using the Oracle system; Checking of the vendor’s qualification and the evaluating the extent to which the vendor fits the company’s requirements and standards; Following all the procedures that are required for doing service orders; Preparation of the document with all the instructions and corporate requirements of the company related to tender process (ITT document); Consolidation of the information about employees, necessary for preparing access cards (filling in the names of employees and setting expiration dates for the cards in the system) 4. Training Completed My Internship lasted for 4 weeks and all these four weeks I have been receiving substantial training sessions. Thus, for example, during the first week of internship in Oxy I have listened to the introductory training sessions in Supply Chain folks, OPQL and Supply Chain as well as listened to a lecture overviews of expediting and shipping overview and Systems & Inventory, supplier registration, and RFI/EBC. In addition to the above listed training theoretical sessions I have received practical training sessions in using the Oracle system for performing key tasks defined in the job description. In addition to this I have learned the internal processes of the logistics, namely: how the logistics department makes orders for materials and how it performs offshore shipping. During the second week of my internship, I have learned new information about safety policy adopted in the company. During the training in safety issues I have been taught both critical safety issues and health related issues, varying from general safety to safe usage of computer. In addition to safety and some other corporate behavior aspects I have been trained to perform some professional tasks related to the preparation of tender plan documentation. Thus, I have learned the criteria based on which bidders are evaluated and selected. Some of the key criteria included: reputation, quality, experience and expertise, regional presence and firm’s capability to provide similar services. Also, I have practiced doing calculation for commercial evaluation of potential bidders and undergone a training session on usage of the system while performing services’ orders. Due to the training provided to me during the second week I have gained some skills and new knowledge that are critical for this type of job in Oxy. Namely, I have improved my reading skills and learned new concepts relevant to supply chain management (tendering process, bidding procedure and criteria, requisitions, quotations, etc. It is worth to mention that internship during the second week has also contributed to my personal development as I have trained my patience and conquered my fears of doing new and unfamiliar tasks to me. During the third week of my internship I have practice the knowledge and theory that I have gained during the first weeks. I have learned all the procedures and processes necessary for doing service order. In cases when the order did not have quotation I have been trained to reject those orders. Also, I learned how to manage new and repeating purchase orders. During this week I also continued working on the document of corporate bidding guideline with the detailed description of the corporate processes and procedures. Due to the opportunity to give a presentation for the group, I was trained some basic skills required for good presentation (constant eye contact, clear statements, design of the presentation, etc.). The fourth week of my internship in Oxy also was quite productive and effective for me. I have been involved in the procurement processes of the company and learned new details about the work of contract department. Together with a qualified professional from the procurement department I have been choosing the suppliers eligible for potential partnership with Occidental Petroleum. Also during the last week of my internship I have learned some other details relevant to the work in contracting department. I have undergone effective training on choosing and selecting potential suppliers and trading partners for Occidental Petroleum based on the set of criteria. Also I have learnt that the estimated commitment value could be derived from current activity forecasts and incumbent rates or current market rates. 5. Intern’s Contribution to Organization In addition to acquiring knowledge and gaining new skills during the four weeks of my internship I have also made some contribution to the Occidental Petroleum. One of the key contributions can be attributed to my time management skills and capability to complete the tasks assigned within a given time frame. Due to these skills and my efforts the contract department gained a positive reputation within the organization. I have contacted two of my colleagues in order to offer them my help and to suggest my involvement in some other tasks. As I did my job and performed given tasks in responsible way, my supervisor has delegated some work, namely, preparation of the presentation for one of the internal meetings. Also, I have produced a document related to the work tasks, which late has been discussed on the contract meeting. I attended a meeting together with contract committee member and have taken participation in this meeting. Besides these major contributions, I have made some minor contributions to the colleagues working with me in the contract department by offering my help in performing and completing their job tasks. It is worth to mention that during my four weeks of internship I have also took two online courses: Oxy IT Cyber Security Awareness Training and Social Media Security Training. Both courses were helpful and useful for me and have contributed to my better understanding of the relationship between the IT and security of business. 6. Academic Training and Organization’s Expectation Comparison Academic training that I have got in the University has provided me with a solid background for “surviving” in the real life work environment. However, some of the Oxy’s expectations involved more specific knowledge of the contracting and procurement processes in the oil and gas industry. Also, the organization’s expectations were based on the knowledge of the Oracle system which is also specific program, with which I never came across before. 7. Usefulness and Merit of the Internship Training When I was planning my internship program in the Oxy, I have set several goals that I was aiming to achieve, namely: to enhance my professional skills, which will help me a lot when I will complete my studies outside Qatar; to learn the way to deal with contracts and the procurement/contracting procedures; to become more confident while interacting with a diverse workforce and doing any presentation without stress; to improve my second language. I thought that this experience combined with my academic knowledge will provide me with a solid background for starting my own business. Internship training that I have undergone in the Occidental turned to be even more helpful and useful for me than I expected. Due to this internship I have learned a lot of new things which have improved not only my professional knowledge but also gave me a better understanding of the working environment. Practice in a real system has made me feel increased responsibility and put me to certain pressure. However, these challenges have also made me to reconsider my approach to work and develop patience and improve my time management and organizational skills. Due to tough deadlines and workload I have developed respect of my time and have learned the ways of its productive utilization. Both, lack of specific knowledge and necessity to contact many unknown people have forced me to develop and improve my communication skills. As I have been working in the international company I had to communicate with many native English speakers. Practice of communication with native speakers has enabled me to improve my own accent, develop listening skills and pronunciation. 8. Assessment of the Organization’s Work Environment As I have already mentioned, my internship in the Occidental Petroleum has allowed me to better understand how the real business is operating and what it is the true working environment. The working environment in Oxy could be characterized in following way: cooperative spirit among employees, willingness to help and to provide information support; strong corporate culture encouraging creativity and initiative; diverse culture due to multinational team of professionals. Despite the fact that some employees were not willing to have conversations, the team work approach is well developed in the Oxy. During my internship I have been assigned many real tasks that are usually performed by the employees in the contracting department. This made me feel the part of the organization and the part of the team and encouraged me to do my best in result of responsibility and trust I have felt. 9. Suggestions for Program Improvement Even though I have gained significant real life experience and better understanding of the working environment, I have noticed some aspects in the internship program that could have been improved in the future. First of all, I have not got approval to the system immediately after I joined the company. While it can be referred to the security considerations, it can also be referred to the bureaucratic aspects present in the system. Another aspect which has made me getting stressed was lack of tasks and excessive free time. Sometimes I did not have tasks to do, while my colleagues were quite busy. Because I always want to learn something new in the work I do what they asked me to do immediately and also I suggest doing other new tasks that effect positive on my supervisor. Thus, it might be good to develop more comprehensive internship program and add more practical tasks for such active individuals like me. One more aspect, improvement of which relates not only to the internship program but to the overall productivity of the Oxy’s office relates to the improvement of the Oracle system. Sometimes, this system failed to work or worked very slowly, thus reducing the pace of work for many parties involved in the process. 10. Conclusions My internship in the Occidental Petroleum has provided me with an opportunity to develop both my professional knowledge in contracting and purchasing and my personality. The four weeks of active involvement in the real life working environment have provided me with deeper understanding of the work of contracting department in huge international company and to improve both my communication and English skills. I have learned how to better utilize my time due to proper and effective time management practices. In overall, this experience has encouraged me to work harder in the university as now I have much deeper understanding of the business environment and therefore, greater motivation to succeed in future. References: Oxy,. (2013). Annual Report. Retrieved 13 August 2014, from http://www.oxy.com/InvestorRelations/FinancialReports/Pages/AnnualReport.aspx Oxy.com,. (n.d.). Oxy | At a Glance. Retrieved 13 August 2014, from http://www.oxy.com/InvestorRelations/CompanyProfile/Pages/AtaGlance.aspx Oxy.com,. (n.d.). Oxy | Company Overview. Retrieved 13 August 2014, from http://www.oxy.com/AboutOxy/WhoWeAre/Pages/overview.aspx Oxy.com,. (n.d.). Oxy | What We Do. Retrieved 13 August 2014, from http://www.oxy.com/AboutOxy/WhatWeDo/Pages/WhatWeDo.aspx Read More