Internship at the Qatar Petrochemical Company - Case Study Example

Internship Summary Introduction Qatar Petrochemical Company was formed in 1971 with the intention of exploiting petroleum resourcesin the state of Qatar. The firm, which is a merger between Industrial Qatar (IQ) with 80% share and Total Petrochemicals of France for the remaining 20% share started commercial production in 1981. As Newman (2013) says, internship is a major stepping stone to the practical world after school. Doing internship in this big multinational company was a big opportunity as well as well as a challenge. As I prepared to start my internship, many questions rushed through my mind. For instance, what was the main question was whether the firms would be give an intern the opportunity to get the experience in a department where he or she can apply what they had been learning at the University. The second question was on whether one would be required to remember everything they had learnt from the University such as every financial formula etc. After joining the firm, some individuals explained it was not necessary to be nervous and that no one needed to have to remember off head everything they had learnt in class. They explained what mattered the most was the ability to apply finance skill to carry out the daily activities. As an International Finance major, I was to be posted in the finance department. This department, I believe, is the most important department in any organization because its success or failure determines how an organization is going to be successful in the long run. My first week in Qatar Petrochemical Company The finance department in Qatar Petrochemical Company is made of two sections, the Accounting and Reporting department and Treasury and Credit department. The program started by working in the Accounting and Reporting department which has three subsections. Particularly working in the financial analysis and reporting section where most of the work was about planning and budgeting. What was learnt quite here was a great deal about budgeting and how it can also be used to measure and measure the performance of a firm. This was done by comparing the previous budget and the budget forecast of the coming fiscal year. I was able to learn about some practical skills on budgeting, especially expenditure forecast which I learnt as we were preparing the budget for the new fiscal year for the firm. During this week, there was also some work with the corporate accounts section of the Accounting and Reporting department where I leant a number of things such as how to deal with expenditure in the firm. For instance, there was the issue of accounts payable which in this firm had been categorized into two major categories. These two categories include the non purchase order payments and the invoice order payments. The non purchase order accounts payables are the payments that are not directly related to purchase of any goods that the firm utilizes. They therefore include such payments as the utility bills, rents and also the main raw material such as gas which is the most important bill. Others include the once-a-year bills of the VIP club membership for all top managers. These payments are treated separately from the invoice purchase payments because they are different and have a different impact in the financial status of the firm. The invoice purchase accounts payables involve those payments that are involved in the purchase of goods that are needed for the operation of the firm. Example of these payments includes spare parts for the machines. These purchases are purchases that may never be necessary or needed today but may be needed tomorrow. Most of them, such as spare parts and repairs for machinery may be completely unpredictable. As a result, I learnt that it is always necessary to always have a plan to make sure that if these costs arise, there will be a way to meet them. It is necessary to makes sure that there is some money that is put aside for the purposes of meeting these needs. However, the amount of money set aside for these emergency costs should be the percent amount in order to make sure that if they arise, there will be amount money to meet the cost but that if they don’t occur, the money that will have been tied will not be so much as to make a loss. Towards the rear end of the first week of the program at the QAPCO, I was lucky enough to work with ledgers where I learnt a number of practical things in the internship. For instance, as we went on with the ledger management, I was able to learn how to use the ledger to track and monitor all the transactions in the company and provide financial statements such as account receivables and balance sheet. Although these things had been learnt in class in class, they were now made clearer and I was able to understand and comprehend how important these reports are to a firm. I also learnt a bit of operation accounts (costing) with regard to evaluating the cost or the value of the items either selling or buying. I was involved in the cost evaluation of a printer which was needed for the office. The task involved looking at the cost and then comparing to the services the printer will be offering. This was necessary to know which printer to buy (with regard to its cost) and how this cost will lead to the needed services being provided. Difficulties encountered The main barrier encountered was the fact this program started off with tasks that required a lot of accounting skills. Given that I am an International Finance major, this was a challenge needed the personnel in the department to help me out with the work. I was however lucky to be with someone who was willing to help and he helped me with understanding the formulas and calculations. Second week of internship at the QAPCO The second week was more fascinating, mostly because the tasks now was now involved a lot of the things I had learnt in finance classes, including lesson in international finance. This second week, I was taken to the credit department. This department was subdivided into two sections namely the treasury operation and the credit and collection section. Work involved several activities that are necessary in international finance, corporate finance and investment. Simply put, a lot of things were done which involved checking all invoices so that new journal ledger entries could be made with regard to deposits. I also did funds selling and transferring letters. In this section, the operation also involved three type of intermediary guarantee as follows; Credit insurance; this was provided by an insurance company. This insures the finances of a firm by insuring them against the risk f nonpayment by a an exporter to the importer so that if the party required to pay is unable to for any reason such as bankruptcy, the firm will not lose money (Pandey, 2009). Bank Guarantee: Guarantee form importer bank to the exporter to insure the liability will pay off if the importer fails to pay. Letter of credit (L/C): Letter from the bank that guarantee the importer will pay the exporter on time and correct amount. If the importer fails to pay the bank will pay the full amount due. I especially benefited from this as I was able to practically be involved in the evaluation of the different types of insurance/guarantee and determining the most important in a specific situation. To do this, I had to consider a number of factors which involved the maturity date of the guarantee and what the maturity would mean to the firm’s finances. This task was challenging and overwhelming and I could not even imagine that the manager had delegated this to me. Eventually, in spite of my worry at first, this increased my confidence not only as finance major but also in my future career. I realized that nothing is really that had as long as a perosn is willing to become creative and apply the knowledge one has. Other tasks involved converting of foreign currency. This is important with regard to international finance and there were some lessons learnt especially with regard to how to use this as a way to generate money by using the fluctuation of the exchange rate. My third week of internship at QAPCO Although there were no much work with regard to finance management, this week was important because I learnt a number of factors, especially with regard to the work place. However, regardless of there being no a lot of practical work, my manager gave me some work which was very important. Tasks included evaluation of some banks where the firm could deposit the money. The issue of contention was to find a bank with the best interest rate and I had to choose among QNB, HSBC and Doha bank. Emails were sent to all of them with a request on their rates of interest. They all responded fast and I was able to make my decision. HSBC was chosen because it was giving a rate of 2.8% in 10 days and that was the best deal I got. Other tasks included carrying other operational tasks that involve finance such as checking invoices. I received about 48 invoices from the employee which was mandated with preparing them. They were checked them for mistakes and errors before they were sent to the top manager. I used this opportunity to learn just how important it is to have error free document such as involved because his can lead to mayhem in the firm. Finally the program moved to the section called “collection and receivables” that deals with the amount of money that the company is about to receive in the short future. This is an important section that complements treasury section because the deposits and the collection from both sides are related. The section is involved in monitoring the money that will be collected. For instance, I had to call a customer from Kuwait who promised that the money will be deposited the following day. For such a pending transaction, the transaction was recorded together with those of the following day. Benefits Being a big firm, there are many departments in the firm and this gave me an opportunity to practically experience how different departments relate with each other. Opportunity to deal with number of issues which gave me practical understanding of some issues relating to finance management also arose. Internship week four at the QAPCO The last week was in a company under QAPCO management called Qatofin company. With regard to finances, managing finances where a firm has other firms under it, or where it operates under another firm complicates the finances management. This was the case with the Qatofin which a subsidiary of QAPCO. Working in this subsidiary gave me a rare opportunity for me to be able to see these challenges first hand. Being able to look at the way such situations are handled is important as it will be necessary in the real world where many firms find themselves in this kind of a situation. The knowledge and experience that came from this task will be useful in the future career. This was a chance for me to encounter firsthand the pressure of decision making. Disadvantages The variances in the finance management that occurred due to the fact the subsidiary firm were a different company was unnecessary and can be managed better by applying better processes. Conclusion Internships provide the students with a way to see beforehand how the actual work will be and there finding a firm that gives them this opportunity is great success factor for the students (King, 2012). I can honestly say that was I learnt met my expectations. As for the firm, I think there are a number of things they may want to change. For instance, there is the issue of the Qatofin firm which is a subsidiary of the QOPCO firm. Although this subsidiary was meant to take advantage of the many professionals who may have some skills which can be used in this area, it is necessary to know the problems in terms of finance management this brings. These financial issues are from the fact that the given firm may have disadvantage. They may also lead to tax issues. I would suggest the flow of money between the two firms be reconsidered and if possible be restructured. However, apart from that, the firm is a very good firm with regard to how they handled me as an intern and I can only hope that that is the way they handle all the other interns. The way most of the employees were so supportive and willing to help interns learn was amazing and that may explain why he firm is such a success because a good workforce is what makes a firm to be successful (Cummins, 2009). If there are any future students who want to go to QAPCO, I would definitely recommend the firm as a place to do their internship. The firm is a big firm and doing your internship there will give you the opportunity to see all elements of a typical firm and you therefore learn everything. Overall, the firm was god and the internship was a success. Overall benefits and advantages This internship program was an opportunity to see how things are done in an international firm. The structure and size of the firm provided the opportunity to see how international faineance world. Since the firm made of two different firms from two different countries, it was easier to understand how mergers work and how this affects the fiancés of the firm. The other advantage of working going for an internship at the QAPCO is the excellent workforce there which has a very positive work culture. Their ability and willingness to help new employees and interns was amazing and this is a great opportunity to learn. Going to a firm with this kind of people is always a great opportunity because many firms have employees who wouldn’t bother explaining things to an intern. In fact, many people are always unlucky enough to go have their internship programs in firms where they are taken for granted and only given the low jobs and so they end up learning nothing useful. This wasn’t the case with QAPCO because they are willing to help interns to learn as much as possible. Disadvantages The size of the firm was a bit frightening and this made me to be a little shy about my ability to do anything useful here. The fact that the firm is so big also made it harder for an intern to experience how things work at executive level because these offices were out of bounds. This therefore was an opportunity lost because international finance is important at the executive level where critical decisions are made. References: Cummins, D. (2009). The Role of Practicum and Intern Supervisees in Professional Identity Development. New York, NY: ProQuest. King, M. (2012). The Successful Internship. London, UK: Cengage Learning. Newman, D. (2013). Demystifying the School Psychology Internship: A Dynamic Guide for Interns and Supervisors. London, UK: Routledge. Pandey, I. (2009). Financial Management. New York, NY: Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd. Read More