Sales, Marketing, Customer Success Intern Review

My placement at Oracle (Specifically Oracle Dyn GBU, now OCI) was the most incredible experience I have ever had in my working life. I was thrown straight into to managing my own projects, working with some incredible people, and built an amazing network to grow alongside with. The role I had in marketing was varied and rich in development.

My colleagues and I relied on each other to achieve our goals - be it a new marketing campaign, an event that needed to be organised, or a problem that needed to be solved. I felt as though I was a true member of the team, not just "the intern".

My managers and team were incredible in supporting me throughout my placement. When I made a mistake, I was supported through and encouraged to learn from it - which helped develop my skills and my confidence. My managers were extremely supportive with anything from my personal life that may have affected my performance, and I am so glad I had the privilege of working with them.

Like all jobs, there are busy periods and quiet periods. If I had to quantify my business over the placement I would say that I was busy 85% of the time, with the remaining time being used to recuperate and get my other projects back in order. It was a good balance that felt exciting but not overwhelming.

After around three weeks I was given my own projects to execute, and once I had successfully done this - I would be given another. This continued throughout my placement to the point where I was running my own campaigns, organising my own events, and leading small teams - simultaneously.

The skills I developed include but are not limited to: time management, discipline, team work, communication, leadership skills, and adaptability. These are all extremely sought after, and I expect that they will serve me will with my future career endeavours. Currently, the newly-found time management and discipline skills are helping me to achieve my goals at university with greater ease.

This is not necessarily relevant anymore as the office I worked in has since been merged with another division of Oracle, but the culture at the time was a mix of hard work, but good fun. We had scooters, a beer fridge, and a PS4. It was inviting and extremely warm. It is a shame that it is gone.

My placement was envisioned as a rotation between sales, marketing, and customer success. However, after the first quarter it was apparent that this was not a good arrangement. The roles were altered slightly, but this still was not an ideal set up. As I was working and supporting the marketing team very well during my rotation with them, I remained within their team for the duration of the placement.

I did not attend any personal training or development courses during my time in this placement. However, I was trained on very commonly used CRM and marketing automation tools - which are skills sought after by other employers. It is unfortunate that I wasn't given other training, but I felt as though I learned a lot from the experience overall to overcome this.

Again, I worked within a specific division that is now defunct within Oracle. This division had a different culture to the main oracle organisation. However, in the times that I did work within the core Oracle arm - I felt that this would be an exciting company to work for again, and I would be happy to do so.

I did not find the social scene within the placement cohort to be that extensive - there was a real focus on getting to know your immediate teams, and network with people whose situation is different to your own. That being said, there was a number of CSR initiatives run by the placement cohort that was enjoyable to go to.

I worked in Brighton, but the core Oracle office is in Reading. Brighton is really expensive, but the pay for the internship does balance that out somewhat. Had I worked in the Reading office, I would have had more money to socialise and live with. (Reading is a fun town though, so I'd go for it!)

Brighton is known for its nightlife, and it did not disappoint. Due to the culture of the office I worked in, I had many an opportunity to explore this nightlife, and many an adventure were had doing this! Reading itself has a number of clubs and bars, and is equally and enjoyable town to socialise within.

No. Occasionally I would go to rock-climbing, or the CSR initiatives like Tough Mudder - but in general the work-life split was quite strong working at Oracle. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I found it quite lonely having just moved down to Brighton from Oxford. This can vary person-to-person though!