Revisited: Wissam Albukhanajer

Wissam Albukhanajer undertook a 12 week internship with Oilennium back in 2010. Two years on, he reflects on the experience and talks about his current career path.


"I started my twelve-week internship in May 2010 with Oilennium Ltd (http://www.oilennium.com/) company in Loddon, Norfolk through the UEA Evolve project to support recent graduates. Oilennium is unique in the world of providing high quality online eLearning training courses. It deals with the international Oil and Gas Industry and Energy Sector and provides high quality eLearning courses. 

My internship involved working closely with the IT department providing the team with an additional experience in developing a robust I.T. system and developing the business plan that supported the rapid expansion of the company. This internship has enhanced my skills largely. In addition to the technical skills developed during the internship, further skills have been developed such as team work, working under high pressure and meeting time constraints. My self-confidence has been enhanced throughout my work with the team. The team is very friendly and fun, they encouraged me to effectively provide suggestions and provide my inputs for I.T. core development. The team at Oilennium welcomed me warmly and I feel like it is my home to date. 

During the first two weeks of my internship, I could effectively provide my inputs to the team and was quickly involved with real world projects. Therefore, immediately after the internship had finished, the company offered me a job in the position: IT Research & Development Analyst in July 2010. At the same time, I secured another part-time job with UEA IT Support as Weekend IT Helpdesk Advisor. 

After few months, I applied for PhD to continue my studies and I successfully secured a fully funded PhD studentship with one of the top UK Universities which is the University of Surrey where I am currently pursuing a PhD starting from January 2011. The PhD studentship is funded by EPSRC as well as the Artificial Intelligence Company known as Intellas UK. I chose to relocate from Norwich to Surrey to undertake this PhD studentship. 

The above mentioned rapid yet brave steps in my life have not been done without encouragement from tutors, colleagues and friends. As a typical graduate, I was hesitating when I first applied for this internship, thought I do not have enough skills. However, this is not true. During the interview for this internship, I quickly realised there are many ‘can do’ skills which were spotted effectively by the Oilennium team. 

Therefore, my humble advice to recent graduates is to believe in yourself, do not under-estimate yourself and go forward with confidence and tell the world about your skills. The years you spent studying at the University what ever course you did has accumulated and built as much essential knowledge and skills as you can't imagine!"