My internship story is finally out!
I started my 4-month internship on November 1, 2019, at Chevron Nigeria Limited. I had taken the internship assessment quiz a few months earlier and was super excited when I got the call in October that I could commence my internship the following month!
It was a very memorable experience that afforded me the opportunity to learn about cutting-edge innovations in Digital Technology and the Global Energy Industry, specifically how Digital and Data are key enablers in the Energy Business.
I was primarily assigned to the Unix Systems Support Team, which provides and supports High Performance Computing (HPC) solutions including cluster compute environment for Reservoir Simulation and Seismic Conditioning, Enterprise Network Attached Storage (NAS), and Enterprise Disaster Recovery environments. I received extensive mentoring from SMEs across the various support areas in the team and within a short time, became proficient in handling various tasks within the team, some of which are:
Participation in the data centre planned outage. Graceful shutdown of HPC infrastructure and the NetApp storage.
Installation and configuration of HPC compute nodes.
Preparation of daily backup status reports utilizing the Data Protection Advisor (DPA) software and the creation of a data entry form using Excel VBA for the backup and disaster recovery environment.
Troubleshooting faulty HPC workstations used by the Geophysical & Geological workflows.
Replaced failed Network Attached Storage disk drives.
I also had the opportunity to briefly work with the Application Development and Support Team who handle the development and support of web-based and client/server applications as well as the automation of repetitive computational tasks using Robotic Process Automation (RPA). While there, I worked on a team’s microsite on the company intranet website to implement the new template. I also learned about RPA and I deployed a UiPath bot.
From the exposure and experience gained, since then I have immersed myself into an in-depth study on the general application of Digital Technology to everyday living. I recently read an article on how HPC has played a massive part in the fight against COVID-19 through the application of modeling and genomics, thus leading to faster research results.
RPA too is now becoming an important part of many organizations' business processes, especially as Agile is now being incorporated into their strategies.
I have been able to leverage all my learnings to further sharpen my technical skills and gone ahead to complete key courses (online), proceeding to execute a few projects using Linux and RPA.
Additionally, I am presently learning Python, Python in HPC, Ansible Automation, and a few other programming courses.
The technical experience was great, but I came to realize other aspects in combination with technical expertise to make one a well-rounded and productive employee …
Trust (but verify), team collaboration, communication, high level of adaptability (growth mindset), diversity and inclusion, accountability and decision-making skills, safety consciousness, to mention a few were an everyday workplace culture that Chevron fosters.
Today, I have been able to apply these interpersonal skills gleaned from my short stay in Chevron to everyday life, taking up new challenges and not being afraid to fail because my failure is not indicative of my lack of passion, it only spurs me up to seek a better way of doing stuff and I am encouraged to think outside the box! Thus the #failfast ideology is something I’ve also become aware of, as well as the need to make better-informed decisions while identifying mitigating steps that I can take if things go south (hopefully all goes well)! I am also more open to constructive feedback because I have seen that it only serves to make me a better “me”.
Although this is coming quite late, I would like to state that this entire experience and the personal growth I have seen (and still see) in my life could not have happened without the encouragement and support of the amazing people I had the opportunity to work with at Chevron. My HPC Team supervisor — Mr Ademola Rufai, my internship mentor — Mr Layi Oke-Salako, other HPC squad members — Ms Inya Ajanaku, a lovely and inspiring woman who constantly encourages me to be better, Mr Maxwell Ene, Mr Stanley Ogundana, and Mr Sulaiman Balogun. I also appreciate Mr Bukky Olusanya and every other team member of the Application Development and Support team.
Finally, a big thank you to Chevron for giving students an opportunity to gain such valuable work and life experience! You are indeed the #humanenergy company!!!
