Business Opperations S&D Public Sector Review

I have really enjoyed my time at IBM. It has been an amazing opportunity for me to grow personally and professionally. I have been a part of a great team who appreciate the value interns can add and allow you to take on as much responsibility as you want. From my first day I was part of a big project within my team that allowed me to network within IBM with a more broad range of people and business units than i may have done without the chance to head this project. Another great thing about working at IBM is that being such a large organization there are so many areas to the business that you can get involved in and explore to see if you would rather come back in a different role. This is mainly because it is a friendly company that has helps young people develop professionally through the great foundation scheme they have. This scheme acts as a support network, there to help you out if you need it, or provide workshops, presentations and giveback opportunities to further your development.

The whole IBM team, both my immediate team, extended and anyone I interacted with were very welcoming. They understand in the beginning how nervous you are starting in such a large company who pretty much have their own language and take the time to explain the language and different aspects of the business. As you progress in the placement they also realise you are growing in confidence and understanding and can now offer added value to the business so encourage you to express this any way you can. There is also a great social atmosphere, not just among the foundation employees but at every level. The client execs and management in my team always invited me out for drinks so that we could engage in a social environment as well as professional and with some I have become friends! From senior management to catering staff everyone is warm and welcoming and always willing to talk to you about work or gossip!

During the first few months when I was finding my feet the support from my Early Professionals Manager, Line manager and other management within the team was great! They would take the time to explain the business to me, take me aside to check I wasn't getting bogged down with the work load and generally support me. As I have progressed through the placement I am still able to talk to them if I have any questions, in fact despite my manager not being in the same building as me most of the week we are constantly in contact if I need to be either internal messaging (Sametime) or phone calls. I have also been given the opportunity to branch out and work with various business units as long as I keep up with my day job so that I can explore different areas I may want to come back into.

I am naturally a person who likes to be busy. I found that my day job was not keeping me busy enough or challenging enough, however this I found was not a bad thing. This allowed me to ask around for extra work, introducing myself to new people and showing I am a hard worker who takes the initiative. And this also allowed me to set my own balance for how much work I wanted to take on. The great thing about IBM is that it is a company that allows you to take from it as much as you want. If you are in it as a 9-5 job to earn some money without thinking about your development for the future then you can do the bare minimum asked of you, although I would not recommend this. If, however, you are like me there is so much available that you can get involved in-from asking around for extra work, shadowing people etc, but you can also do extra stuff outside of your job remit such as organizing events for the foundation (interns, apprenticeships, graduates and placement students) team, helping out at university/school careers fairs etc.

From the off set I was given a lot of responsibility because I was put in charge of a large project that I had to coordinate the upload of 120 IBM offerings to an online catalog that customers can buy from. This was a huge task but I thrived in it and was able to realize I enjoyed the responsibility. From there I took on more responsibility as it came up. It is completely up to you to talk to your manager and decide how much responsibility you want, never be afraid to shout out if you are feeling to pressured or not challenged enough!

I am a lot better at time management now- which can only help in my final year when I have a lot of work on. I also have a better work ethic now- I used to wake up whenever and do work into the late hours, now I will wake up at the same time to get onto campus and do a working day . This will also give me more time to join extracurricular activities. My confidence has also grown over the course of this year- I can now converse with anyone at some level. I am also more confident in my abilities to take on tasks and complete them to a high standard. I have also had to present in client environments so that has been an invaluable experience. Another area many of my tutors have commented on is the quality of work students who have been on placement being of a higher quality than those who have not- I look forward to this being the case!

The atmosphere in the area I worked in was great, it was friendly, relaxed and you could chat to people. If you needed to knuckle down and do some work that was also possible. On a Friday the atmosphere is dead as most people work from home.

The team I worked within have had interns for the past 3 years so they are well equipped at organizing our jobs etc. The foundation team were also really great at organizing events all year round for development and social purposes. It is great placement because it has been around for a while so that have it pretty well organised.

I have touched on this in early questions. The foundation team are great, they put on workshops to develop your understanding of the IBM business units, roles and products. They have networks of people in the business signed up to help foundation students through mentoring, shadowing and partnering. In IBMs view they want to give you the best experience so that you come back for their graduate scheme or become an ambassador to encourage others, I believe they do a good job.

Very appealing, I am very keen to come back for a graduate job and am working hard to achieve this!

Yes, you become very close with fellow interns, especially the ones you work with every day. I am based in Southbank which is the area with the most interns (150/300) so that has had a huge impact on my experience for the better. In the summer particularly we would go along Southbank for lunch breaks together and out for drinks most nights after work, just loving London life! It is also great as a lot of people rent in the same areas of London so you can do stuff at the weekend as well.

Given I was based in London it was never going to be cheap to socialize and live around where I work. I am renting a really nice 4 bedroom house in Wimbledon with 3 others from my uni also working at IBM, the rent excluding bills is 687.50 GBP/month which when comparing to some of the other intern's houses and rent is pretty decent. Going out for drinks: the average bar will charge 4/5 pounds for a beer, 8-9 pounds for a cocktail and when I have been on nights out and got single spirit and lemonade they cost 8.50. In Cargo in Shoreditch (great RnB club) 5 jaeger bombs cost 42 pounds... So it is expensive as you would expect- but the wage has managed to cover it and some savings .

Bars and pubs are the places to go in Waterloo/ Southbank, however cross the river and you're in central London where there are lots of great clubs. Expensive ( I now know the true reason behind pre drinks)- but a good night! I have mainly been doing bar crawls as there are some interesting places in London, you don't want to just stick to one place for the night!

Yes- it's London- there is something for everyone!