Technical Specialist Review

I have greatly enjoyed my work placement at IBM. I've been given many opportunities to take responsibility for projects and develop skills both technical and soft. I have also been able to work with many great people, all of whom have been so friendly and willing to help. Every here has also been really friendly and supportive, and there is a great community of interns and grads to get involved with

I have felt very valued by my colleagues, even though most of my team is spread across the country and I do not see them each day. From each I have felt genuine interest in helping me develop and enjoy my time at IBM. I have really felt like one of the team.

I haven't had a lot of contact with my task manager during my placement, however he appointed 3 mentors to look after myself and the other intern on my team. With these three mentors we have weekly contact (often more). I feel that my mentors definitely do have my back and give me support with all aspects of my placement experience.

My work was project based so I the workload has varied as I have completed and started projects, I have had times where I have been really busy juggling deadlines and demands on several projects. Then I have also had times where I have had very little work and had to find other things to do to remain productive.

In my placement I really felt that I was given real responsibility. After completing one piece of work for a client I was asked to go to the client's offices in London and present my findings to their CIO. I was also asked by my task manager to help organise a Europe wide event for some of our employees, and asked to prepare videos, a website and an app. Given the size of the event I felt honoured to be asked to help. I also felt like I was given a lot of responsibility when I participated in volunteering for IBM at careers fairs and mock assessment centres as most of the time I was running the stall or AC. In general I have felt very trusted with my work being trusted to get on and do with out being chased up at all.

I think that the skills I have developed will definitely help me in my final year of uni to work more efficiently and to a higher level. I have grown in confidence with my technical skills and hope to continue using them in the future. I also think that the soft skills I have developed will help me throughout my future working life.

In the actual room I worked in their was not a lot of interaction between the different teams that were in there as we did relatively unrelated things. The atmosphere there was focused. In the wider site there was quite a laid back atmosphere. The offices were out in the countryside on the grounds of a stately home, so the offices were surrounded by fields, and the lawns and gardens of the stately home. This meant that there was quite a relaxed atmosphere, and being quite isolated the dress code was also quite casual. There were also plenty of recreational things going on around the site, with football and cricket pitches, a clubhouse serving food and drink and table top football tables dotted around the place.

I feel that my placement was set up very well. My team took great care of me and I got to work on some pretty exciting projects. I had regular contact with my team and there were procedures put in place to ensure I had a positive experience. In the wider view, the intern programme was set up well by IBM, with regular reviews, meet-ups, activities and workshops to enhance my placement experience.

There were several projects that required me to learn new technical skills, some were general technology skills such as a programming language or others were skills for working with a particular IBM technology. If I ever needed to develop a skill my mentors would ensure that I was put in contact with someone that could help me learn. During my placement I was also sent on a three day IBM Design Thinking course at another site. The intern programme also ran several workshops throughout the year covering subjects such as "Communicating Effectively", "Building Your Personal Brand", "Presenting Effectively"... There are also regular sessions and webcasts focusing on other skills which can be accessed.

You can't finish your placement at IBM with a secured job. However you can have the prospect of being fast tracked through the grad application process. But yes, if you do want to come back everyone still has to apply. However the experience and knowledge you build during your placement will put you in good stead.

At the site where I worked there were over 100 interns, so there was plenty of opportunity for getting together. The only downside was that there was not a lot to do in the local area. Even at work though there were various clubs and societies to get involved in inc. karate, football, choir, cricket, sailing...

My placement was in Hampshire in the south, so was not as cheap as some other locations. However if you are willing to compromise you can still get a fairly cheap place to live.