GTS Marketing specialist Review

I really enjoyed my work placement at IBM. I was located in London which was a ideal as there is so much going on, and also based in the main office at South Bank which was really social with around 100 interns. I felt like a valued employee to the business and was challenged in many different ways but I felt like my adaptability skills were definitely challenged as I hadn't been used to such a corporate working environment before. I really enjoyed it!

I definitely felt valued by my colleagues as they were reliant on me to get work completed just as I was reliant on them, and so you feel really motivated to work hard and get everything completed on time as you don't want to let anyone down. With a lot of my colleagues I also felt a sense of achievement as they would give me praise for carrying out certain tasks and so it just makes you happy to work with them again in the future.

I was given support by my manager, but I would not say that this support was consistent. My manager wasn't actually in my office often and so this led to a lack of communication on both parts, and I did feel as though my manager didn't know me as well as other colleagues. However if I had any questions or queries, I did feel comfortable in asking my manager for help with them and usually got a quick response.

On a daily basis I usually had a lot to do, however some days would be busier than others. Sometimes, if I was waiting on responses from other employees before carrying out certain tasks then this would mean I had less to do as I was waiting on them. However I found that if you have full focus on concentration on the tasks in hand, you will find there is always something else that needs to be done somewhere.

I was given a large degree of responsibility on my placement as my role was part of an overall strategic marketing strategy. Employees who were higher up in the business depended on me to gather information and feed it back to them effectively. I did not feel like 'just an intern' as I knew that if I didn't deliver effectively, that other parts of the business would suffer as a result of this.

The skills I learnt on this placement will definitely be of use to me when returning to university. My presentation and public speaking skills have been tested and this will be helpful when having to give presentations in my final year. Also my organization and time management skills have definitely improved and so this will assist me in my final year with balancing all my different modules and courseworks.

The general atmosphere in my office was very friendly. People were always happy to answer any questions especially when they know you're new to the business. On some days it would be very busy which could sometimes be distracting as there would be lots of people on the phones at different times. However this wasn't a massive problem as you could book out different rooms, and so this was sometimes useful.

The work placement was set up very well, starting with the induction and then getting into real working life. I found that there were often opportunities outside of our given job roles that we could take part in and I think this is crucial to being on placement - doing more than just your job role. This gave us experiences that were not just related to our day to day tasks and I found this really useful.

I think that the company didn't invest into every single intern individually, however there were clear opportunities for personal development for everyone. I would say that it was just a case of making sure you knew about all these opportunities and getting involved with as much as possible for the duration of the placement. You definitely get out of it what you put in, and that's why networking and talking to as many people as you can whilst as work is so important.

The future employment prospects within the organisation seem appealing especially as I have spent a year here already. However after I complete my personal shadowing of different departments I think I will then have a clearer idea as to exactly what part of the business I would like to return to. Being on placement at such a large organisation means that if you were to return it would almost definitely not be with the role you had before as people are continually changing job roles within the business.

There was a great social scene amongst other placement students at IBM, especially as we we're in the main office in London. Lunch was very social with plenty of people from different backgrounds, at different universities and so this made things interesting. It was easy to make friends very quickly and everyone often went out for drinks or took part in other activities such as bowling or going to desert parlors. Anything really!

The cost of living in London is a massive shock to anyone who hasn't lived there before. You cannot do anything for free. Travel, food, drinks and everything is always quite expensive especially if you are in central. Most people found that you cannot even budget for travel as it is a necessity to get into work and do your shopping etc. So the money spent on travel is never really seen, especially as everyone uses contactless payments on the tube.

The nightlife in London is incredible. There's a massive variety to suit many different music types and this also depends on location - whether you're in central or somewhere a bit further out. London is home to quite a few iconic, superclubs which are known quite famously. This isn't for everyone but there are also so many bars located absolutely everywhere and this is slightly more relaxed which suits people who would prefer a quieter night.

There were some opportunities to get involved with activities outside of work, such as sports like netball. Most of the activities outside of work were planned by interns, for interns. This way, people were able to collaborate together and decide on activities that everyone wanted to do. This was more effective because it wasn't planned by the company and so it meant we had more choice and could decide to do anything we wanted.