GTS Resiliency Services F&P Analyst and Service Line FA Review

Overall my internship at IBM has been a very good experience. I have enjoyed both the work environment and social experience that has come with working for IBM. Overall however I feel that the social side of the year has carried my rating, as at some points I have found the work environment slightly demotivating. A lot of pressure and expectation is put on interns and at some points it feels like there is little recognition of work.

I have mixed reviews on the value I have felt from the year. My close colleagues I believe have valued me highly, I have received very positive feedback and they have been a pleasure to work with. However due to IBM being such a big company it can be hard to feel that your work is value by the executives that it rolls up into. I have very rarely been thanked for the work I do by anyone apart from my close colleagues.

Again this has very mixed reviews. The support system set up at IBM is one of the largest things they talk about within the recruitment process. However having worked for the majority of the year it does seem that little of the support received comes from the Foundation program. This is no fault of the individual EPM, but instead reflects the level of pressure put on each employee, meaning that the support managers have little time for each employee outside of the reviews you are required to undertake. However, my close team was very supportive throughout the year. My closest colleague has been brilliant in helping me across all areas of the placement.

Throughout the start of my placement I was very quiet due to the role I overtook being very limited in scope and management changes happening as I joined the business. However once I undertook more work and moved into a new area of the business I found that I was highly utilised and was able to tailor my working experience to the areas that I felt I wanted to learn the most from. At points I felt that I was too busy and that too much pressure was being put on me from all different areas of the business, but I have been able to control this throughout the year.

I believe that my role was one of the best for levels of responsibility. I was performing almost the same role as my colleagues who were regular employees and for the last months of my placement I have been owning large processes and been responsible for presenting results to business leaders. I have really enjoyed this and found that I have learnt a lot and grown a lot as an employee since taking this responsibility.

Having been working in Finance and undertaking a degree in economics the actual knowledge I have learnt that will be transferable to my degree is limited. But the work ethic and soft skills I have learnt will be key in completing my final year. The accounting skills and finance skills I have learnt have however shown me what area of work I would like to go into in the future, and I believe will be key in me finding a Graduate role. By participating in education courses I believe I have learnt a lot over the course of the year. Shadowing has also provided a key influence on the amount I have learnt.

This is one of the lowest points of my placement. The atmosphere between interns has been good. However, due to the nature of the financial results within our department there has been a very cagey atmosphere. There is clear concern about the amount of offshoring within IBM and therefore employees are very concerned about there job roles. This means that the atmosphere at points has been very negative.

Mixed. The majority of my role has been shaped by myself and I have been responsible for finding tasks and looking for work that I will find interesting. However the structure of the placement has been fine, we were provided with adequate handover and an induction that made us feel comfortable. We have then been kept in contact with by the Foundation at regular intervals, but at times it has not been all that often.

Limited. There was an accounting course that I attended, and there was a Careers academy that had very little relevance to my placement or chosen career. Lots of giveback I had enrolled in was cancelled due to budget.

Financial roles limited to Consultancy or getting 6 month placements within GTS. Not that impressive for someone wanting to go into Finance.

Very good, one of the best parts of the placement. There has been many students in Portsmouth and it has been a good atmosphere. Lots of opportunities to socialise.

Good. Living costs have been cheap and cost of going out was also not too expensive.

Not the best, but enough due to the amount of placement students. It is also not far from towns such as London or Southampton so there is opportunities to go out in other places.

In Portsmouth there were many. I have played badminton and hockey in the local area. I know all students have been less active in getting involved in activities outside of work, however this was down to them and not the area.