Risk and Issues Coordinator & Business Controls Administrator Review

I enjoyed my time at IBM, mainly because of the sheer amount of opportunities available in such a large company. However my day-job was very unfulfilling for me. I'm a Computer Science student, who was placed in a role from day 1 that was a) not what I was hired for and b) a completely admin role. I am due to move away from this project so that I can actually finish training for my actual job but this is 9 months into my job.

I felt very valued by a lot of my colleagues, on the projects I worked on they took a while to really get into place due to the sheer amount of knowledge required. But after the first 3 months I really felt myself fit into my respective teams, and all of my co-workers were incredibly supportive throughout my time at IBM.

My Early Professionals Mentor (EPM) was by far the most important managerial figure in my time at IBM. I could talk to them about anything and they would always do their utmost to help me resolve whatever issue or question I had. Having an EPM was definitely a highlight of this job, they were just so supportive of getting me to where I wanted to be in this job.

In my first 3 weeks or so I had very little to do and was actually put on another project because I had to apply for security clearance (which I was told on my first day "on the job!)

At some points I was very intimidated by the amount of responsibility I had, but I feel like it really helped me grow professionally!

I feel that 90% of the skills developed at IBM were the core skills required for all jobs regardless of discipline, or market such as time management, project management etc. All the skills learned/honed that are directly related to degree (programming skills etc) were done in spare time through giveback opportunities and I feel that I could have done much much more. These opportunities were more a chance for me to flex what I already knew rather than learn knew skills.

I worked in the UK Headquarters office for IBM and actually changed base location after 6 months. This is because the office was usually very empty (and half closed down after a few months!), with the bulk of the people physically in office were all interns, and my team being spread across the UK (for all the projects I worked on!).

I was missed off of a lot of IBM's mailing lists initially and that made my life a little harder (for finding a house etc), but once this was fixed I found that we were kept in the loop with lots and lots of events being organised for placement students and solid structure throughout the year for our progress.

I feel that the company offered me very little in terms of personal development. There were some personal development modules that came around Christmas but I found myself too busy to attend half of the modules I was booked into!

I would be very weary of accepting a job from IBM plainly because of how the job offered to me has been pretty much on the backburner for the first 9 months of my 12 month placement.. Never mind the fact that I originally applied for a development role and ended up in a "technical" role AKA admin work. But in my time so far, I have seen that for graduates at the very least, there are opportunities to do what you enjoy here.

There was a very good social scene for placement students, interns, new graduates and apprentices. Unfortunately it wasn't my cup of tea, but I still came along sometimes and had fun when I did!

Living cost was very low I had a large sized room in a shared house, all bills paid for and a double bed for £350 PCM! Socialising was a little lighter than I would've liked because I was in an area quite a way off from most students, but there were some people around and a gym right round the corner!

Thriving student scene thanks to the university nearby and loads of colleges and the like, not to mention the sheer number of similarly aged co-workers from IBM!

Very little to do outside of IBM, we had a Christmas party and the like but it was all self-organised by the students in the office.. No office football team or anything similar.