Operational Compliance and Controls Assistant Review

I really enjoyed my placement and was given lots of responsibility, for example in leading projects and being involved in an audit, and felt my work contributed to the team. I was working with two other interns in Warwick, which had around 30 interns in total. This meant there were always people to socialise with at breaks.

I felt valued as a team member, as opposed to an 'intern' and was involved with important decisions, such as helping to shortlist and interview the next interns who were replacing the interns in my team. I was also responsible for the team's communal email account (task id) which was an important task for the team.

Me and the other interns were supported by both our task manger (our day-to-day manager) who was based in Warwick and also by our Emp (early professionals manager) who came in for our 3, 6 and final month reviews and who we could contact about work and foundation related concerns. We also had monthly roundtables with our Epm and the other Warwick interns where interns could present on a topic as well as socialising as a location. Our Epm also led learning modules to improve on our presenting and communication skills. We also had monthly catch up's with our task manager, which was useful to see how we were getting on with our projects, workload, holidays and any concerns.

This varied, for example I was busier when I was leading my project as well as my other daily tasks, including managing the task id, creating a monthly financial pack and managing the resources for my department. I was less busy following this project, however always had work to do, for example updating my 'placement journal' which is used for reviews, as well as helping with my Giveback. This is a scheme IBM have outside of your main work, for example I was involved in organising lunch and learn events for other placement students throughout the country.

I was given lots of responsibility, by leading projects, managing the teams communal email account, helping to shortlist and interview next year's interns for my team and being involved in a formal audit.

The skills I have gained from my placement will help me in my degree studies, by improving my work ethic for assignments. I hope that this placement will help me with securing a graduate job and I feel much more confident in applying for them following my placement.

Our office was generally quiet, which was beneficial for concentrating at work. However, at break times there were lots of other interns to socialise with at Warwick. We also got to decorate our office with Christmas decorations and there were also location events, including, where your Christmas jumper to work and a quiz and mince pies! I was also involved with a Warwick event, where school children competed to design a new education app. I helped show the schools around the Warwick office and with organising the day.

The placement was well organised with set formal reviews at 3 and 6 months, and the end of our placement, to see how we were performing in our roles and to help us achieve our objectives for the year. There were also placement learning modules in our location delivered by our Epm which were helpful to improve on skills, such as presenting. As well as our induction, we also had a day in London, which helped us plan for after our placements, which included a careers fair and talks on the different job roles in IBM, such as consulting, to help us decide what job roles we may be interested in applying for, including the IBM graduate scheme.

IBM has a Mentor/shadowing scheme, which helped me to find out more about graduate roles at IBM by meeting and talking to graduates about their jobs. We could also discuss development in our reviews with our emp, which helped determine the next steps for finding shadowing as well as how we could achieve our objectives. There was also lots of online training available as well as the face-to-face modules to develop our skills.

I am applying for the IBM graduate scheme and hope my experiences during my placement will increase my employment prospects. Our reviews are also used as feedback for internal applicants, which should also provide an advantage to my application.

Yes, Warwick had around 30 interns to socialise with during and outside of work.

I was living at home during my placement, which saved money on rent. However, there were shared intern houses, which made the cost of living affordable (and similar to student housing prices).

Nearby bars and clubs in Leamington.

There were lots of giveback opportunities we could get involved in for example, I volunteered at a careers fair at my university, organised lunch and learn events for other placement students, mentored a placement student to help them with their applications. There also regular Warwick events, which we could help with as well as assessment centres.