Addendum Support Pricer Review

My overall experience at IBM was enjoyable, but of course, there were both ups and downs to my year. Months 3-6 proved difficult because increasing levels of responsibility and productivity were required of me. I experienced a significant learning curve, I had to work hard and did not necessarily enjoy that period. On the other hand I had a task manager who invested a lot of time in to me, and always made the effort to go grab a bo-daily coffee and ease the workplace intensity.

The work I complete is intrinsic and my colleagues rely upon me to complete it. I am included in all relevant conference calls and meetings and my manager explains the more complex work items which he is overseeing. Senior management include the team, including the interns, in status meetings and make the effort to periodically catch up with us. Our well-being is valued and I feel as though I am a long term employee and not just an intern.

Without the support I received; periodic and frequent education, tips and encouragement from my task manager, the senior commercial manager, and all other members of the team, I would not have been able to complete this internship. Not only did they make time and include me in discussions of how I can improve, they also saw the connection to me being happy and working effectively. I am scrutinized for every piece of work and picked up on every single discrepancy or inefficiency, however this is necessary for the job and is done so in a positive attitude.

I always have work to do, this rare periods of time in which there was not much work circulating saw me being able to improve the process documents, intern handover documents, administration improvements, and if none of these applied - the IBM scheme which saw us complete 40 hours of education over the year. This was delivered in multiple mediums - executive blogs and vlogs, technical workshops and more.

Ultimately, all of the financial information I was working on was due to the customer, and as such went through my task manager for review. Although I was given responsibility to complete confidential and high-valued commercial work, I appreciate there was a limit to how much responsibility I could assume. On the other hand, I was always given the opportunity to improve processes and value-add where I could on work discussions and calls.

The following skills have set me up for a much higher caliber of ability in the future; Pricing and everything technical I learnt - knowledge of the contract and appreciation of the financial implications our work had, a high level of administrative organization and how to effective schedule and manage work loads, professional communication via Emails, calls, and presentations and finally, the ability to execute work meticulously and always ask the 'why' questions. My work ethic is the the most valuable trait that I can take away for the final year of my degree. The job role has not taught me any skills that explicitly link to my degree ( Accounting with Finance ), as I was not in the Finance/Accounting departments. However the role required a high level of financial data collating/presentation and contract understanding I hope to be able to transfer this in my fourth year (and career, of course!).

I worked with cheery, supportive colleagues who always had time to spare for helping me understand the work and have a general chat.

Not only did I complete 3, 6 and 12 month reviews with my task manager and foundation (HR) manager, but I also had management and senior management take me aside to have friendly chats about my progress and how else I could get a good experience from the placement. I felt a genuine care for my wellbeing.

IBM encourage interns to apply back and help us every step of the way, however it is known that there are much fewer graduate placements than undergraduate.

There's a lot of us interns, so it was a good atmosphere for socialising, there was also an IBM football team.

Fair, I was based in Portsmouth which is moderately expensive to live in yet much cheaper than London.

IBM encourage community 'Giveback' which is easily accessible for anyone to enhance their CV through assessment centers, workshops in universities and schools, mentoring schemes and many more.