Business Transformation Analyst Review

My placement required a lot of education before knowing fully what I would be participating in or understanding what everyone else done. However, after several months the placement became busier and more interesting as I developed my understanding of my role, I was able to support in multiple areas giving a wide variety of tasks. Being involved in very technical projects was of great interest to me as these are the areas I hope to immerse myself in upon graduation. Involvement within universities throughout Scotland allowed me to develop good communication and interpersonal skills and meet a range of people.

As a student were not taken for granted by anyone and given high level responsibilities from the onset. Where I was unsure or needed training my colleagues were happy to provide it, this came from all our global department. I was included in daily calls, meetings etc where i had opportunities to contribute to the projects.

Whenever education was required I was provided with the support to complete the task. This was given by members from our global team either face-to-face or by phone. There was also plenty opportunities to develop outside my job role on areas such as Watson and Agile.

At the start of the placement when getting to grips with the job our days were fairly quiet. I had set daily tasks to perform but the majority of my time was taken up with education or personal development. As time progressed and I was involved in more projects, some high profile ones, my workload became much higher but still within a manageable level. Coming to the last third of my placement I am involved in various projects and tasks which keeps me busy throughout the day.

Over time, with being involved in more projects, more responsibility was placed on me from participating in jobs equal to my colleagues, albeit to a manageable level. I was given control of my own development for my role and outside the role learning many new skills in the process. The job role itself was pretty autonomous.

Many of the skills I have developed will be transferable to any job, this includes communication, teamwork, adaptability etc. These could also be used in my further education I hope to complete and within my everyday life. Other skills, more technical and specific, like SAP, will be more beneficial in specialist environments, but this will help open more doors for me in potential jobs after my placement.

Due to being part of a global team, many people working in my team, and others working with us, chose to work from home most of the days. Occasionally there would be days with a large amount of people in but generally the office was quiet. For the ones who came in most days there was a good level of socialising which kept things fresh.

Due to the huge shift in workload from start to finish the placement felt a bit disjointed, however after projects started coming in with requirements it started to make more sense the way it was setup. Events arranged through the Foundation Department, ones who ran the scheme, ran very smoothly whenever attended.

Whenever training was needed i was able to source education from inside our own department so no external resources were needed. I was provided with plenty of education not related to the job also helping to broaden my skill set. For events ran by ourselves - such as university talks, careers fairs and masterclasses - we were funded with the materials needed to complete.

There is several positions I could consider should i wish to come back to IBM, some utilising my degree like statistics, others I would need to develop the skills on the job. However, after having been immersed in a business environment, I think I will be looking elsewhere for work, something close to Physics research and development.

Unfortunately my placement was in an office that only included myself and another student. With the remainder of our team being older with families we didnt have many opportunities to go on nights out. This is mainly due to our office being located away from the city. Other placement areas further south take on far more placement students and would be more exciting.

I lived in Glasgow located outside our base location so travelled in an out to work. This took around 45 mins each way, and living next to the station was no real issue. The cost of living in the city was lower than expected, sharing with a friend as I am from Glasgow, amounting to £560pcm not included bills, and being students no council tax was needed.

Living away from the base location I never experienced the nightlife where i worked as its also a slightly rural area.

As I lived away from the location I was not involved in any activities as it was too far to travel before/after work.