Business Consultant Review

I absolutely loved the work and responsibilities I got to take ownership of during my placement. I got to add real value and was even sought after by two different client accounts for the skills and expertise I built up over the year. After having a taste of what life is like with a consulting role in GBS - the people, the travel, the fast-paced work - I'm not sure if I could be satisfied with any other job anymore.

At first, when I was still learning the ropes and not really adding value yet, I did not feel valued by my colleagues but as I became proficient in my responsibilities and built a reputation for being reliable, resourceful and trustworthy, it became very apparent that people relied on me to do my part and as a result, I felt much more valued by my colleagues.

My advice to anyone looking to start their careers is ‘If you don’t ask, you don’t get.’ It’s an attitude I took when I eagerly jumped into my internship and it’s made all the difference for me. Generally, I would not be given much support or instruction for my tasks or career progression going forward unless I asked for it. Both IBM and client alike, often mistook me for an experienced graduate and expected work of that standard from me minus the beginner’s crash course. Personally, I’m the kind of person who tries to figure things out myself before bothering others but I’ve learnt through experience over my year when I should reach out for help asap and when I should try to chew at a problem first. Whenever I reach out for support, people are always happy to help; subject to their current schedules and workloads of course, I had to learn how to gauge when and how to approach people for help. But I would ask all the questions, even if they were the stupid ones because everyone has been in that situation before and they all understand. Moreover, sometimes, people with experience overlook important things that a fresh pair of eyes can easily spot. All in all, I’d say I was well supported during my placement year.

My workload ebbs and flows depending on the time of month, year and project phase. Some days, I’d be so relaxed that I could get into the office around 9am, leisurely finish my up work with numerous tea breaks in between and leave at 4pm. Some days, I’d be working non-stop up til 10pm to meet deadlines – get in at 8:30, have a working lunch, a working dinner, a quick gym session and a quick shower in between. Some people would cringe at this but I would say it’s what you make of it. If you’re not willing to work past 5pm, then you can arrange this with your team and managers. They won’t think any less of you if you want to manage your work-life balance as such as long as you’re delivering quality work in the time that you are working. However, the teams I’ve worked with are all hard working and personally, when I’m there in the office and see others working hard while I have some free capacity, I feel compelled to lend a hand so that our team can deliver success without putting too much pressure on any one person. I believe we succeed or fail as a team and this influences my work ethic.

Lots and lots of responsibility. The account I support relies on me to drive all of the account’s commercials (about £3million in revenue’s worth) from contract creations, forecasting, budgeting and invoicing; though this was not given as much as I requested for it. The people I worked with often tried to do things by themselves and it was only when I reached out asking if I could take on the work that they would give it to me. There was also the case of people being too busy to give me work; sounds crazy if you’re not familiar with it but it’s when people would rather do the work themselves than bring you up to speed to hand it over if they perceive it as a quicker option. But in GBS consulting, teams are almost always overworked and are happy to give you responsibility if you’re reliable and you ask them at the right time.

I think I’ll be taking my work ethic back to university (I.e. working/studying a 9 til 5 day). I’m not sure how I’d cope with having less work to do and managers that I don’t have to report or manage. For my career going forward, my placement has been absolutely invaluable. It has taught me that consulting is definitely what I would like to get back into as a graduate and given me the solid foundations, competencies and toolkit which will serve me well going forward in my career. Most importantly, for me personally, is this placement has given me the confidence in myself that I did not have before. For me, it used to be the case of ‘I think I could do awesome in a real job.’ Now, it’s a case of ‘I know I can and will do awesome in a real job.’ I’ve overcome some real challenges and steep learning curves which has given me the confidence to tackle whatever else life decides to throw my way.

Very friendly, supportive and hard working. IBMers are generally easy to get along with and the client sites that we worked at were usually open space with funky desks and their own perks too (like free coffee).

I’d say it was well organised but I don’t really have other placements to compare the experience to. Only thing that annoyed me was that the laptop I was first given was faulty and I had to go about getting IT Support to fix it.

I could take any e-learning and training courses that I wanted with my managers’ permissions/approvals though if they involved paying a fee, I would have to figure out for myself how to get that paid. Generally, interns wouldn’t be given training that wasn’t free which is understandable.

Very. I know people who have continuously reinvented themselves to move around different roles and ranks within IBM and are still growing their skills, knowledge and experience 30 years later.

I did not work with any other placement students on my projects but the project teams I worked with were generally quite social in that we’d go out for dinner and drinks after work on client site.

This is difficult for me to say as my job involved me staying in a hotel 3 nights away from home for work. I lived in Reading (which is where I went to and will be going back to for university) but my projects would require me to travel and stay in Coventry, Warwick, Leamington Spa and Birmingham for the working weeks. I would say Reading had alright costs of living and when I stay on client site, I get reimbursed for all travel, hotels, breakfasts and dinners so I get to save quite a lot of money that way.

Similar answer as the above. Reading has an awesome nightlife because it’s quite a student town and when I’m staying on client site, I get to go out with team mates and sample the bars and restaurants the towns/cities have to offer (all reimbursed which is awesome).

There is always something for me to do outside of work. Whether this means having a gym session at the hotel, going out for drinks or being able to go on training courses, IBM has lots to offer if you know where to look.