S&D Fin Ops Analyst, UKI Growth Initiative and XaaS Analyst Review

Socially I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I've met many close friends thanks to my placement and feel that I've developed myself a lot in terms of my confidence and belief in myself. As for the job itself - I enjoyed my first role a lot, but have had an up an down time with my new role. I didn't particularly want to take the role on in the first place, and whilst I've made it my own, I've felt a little bit isolated and without much guidance.

When I arrived my colleagues made me feel very welcome and they understand and appreciate my role - I have seldom felt that they have treated me like an intern, but just as a fellow employee. I was also selected to take on a new role 6 months into my placement, this made me feel both valued and undervalued in a way - it was flattering that I was chosen to take on the role, but I also felt a little backed into a corner and that I had to take it.

I felt well supported in my initial role from my team. Whenever I had questions my team were very patient and happy to help me. I didn't have very much contact with my manager as she was based in a different location to me, but we held catch up calls to make sure everything was going well. In my current role I feel I am well supported, albeit just by one person as there are only two of us working in this field in the UK and Ireland. My EPM (Early Professionals Manager) offered very good support when I was having a tough time with some personal matters.

The balance has been a bit of a constant struggle in my time here. In my initial role I'd have two very very busy weeks a month, and two weeks where I would actively seek out things to do to keep myself occupied as work was so slow. It is a similar situation in my current role, just flipped to the opposite two weeks. Sometimes I feel snowed under with too much work, and sometimes there is nothing coming in and I end up creating work for myself. That's the trouble with a role that is heavily ad hoc.

I feel like I have been given a lot of responsibility during my time here. In my initial role I would produce many very important month-end reports on things such as revenue, deferred income and headcounts for the UK and Ireland. I was also financial admin for the UK and Ireland (the only such person) so any Buy on Demand purchase orders required my approval, likewise asset disposal requests. In my current role I have prepared various charts which were used by the CEO for the UK and Ireland.

I don't think the specific job skills will assist me in my degree, perhaps with the exception of my improved coding skills, which may help. However, I feel my personal skills have sky rocketed in my time here - I'm now much more confident and self assured, which has transcended to my social life as well as my professional life. I'm much more organised too and have greatly improved my communication skills, particularly over the phone. For these more personal reasons I'm very glad I did a placement.

The people are very nice and every now and then there is some fun chat, however most of the time it is pretty quiet, very grey and all honesty quite dull. When I hear senior employees talk about 'the good old days' and how the office atmosphere used to be, it makes me wish I could have done my year in industry 5 or 10 years earlier.

The induction days were useful as we got our work laptops and were able to socialise with the other interns. When I began the role I had a handover period with the previous intern which was invaluable, so my personal transition was fairly seamless in that regard. However there were many issues with the various accesses required to carry out my role, especially when I transferred to my new role. This caused a lot of hassle and took a long time to sort out.

IBM put on various "Pick 'n' Mix" modules in topics such as brand building, communication and cloud security, which were quite useful personally. There has also been some opportunity to shadow other employees and get involved in other things such as assessment centres and careers fairs, which are a good experience.

Personally I do not wish to apply back to the company, as my year here has helped me to realise that the world of corporate business isn't really for me. There is also no opportunity to apply back as a graduate in a finance role, you can only apply back for a general business role and hope to get into finance later on. This isn't something I wish to do.

The social scene has been one of the major highlights of the year. I live with other IBM interns, and have made many close friends throughout my time here. The big perk about working for a company as big as IBM is that they employ a lot of placement students, so on the social side of things it isn't actually much different to university. The city itself isn't my cup of tea but it has enough things to do for young people.

My rent in Portsmouth was very good, with bills included and a nice house - much cheaper than at university in Canterbury at least! The living costs were also fine, there are many decent priced bars around the city for socialising, although some can be very expensive. Food has been very cheap - there are some great takeaways at very affordable prices.

The nightlife was alright as we are living in a university town. Clubbing isn't really my thing but I've been a few times and the places here are fine, they compare to any uni town or city I've been to but don't stand out. There are plenty of pubs and nice bars dotted around southsea which are good.

We are signed up to IBM rewards which means I can get discounts on certain things - for example we went to Thorpe Park with about 55% off. I've gotten involved in a few activities this year - I've taken up snooker and played a lot of tennis, however IBM haven't really run any schemes or activities outside work to my knowledge.