Commercial Analyst Review

Taking all things factors into consideration I would say that I enjoyed my year with IBM. Towards the end of the year the job itself became a bit tedious as it was much of the same stuff that I was already comfortable with. However, there was a good social side to work at IBM which made up for this.

I'm almost certain that a lot of employees on the Account I worked on did not know we were interns for a long time, they just assumed we were graduates. I never felt undervalued or looked down upon because I was an intern

My first six months were very different to my last six months with regards to this. Until my new manager arrived in January, I felt as if I had to be very selective when I asked for help off my old manager as quite often they were not very supportive and on occasion did not seem to be interested or willing to provide proper help. Once my new manager arrived it was the exact opposite and all my queries were met with thorough guidance no matter how small or big.

My levels of business had no real pattern or structure. Some weeks I would be busy all the time, whereas at certain times of the year I often had very little to do. Most people tend to be busy at month ends but this had no real impact on my role.

I definitely felt as if I had a reasonable level of responsibility, if I wasn't there then the workload would have been too much for others to cope with. A lot of people all over the Account relied on the work that I produced. Admittedly, some of the work I undertook did feel a bit pointless, but I think that's the case in most jobs.

This was probably the biggest letdown for me on my placement year. Although I have taken away many vital skills that will be useful in the workplace and in many aspects of business, I don't think I have gained many transferable skills in terms of knowledge to assist in my degree: Accounting and Finance.

The office was usually reasonably quiet. As quite an outgoing, social person I did find this a bit boring at times and it did get a bit frustrating being sat with the same people all day every day without many exchanges taking place. Saying that, most people I worked with were very friendly and once you started talking to them you could usually find yourself involved in an interesting conversation.

I think the placement scheme at IBM is one of the most well organised around. We were always in constant communication with our various different managers and those within the company who oversee the placement schemes. Our roles were made clear and identified from the start and we knew what we had to be prepared for e.g. reviews and events. in good time.

IBM offered a lot of training opportunities for us throughout the year. They actively encouraged me to take part in sessions which would develop my understanding of how the business worked. Those that I undertook often crammed lots of information into a small period of time. So for myself and the other students who have never experienced anything like IBM before, these could sometimes be a bit tricky to follow.

The graduate scheme is appealing to me however beyond that I am not sure how much of a future I could say I see for myself at IBM. Each different base location within IBM almost feels as if it is its own company, therefore the prospect of working at Southbank is much more appealing than staying in North Harbour. The IBM graduate scheme also sponsors CIMA which has a huge bearing on my decision to apply back.

With over 70 interns based at North Harbour, the social scene was probably one of the things I enjoyed most about my placement. I have made a lot of new friends here, most of us would spend our weekends here so we would go out together to keep ourselves occupied. In terms of the social scene amongst colleagues, there would often be a leaving do when a person finished on the Account. These could get quite lively, and often had a free bar so there was not much to complain about.

The cost of living was fairly cheap. This depended on personal preference really, if you wanted to spend more money on food then you perhaps would struggle. Portsmouth is a University town so we would go out on the student nights therefore these wern't particularly expensive either. Overall, I think our area was reasonably priced for living and socialising, but I wouldn't say it was as cheap as living at University.

We tended to go to the same three nightclubs throughout the year and considering we didn't vary it up at all, we rarely had a bad night. I think this was because there was always a decent group of us out and as these were student nights out, everyone was the same age as us. Providing we went on a student night, the venues were also fairly cheap so you could often do a night out on not much more than 20 pound. That's if you budgeted well of course.

IBM encourages you to get involved in a scheme called 'Giveback'. Similar to University societies that revolve around charitable activities, Giveback was a good way of taking time out of the office to take part in schemes that were viewed highly upon. I took part in various different Giveback opportunities throughout the year such as mentoring schemes for secondary school students, running assessment centres for new interns and representing IBM at career's fairs across the country.