GBS People Operations Member Review

Whilst working on my placement, I enjoyed the working lifestye associated within the business. Furthermore, working for such a large corporation it was good to see how a company runs in 'real life'. However, much of my work was monotonous, only made bearable by working on a team which enabled us to remain positive and social.

With a back office role running a task ID, I often felt underappreciated by some of those contacting us. However, that was often understandable, as many of those contacting us were doing so because they were having issues with internal admin. However, with those colleagues I worked with closely, I felt a key team member of their support team. A mixed bag overall.

My Task Manager, who is the manager I was in contact with every day, gave a great deal of support. She was constantly aiding my learning and furthermore, helped out if I was in a tight spot! I was very impressed by the level of involvement and aid given to me. However, some of my other friends who were on placements in IBM have often commented on how they barely ever spoke to, let alone saw, their manager - implying that as with many things here at IBM, it seems to be luck of the drawer. I was also pleased with my EPM, whilst they did not have much to do with except reviews on progress etc, he readily provided helpful, honest guidance and provided contacts within the company for me.

I remained fairly busy throughout the year. At the start I felt extremely busy and swamped with all the work. However, as I improved my technical skills, the job became less taxing. Indeed, work load seems to come in bouts, often very quiet for two weeks and then suddenly a great barrage of work would come in.

I often worked with confidential data, and was trusted to do so. We were also left to our own devices to run the Task ID.

I gained virtually no skills that would aid my degree as a History student. University level writing and research was above and beyond that of my role. However, I did gain a lot of useful skills that should help me in further career. Such as external training with IBM which is certainly something that IBM excels in. However, whilst busy running a Task ID, my team found a lot less opportunity to pursue this than other IBM placement students who seemed idle a lot of the time.

The atmosphere is okay, but I very much think it depends on who you are working with.

The internship set up is over all very strong. However, as previously mentioned: the judgement of your placement year is mostly on external activity within the company. Whilst this is a good idea in principal, those placement students who have been given much less time consuming roles will excel in this, whilst they are perhaps in fact weaker candidates.

There is a very good social scene to get involved in within the company for the placment students at Southbank. Walkabout Thursdays oi oi

Hideously expensive,

The nightlife is very good, but I stuck to more just going for after work drinks and then left the partying to with my other friends at the weekend.