Commercial Analyst Review

My placement year at IBM has been a great experience. I've had the opportunity to work with various teams in different geographies and even work at the client site. One of the highlights of this year has definitely been the amount of responsibility I was given across various projects as the work I was doing was directly related to my degree and very similar to a graduate role.

I was given a lot of responsibility at an early stage, being responsible for the commercial management of various projects across one account. Eventually I was asked to take on similar work for additional accounts, which showed me my managers strongly believed I could deliver. In addition my task manager made me feel like a valued team member with frequent feedback and constant requests for high level work.

Within IBM we are all required to do at least 40 hours of training on your own time from internal IBM processes to transferable skills. In addition my managers provided me with specific training relevant to my position and would always make time to answer any questions I may have had and provided me support, both on a personal and professional level.

As it is to be expected the first couple of months are mainly dedicated to learning and the introductory tasks within the role but eventually things got really busy and I really had to plan out my day and learn how to say no and prioritise my workload, during the last 6 months of my placement I was constantly busy, especially towards month end.

The level of responsibility was one of the main highlights of the year as I was responsible for the commercial management, forecasting, billing and reporting to senior management across multiple accounts. My position was very similar to one of a graduate commercial manager, leading to a great year of learning.

Having worked as a commercial analyst the skills I developed and training I received are directly related to more than one subject I will be doing in my final year and also included subjects I studied during my second year. This year has strongly developed my financial management skills, a key part of my degree.

The atmosphere was good, as we had a hot desk system you could sit wherever you wanted to and whoever you wanted to, depending on the days and who was working in the office or remotely I would either sit with my team or other fellow interns.

Well organised, my core team was established from the very first day I was brought into IBM as well as my development into other teams.

Besides the mandatory 40hrs of individual training, there were plenty of invitations to training webinars to develop skills relevant to our roles as well as transferable skills. I found that most of my personal training and development came from a personal initiative or core management initiative.

Currently going through the application process for a graduate role, can definitely see myself growing in the company based on my development since joining and managerial feedback.

All placement students and colleagues were easy going, everyone was always up for socials or drinks after a busy day at work and Southbank is a beautiful place to spend time with colleagues and friends, especially during summer.

I wasn’t leaving near the area I work as we all know, London isn’t the cheapest place to live but it is certainly where all of the action happens.

There was always something happening in local bars/pubs and good clubs were a short tube journey away.

IBM puts a lot of emphasis on giveback and taking part on activities besides your day job, always something to do. Besides work there were local gyms and sports clubs etc.