Resiliency services sales operations and support analyst Review

Overall I have thoroughly enjoyed my 12 month placement with IBM. You would imagine joining such a large company like IBM would be daunting but everyone in the firm is welcoming and willing to help no matter the query. I have enjoyed both the work and social aspect of the firm and have felt suitably challenged and rewarded during my 12 month placement.

I was lucky enough to be part of a great team at IBM and instantly felt like I was treated as an individual who could add value to the firm, just as much as they could, and not a placement student for them to offload rubbish tasks upon. The team valued and trusted the work I produced and regularly challenged me to take on more and more tasks to expand my knowledge as well as because they valued the standard of work I produced.

Throughout my placement, I was lucky enough to have a task manager that continually assessed my needs and whether I was fulfilling my potential during my placement. I would regularly have meetings with my manager to discuss areas of my role I did and didn't enjoy, and work on how the areas I didn't enjoy could be altered to suit me better. If my Task manager was occupied I had a large team of senior staff to turn to for guidance and advice.

Due to the request based nature of my job role, some days I would be searching for work to do to fill my time and other days I would be swamped with requests and tasks to complete. This means some days could be very boring and uneventful and others would be stressful and busy. However this can be expected in my role which is very dependent on the position in the quarter for work loads.

The amount of responsibility given to me during my role is completely down to my preference. If I wanted to spend the year doing the minimum amount expected of me then I would have very little responsibility, however that is not the way IBM works and everyone is encouraged to get involved in as much as possible. This has meant that throughout my placement I have been given a lot of responsibility and pressure to hit deadlines.

I feel that throughout the year I have developed immensely in both a professional and personal sense. Being able to apply theories I've been taught during my degree into a multinational organisation and see the effect has given me a renewed perspective which will benefit me massively in my final year of studying. This will allow me to write more conceptual pieces of work and greatly increase my appetite for work.

Due to the large number of interns and graduates at IBM there is a fun but hard working atmosphere in the office. Everyone tends to sit among their teams and form close bonds, often laughing and having a joke but also acting professionally and understanding when it is acceptable to act this way. Often as a team we will have bake days or team meals and drinks which help with bonding.

The placement year was very well organised and a lot of attention was given to our well being and expansion of knowledge and skills throughout the year. Each placement student is assigned an early professional manager who's job is dedicated to ensuring you are experiencing all the benefits you should be from the placement year at IBM.

IBM invest heavily in the personal development of their employees and always encourage them to enroll in education and workshops to further develop their skill set, all at the expense of the firm. They give all employees the opportunity to volunteer in a wide range of areas and implement a think40 scheme which dictates that each employee should try to do at least 40 hours of personal development per year.

Future employment prospects within IBM are extremely appealing, the foundation scheme provides so many opportunities for education and workshops to enhance your skills and make your CV even more attractive. The graduate scheme within IBM offers a vast amount of roles and allows you to sample different roles during your time on the scheme. Outside of the graduate role career progression within IBM is fast and lucrative for those that work hard to achieve it. I definitely see a future with IBM.

The social scene at IBM is very good due to the large number of placement students based at Southbank. Every Thursday the placement students go to the understudy for drinks and then go across the river to walkabout for the rest of the night. There are also Intern Christmas parties and regularly the interns socialise together at the weekends.

Very expensive! My rent and bills in Clapham north was £750 a month and pubs and clubs are very expensive, a pint tends to be £5!

I lived in Clapham, which is a very young and lively area in London. A lot of the placement students at IBM live in Clapham or surrounding areas so regularly we go out in Clapham/Brixton areas sometimes venturing into central London. The nightlife is really good and constantly busy but obviously it is expensive!

There are plenty of opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work. IBM has a wide variety of sports teams and play in local leagues in football, netball etc. Also IBM offer plenty of volunteering opportunities, taking placement students into local schools to offer advice on improving their CV's, presentation skills and other such a career driven skills. Also IBM regularly fund placement students to give presentations at their university to encourage other students to join IBM for their placement year.