Project Coordinator Review

I had a really good experience at IBM. I learned a lot of things that I didn't cover in my education. On the whole the people were really nice and the placement was well structured. I would definitely recommend this placement to other university students. The workload was not too hard but you could work at your own pace if you want to challenge yourself.

On the whole I did. The majority of my colleagues were very helpful in my learning. You had one or two people that may slightly look down on you in an internship, that's to be expected. I got paired up with a mentor for the whole year who I got on with really well and it helps when you are thinking of what you want to achieve for the year (Especially goals wise).

Not a lot to be fair. My manager was only in once a week so I didn't have too much contact with him. However, if needed I could ask to request more support. He also wasn't my main source of work so it wasn't the most important relationship at work in my eyes. The team I was in was really close at the start of my placement so I felt like I could go to other team members for support first, if need be I could go to my manger.

For me it was dependent on my projects. I'd say for 4 months I was twiddling my thumbs then for the remaining 8 months I was pretty busy. In another way to describe it I was probably busy 4 out of the 5 days. However, some days I had to be flexible and stay later if need be. I know other interns in my office that were not as busy as that.

Quite a lot when I had been on a project since the start of the placement. After about 2 months on the MOD project I was working on I ended up going to the clients site on my own without my project manager. They give you plenty of chance for client interaction too. But once again it is up to you to ask for more responsibility.

The great thing on this placement is that you are always using your 'soft skills'. In the office environment you can observe people and see what they are good at. Then try and replicate that and incorporate it into how you are as a person. For example when I'm watching someone present to the team you think what's he or she doing well at and how can I replicate it.

Too much working from home for my liking! We are in an IBM culture which promotes that and even the interns jump on the back of that. It is a good office in a great location (next to the tower of London in the financial district near bank). Recently there has been a lot of change with IBM buying the company I am working in so there is some negativity which can take over the office - especially in sales.

Very organized by IBM. Slightly less by my immediate team. The induction was great. The technical setup was great. No complaints there. Our team induction went really well as well, however, due to the fluctuation of our projects our daily structure was a bit mixed. Structure for the first few months of the placement is a must otherwise you can get into bad habits. You want to start the good habits from the go.

From the start our manager tried to make sure he could get us on training and development courses. In the first few weeks we had learned 4 brand new pieces of software and completed a course on consultancy. Over the year there is plenty of chances to enrole on training courses. There is a wide variety of topics from technical courses to others which are soft skills based.

Expensive living a short walk away from the office.