Technical Solutions Specialist Review

To begin, I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement year at IBM, there were lots of opportunities to grow and learn over the year and believe I have come out a different person than the one that went into the process back in August of 2015.

I found during meetings my ideas were listened to and often implemented, while some of the time I was taking minutes and relaying key information to other managers; I was able to often stretch out and make management decisions on the calls. IBM have a remote working system provided by AT&T, conference calling and have a private Instant Messaging system called sometime. This is great as my team is spread out over the UK, Poland and India and can communicate effectively wherever you are thorough a company provided laptop. However this does have a downside of many people you work day to day with you may never meet in person.

In terms of support and Guidance, you have two main points of contact within IBM, first is your task manager (person who hires you), this is the person who you will be in constant contact with in performing your day to day duties. IBM also provides a second person known as a Early Professional Manager, these are to look after your more personal needs; they are also on site more often than you task manger.

My role was busiest at the beginning of the week, as I had to generate reports that were needed by others on a weekly basis, often working out of hours on a Monday, Tuesday, then work returns to a more manageable level on Wednesday-Friday.

During the past year, I have been given responsibility over several ICT systems within my area of Base Growth Management which I manage on a daily basis, I also am tasked with delivering and finding out key information and most importantly have had some say in recourse allocation on the accounts of IBM.

My degree is fairly specialist within computer networking and so it is not really a fair comparison to say how direct knowledge will assist me during my final year. IBM however has helped me develop in so many other ways beyond the scope of my degree. I have expanded my knowledge on the commercial side and have better management skills than before. IBM also push a scheme called think 40 where they actively encourage all employees to do 40 hours of learning/ giveback. I have been allocating some of this time to learning for my CCNA certification.

The office environment within Manchester didn't entice me very much, my team is spread out all over the globe and so within an IBM base location it was no where near as lively as when I have been working on the client accounts. One good point is all the interns do sit together within the Manchester Sale location and while I was there we spent the time together. I also lived much closer to the center of Manchester, which also allowed me and a few others to pop between the two as and when we pleased. For my Job role within IBM a single location, didn't make to much sense, using remote working I was able to work from wherever I was needed.

The overall placement was well set up, as IBM has a yearly scheme, they follow a known schedule that is easy to track your progress by. You have a 3 month, 6 month and final review in order to track your progress and also provide constructive feedback on how to achieve your goals within the next 6 months.

There were a fair amount of training days throughout the year and various conferences to attend. In terms of development I have worked on a client account for a fair while remotely and given the opportunity to spend 2 weeks on site with management. In terms of my job role there was no specific training needed beyond what I had learned in A-Level and the first 2 years of my degree. I was able to pick up my basic role from my task manager.

Getting a role back with IBM is not guaranteed and heavily depends on my performance during the year. I'm in high hopes of coming back to a similar role based on what I have done during the year. IBM has a set way of applying back called the Intern to Grad scheme, which is separate to the normal application process and allows you to apply back for when you graduate

We went on a few nights out and several times to a restaurant in and around Manchester, quite a few times things were organized then dropped later. When we did go out we all enjoyed ourselves. think this really depends on a year by year basis and the types of interns there. There is very little going on and when moving up north I expected it would be quieter than the south locations due to a lower volume of people. However a lower volume can mean the group is much more together, this was not the case.

The cost of living within Manchester is pretty good. For rent costs it is around £400-500 per month including bills. (depending on where you pick). then the living costs are fairly average. I am also able to put aside some money for next year for when I'm a student again. One thing to watch regarding living cost is when you first arrive at IBM, you may not get paid until a month after you start, however when you do as IBM pays a month in advance. This means you get the backdated payment, the amount for the next month and also a £1000 bonus, bringing your first paycheck to £3500 (before Tax and based on salary of £16.000)

Nightlife is brilliant around Manchester, I currently live in a area just south of the center (Chorlton) which has many bars/ resturants to sit and relax in till around 1 am. If it's more of a full on night then there are also plenty of places in the center of town open till the early hours.

The IBM giveback program provides plenty of options to get involved of things outside of work. IBM actively encourage you to do so allowing you to put it towards your Think 40 program. IBM will also cover you up to £50 in travel expense in order to attend the event. Management were also fairly flexible in letting me attend such events. On this area I cannot fault.