Technical Solutions Specialist Review

I have really enjoyed my year at IBM, starting in July 2016. I have been given responsibility in managing and completing reports, also organizing meetings and assisting other employees in the 'solutioning' process. After a couple of months I was confident in my role and was able to train a second intern who undertook the same job role, this gave me more responsibility and allowed me to undertake additional tasks, which I could take and utilize all these skills in my future career.

I have felt valued by my managers and colleagues throughout my placement, as they continued to provide praise and feedback, which motivated me and gave me more self-confidence within my role. I feel getting recognized for your good work within a company is very important in making an employee feel valued, which is exactly what IBM did.

From the beginning of my placement I have been given a great deal of support from my manager and other employees within the team. I was being trained and getting involved in the team from day one, and if I had any questions or didn't understand anything my manager would provide the support, this made me feel very comfortable within the team, and allowed me to be more confident in my role.

In my role, there would be weeks where I was more busy than others, however there is always something to do. If I found that I had a spare hour or so I would ask for more work, or if there is anything I can assist with in the team. As I got to know my role more, I found that I used my own initiative to create myself work that was needed in the team to improve business processes. IBM also encourages their employees to volunteer outside their role, where I ran assessment centre's, talks, and CV workshops back at my University

As I became more comfortable and progressed in my role after the first couple of months, I was given an increasing amount of responsibility, where I would manage and organize management calls, spreadsheets and processes within the team. I was also able to organize my own shadowing in a role I was interested in, where I completed this shadowing over a period of 2 weeks, having the responsibility to do this allowed me to seek an additional role that was of interest of me and was an amazing opportunity to gain an insight into another role in IBM.

This year in my placement has given me a substantial insight into the workplace and working life, which I can use the knowledge and skills I have gained throughout my experience in my studies, especially in my dissertation. This placement has allowed me to gain the skills to apply to the Graduate scheme, and an advanced knowledge in the workplace in order to apply to future job roles.

The atmosphere within the office at Manchester, where I was based, was great as there was 6 placement students who had seats reserved in the office all together. I found this as an advantage to us all, as we were able to talk to each other if we had a problem, and improved the general atmosphere in the office. We all used to go to lunch together, whether it was in the office canteen or a shop in the town where the office was located.

I feel the work placement was set up well, as each individual placement student was allocated an Early Professionals Manager, who is your first point of contact throughout the year, supporting you if you had any issues with your role. I was involved within my team and role from the start with a specific outline of what my role entailed, and what was expected of me. Therefore, I personally feel the work placement scheme is very well organized and set up from the beginning.

There are many opportunities for placement students to get involved in training and development activities. I joined Connecting Women at the Manchester office, where lunch and learn sessions were held every month on different subjects, which would improve your knowledge/skills within your job role or give you guidance on dealing with certain situations. IBM also provided conference call lunch and learns to improve your knowledge, this could sometimes be on certain areas of the business or improving your technical knowledge.

Future employment with IBM is very appealing, as throughout your placement role you can shadow, get a mentor and experience a different role. From this, you can discover a role that suits you and apply back as a Graduate earlier than external students. Towards the end of placement you present a final presentation of your experience as a placement student in IBM, from this you get graded, which can help you get onto the Graduate scheme in IBM.

In the first couple of weeks of placement we met up for a meal and a few drinks in the central of Manchester. Throughout the year, as everyone lives in distance from each other, and are busy various nights of the week we found it hard to meet up regularly outside of work. We have had a couple of nights out throughout the year, which have been fun, however I think we needed to make more of an effort to socialise more.

I was based in the Manchester office in Sale, which was in driving distance from my home. Therefore, I was lucky as I was able to still live at home whilst working on placement, which saved me a lot of money. I know this is not an option for everyone, however the average price of living in Manchester/Sale was around £400 a month for rent sharing another person. The central of Manchester is in easy reach of Sale through driving or on the tram.

The Nightlife in central Manchester is really good, there are a very wide variety of restaurants to eat in, different clubs, bars and pubs. We found Manchester a very good place to socialize, not too expensive and there was something to suit everyone. Towards the end of the week if it was nice weather we would take a walk into Sale and have lunch at a pub by the Canal, there are also a variety of cafes, pubs, shops in Sale however the Nightlife was better and more popular in the city centre.

There are many opportunities outside of work such as Wimbledon, placement students can apply to work at Wimbledon with IBM, which is an amazing opportunity they offer. There are also many volunteering activities you can get involved in throughout the year including working in schools, colleges and Universities, I found from volunteering for these activities improved my knowledge in the different schemes IBM offered and the different business areas entailed. IBM encourages their employees to get involved in these activities.