IBM Graduate Recruitment and Inductions Review

During my placement year, I was able to take on a variety of different tasks and had the opportunity to travel around the country as well as a week in Budapest! As with most internships, there was a fair amount of admin related boring tasks but I was never doing the same thing constantly which made it a lot more enjoyable.

My managers and fellow colleagues were always very grateful for any tasks I performed. They always showed their appreciation and made me feel a valued part of the team from the outset of my placement.

On a placement at IBM, each intern is given their own "Early Professional Manager" who is always contactable to talk about any concerns which you may not want to share with your day to day managers. Also, my task managers were always very helpful and I never had a problem with them. They've also made themselves available constantly to give general advice not just about work but as a career path too.

For the majority of the year, I had enough to keep me busy and didn't really have time to be bored. However, there was a time around Christmas where work became a bit scarce due to everybody taking holiday and the whole process ramping down for a few weeks. Having said that, there were also times when I have been extremely busy and have had to work 11-12 hour days close to deadlines.

From the start of my placement I was given various crucial tasks which our team rely heavily on the completion to a high standard. As I progressed through my year I was given more and more responsibility as I gained the trust of my managers and was essentially taking on work at a much higher position that my own. One of my managers half-jokingly told me that I was "nearly running the show" by the end of my placement.

The best area that I developed in over the course of my placement was my work ethic. Compared to University, it was very different as the work you do affects other people so there is no room for slacking. I have also developed significantly in key employability skills such as communication and adaptability. However, I would have liked to have learned some technical skills whilst working at a world leading technical company which I didn't do.

For me, this was one of the few disappointments of my placement. I felt that the office environment was far too corporate and IBM didn't provide the little things like free hot drinks (you had to pay for hot water!). I believe I would have had a better social side if I had been living in London but I was commuting over an hour each way into work so there wasn't much room for that for me.

The placement scheme at IBM is very well organised and run. There is constant information and opportunities being sent out via email to current interns and they definitely encourage interns to get involved wherever possible to meet new and senior people. The management structure is very well run and there is always support where needed.

We had an initial 2 day induction which was mainly getting us set-up and not much training at all. All of the training was on-the-job from previous interns that are handing over their role and sometimes from task managers. Having said that, there are lots of training opportunities out there which we could sign up for ourselves and we were heavily encouraged to do so. Also, the placement team put on a few sessions throughout the year to work on employability skills and learn about graduate roles.

I would like to work with IBM in the future and have applied to one of the graduate roles (as interns we get semi-fast tracked in the application process). I like the idea of the rotational graduate scheme at IBM where you take on 3-4 different roles within a 2 year scheme.

For most placement students, there was a very social element. However, these are usually the ones that live in London and some of them living together in shared accommodation. This was not me as I had over an hour commute into work and back. Some of the interns did get together to organise a Christmas and end of year party which was really good.

As previously stated, I lived at home but I do know that a standard price of living was about £700 per month in rent. We were working in central London so food and drink prices were quite high.

Central London, always somewhere nice to go out! £2.50 pints in the Walkabout bar across the river was a popular one on a Thursday night for interns.

There were some corporate events that were invite only and mainly related to your working role. I also knew of the "Corporate Games" which was a sporting tournament against other companies.