Business Office Support Specialist Review

I enjoyed the people I engaged with, projects I supported and more importantly the level of responsibilities and flexibility I was given by my leaders. My favourite memories are when I worked on the client assignments. I enjoyed spending time with the project teams due to their vast expertise when dealing with external clients. Their experience would vary according to the industries they worked in, the jobs they delivered and the amount of years spent at IBM and this inspired me a lot. I managed to spend a considerable amount of time shadowing them during their meetings with a client and learned a lot while assisting them with their work.

When I first joined IBM my line manager gave me an internal role, she was supporting me on my journey and I was proving that I could do more by constantly increasing the quality of my work. With all the great opportunities in IBM, I wanted to take on more challenges. Based on my performance with the trust and support from my line manager, I’ve been given opportunities to work on two client initiatives. During the first assignment, I worked on an intense Client project with the demanding timelines delivering their ad-hoc requirements and helping out on the delivery side of the business. The role for the second client was predominantly PMO based, where I and the PMO lead managed the platform for the programs repositories, (ie communities). I was offered to extend on the client projects due to the excellent feedback received from my team leaders.

Since the day one at IBM I have received all the support I needed. From having a handover for three weeks with my predecessor, to the weekly calls with my line manager and the regular catch ups and reviews by my Early Professionals Manager (EPM). My line manager and EPM have always utilised my enthusiasm for the up and coming initiatives; i.e. new work assignments, education or giveback (IBM term for volunteering).

My work load has varied and has been highly dependent on client or stakeholder needs. As a minimum, I have a list of weekly/monthly and quarterly reports that must be written. Additionally, I have spent time solving ad-hoc tasks which would come from my manager or my team. Client projects have been the most demanding as it requires me to complete two jobs at once. This has taught me how to prioritise my workload and how to be more efficient.

My responsibilities have grown during my tenure. At the beginning of my placement, I was given some time to get to know the business better and became more confident in producing the basic tasks required within my team. A couple of months later, I was supported by my manager to start an additional role, this time facing the client. I’ve recently started an additional PMO role for a new account within IBM. What I enjoy about PMO is how I get to watch the project develop from inception to completion. As part of my role I improve the planning and delivery process by collecting and maintaining data in a consistent form.

First of all, my experience at IBM enhanced my set of analytical, quantitative and reasoning skills I have gained at the first two years at university. I am successfully producing complex reports on a daily basis and the analysing of them gave me practical knowledge which will support my dissertation in my final year. By interacting with more senior colleagues I have learned new approaches of articulating my thoughts. By tackling new challenges I became more confident professional and by delivering multiple workloads I learned how to prioritize and be more proactive. I believe all these skills can be utilised in life.

It was very informal and friendly. People in general are very welcoming and you never feel being undervalued by colleagues of higher experience or age. Everyone is equal and respects each other.

It is organised really well due to the significant amount of effort invested by the Placement Foundation team. There is well planned procedure of reviews by your task manager and general manager.

To be honest, I have not got a chance to participate in as many courses as I expected to do. For me, education is never ending pathway and I would have loved to contribute more time for the educational courses. IBM has an extensive collection of online courses, however I prefer the actual courses where you can interact with the other participants and elaborate your views and ideas. I had a chance to attend Design Thinking workshop, which turned out to be a real success and full of insights.

I would highly recommend applying to IBM because in IBM you can do anything you like if you put enough effort in it. I have heard about so many examples about people completely changing their career within IBM and how much they were supported to do so by their peers and leaders. You always meet new people in IBM, it allows you to increase your professional network and find opportunities within it.

Yes, we always did stuff together and found some new activities.

I have started working in Warwick, the accommodation costs were quite affordable and transport was the same. The commute to the office was really good, about 10 mins. In Warwick there was not much choice to go out, so we tend to go to the houses of where interns live.

In Warwick there was not much choice to go out, so we tend to go to the houses of where interns live.

Not too many, there is sports club, but mainly it is football for boys. There are some voluntary initiatives which I took part in, they are quite a lot of them.