WW Marketing Channel Business Support Review

The opportunity to work for IBM always appealed to me. When I first started my role I found it pretty challenging. There was a heavy focus on data analysis and a lot of my work involved spreadsheets. As I got more settled into the role and more comfortable with my work I picked up other more creative opportunities from elsewhere in the business such as sending out communications and getting involved with Giveback, this I thoroughly enjoyed. In the early months while I was still learning new things I found the role quite interesting. About 6 months into my placement there was a lot of reorganisation and my boss left which was hard to deal with especially while being an intern new to the working world. Although some of my work continued the responsibilty was on me to find contacts and work which I found extremely difficult. I think there should be better provisions for people in my situation as I really struggled getting through my last few months. Another downside of my placement year was that I was based in a small office outside central London where there was only 4 other interns. This made it really difficult to meet up and socialise with interns at other locations. One thing that this year has definitely helped me with is my professional and personal skills. I feel like now I am more prepared for when I start my career after university.

The department which I worked in was a worldwide department which meant that the majority of my colleagues were based in the US and therefore I didn't have the chance to meet many of them. This was a great learning experience in terms of dealing with time differences. I found everyone I worked with was really helpful and supportive. I also recieved some great feedback from my colleagues expressing how I was a vital part of the team which made me feel valued.

One of the great aspects of doing your placement at IBM is that you get two managers. Your task manager who sets all your work etc. and your Early Professional Manager (EPM) who acts as a support and is there for your personal development. I felt supported by both of these people they were great with providing feedback. My task manager was also very flexible with my working patterns I could work from home when I needed to and if I ever had to work too late due to time differences I could sometimes go into work a little later. One negative was that when my task manager left there weren't really any provisions to help me with getting more work etc. I was left to get on with it myself which I found difficult.

During the first 6 months of my placement I was very busy. I often would have to stay late to get work completed and have calls with various business partners. If the work load ever got too much I could easily raise concerns with my task manager who helped me to deal with this. Towards the later months of my placement my work load decreased which meant I had more time to explore areas I was interested in aswell as getting involved with Giveback and taking on the role of brand ambassador for IBM's careers academy.

During my placement I was given a lot of responsibility. My task manager made a special effort not to introduce me to anyone as an intern. One aspect of my job was to help enroll business partners into one of our many programs. This meant I was there point of contact if they had any issues or needed support which was a massive responsibility and one I thoroughly enjoyed.

This year has given me an invaluable insight into the working world. I feel having done this year when I go back to University I will be more focused and find it easy to priorities the work load which should ultimately help me get better grades than if I hadn't done this year out. I feel it has helped me both professional and personal. My confidence has grown, I have learnt to believe in myself and be more tenacious with other members of my team in order to get work done in a timely manner.

The office that I worked in had a very friendly feel however it was also extremely small. There were 5 interns including me and often less than 10 people would be in the office (especially on Fridays). The office was great for getting work done when I was busy and had calls however it was difficult to meet other interns at other locations and network with people. It also didn't have a canteen so if I wanted to buy food I had to walk a little way to get to Subway or Greggs.

I felt that overall the placement was set up well. Foundation who is in charge of the interns/grads ran a number of events throughout the year including a careers academy which gave us insight into other areas of IBM. I do however feel that more job specific training should be given as I felt thrown into the deep end to begin with in my Excel work which meant it took me a lot longer to get my tasks done. I also felt their should have been more opportunities to practice personal skills like confidence, telephone skills etc. As mentioned before I also believe IBM needs to have better provisions for if an intern loses their task manager.

IBM didn't really offer much training. My task manager set up a task early on for me and the other interns in my office which allowed us to practice our presentation skills, this I found very helpful. We also had access to an online tool where we could watch videos and read articles in various areas to help us understand other aspects of the company.

For me personally I don't feel future employment prospects at IBM are good right now. There is currently a lot of internal reorganisation which means a lot of things are unknown like the number of hiring tickets etc. We have been told that we shouldn't set our sights on IBM alone as many people will probably have to be turned away.

As mentioned before because I worked in a quiet office there were very few social events/chances to meet other interns. The only social event that was arranged during the year was a Christmas meal which was also not paid for by IBM.

Pretty reasonable as it was outside of central London

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There wasn't really many opportunities to get involved with activities outside of work. I think the interns based in Southbank (central London) had a lot more opportunities. The one thing that I really enjoyed was taking part in Giveback which allowed us to give back to local communities, such as running mock interview for school children. However this was done during work so I haven't included this in the rating.