RFS Manager Review

Working for IBM has been an enjoyable experience, especially living in London. The benefit of working for IBM is being a part of their Foundation Community, which hosts a wide range of extra activities to be involved in, whether it's mentoring students, or working at Wimbledon. If you want to get stuck in, you can.

In my experience, I have had a very close team, that sits within a wider team. In my close team I am treated as an equal, and my opinions and suggestions are taken on board the same as any other person. My wider team were always happy to help, and this creates a great network with the future, as I am able to work along side senior staff.

In IBM you have a dedicated Early Professionals Manager who will host quarterly reviews to keep up to date on your progress and you can ask them any question at any time. Also your task manager is always happy to help, especially if they are not remote and you get to work with them.

In terms of being busy, I had a perfect balance. At times the work was very demanding a fast paced, which was a fun challenge. However at certain times the work load slowed down. However this was valuable time to work on dissertation research or giveback opportunities such as a hackathon or customer journey project.

I was responsible for for a number of daily tasks and activities such as hosting calls or meeting the client. I believe how much responsibility you take on is how much you ask for, so it is completely up to you. If your job is not giving you enough responsibility, you can always talk to your EPM or task Manager, or look outside to giveback for responsibility.

I've developed skills in how to act in an corporate environment. I've developed in a way that I now know how to approach a working lifestyle in the future. For example I understand the importance of networking to move up in your roles etc. In terms of practical technical skills, or business skills, such as those learnt on my course, were never really developed. I.e how business strategy is decided with macro economics - all of these high level business plans are not practiced.

We had a cheery office atmosphere on our client site where I worked. It was a young technology company that always had exciting exhibitions going on from different tech companies giving away freebies etc. My team would always buy snacks for the table as well which was good bonding. Everyone is always happy to talk to each other and offer advice

Very well organized. IBM has been doing this for a long time and they have a very organised structure. i.e quaterly reviews, meeting your task Manager, organising giveback events, offering advice, displaying opportunities. Also the module I did with my university was easily carried out with IBM who helped a lot with my research needs.

As you are only there for one year, it would not make sense to invest a lot of training into you, therefore they do not. However, there is plenty of online resources to train youself. They have an abundance of helpful courses you can do online. You can learn more about IBM's technology, or some other skills such as sales.

They have a wide range of future opportunities available to come back as a graduate. You can choose to be a part of a rotational scheme, or a project based scheme. You have the chance to shadow all roles you might find interesting, so you know what you want to come back and do. You will have a lot of help in this respect.

Yes, parties, nights out, friend groups etc.

Expensive, it's London!

Come on, it's London!

Yes, lots of giveback opportunities.