Project Support Review

I did not enjoy my placement year mainly because my commute was too long. I commuted from Birmingham to Leamington Spa Station and I found it too expensive to commute. This included multiple modes of transport including a bus, train and a twenty minute walk, I was tired when I got to work and more tired when I went home every night.

My team were great. I am thankful that I was part of such a fab team that were always so helpful and hardworking. They have been very encouraging throughout the year and have allowed me to take advantage of the time that I have and get involved in anything that I was interested in doing. Although this was difficult with the expenses restrictions that we had, it was good to know that my manager was supportive and encouraging. This has been a great motivating factor and working with them.

I was barely trained and did not feel like I got enough support during my placement year. I was barely put on any training courses and neither was I taught in depth excel skills and I had to learn everything myself. Additionally, there were not many schemes or activities that us interns were placed on for and settling in was not easy with the vast amount of skills needed.

I was not busy. Sometimes I had work, but I didnt feel like doing it because of how boring my task was and repetitive. I never saw any customers or dealt with any clients. I barely ever traveled to different offices or even got to work from home. I was in charge of deliveries and would be responsible for taking down any deliveries that came in and getting serial numbers, make, model and any other information that I can obtain.

My role required me to handle deliveries and take note of serial numbers and any other information which would then get updated to an asset management tool. I wanted to do more work but when I asked for work I was not given any. My team were really busy and I was only in charge of one boring task.

It has assisted me. My writing skills have improved and so have my excel skills. I have also become a lot more confident and am able to carry out presentations by being much more calm and confident. I remember not being able to speak clearly and speak to senior people either. However, this has definitely changed looking at myself now and twelve months ago.

Everyone was very approachable and nice. It was easy to speak to people and people were very helpful when you needed something be it information, advice or even a hand with a difficult task. I enjoyed speaking to different people and working in different teams, Whenever I felt like I could do with more work, It was very easy for me to approach people and ask them if they needed a hand with anything or if there was something fun and specific I wanted to, it wasn't difficult to ask to get involved as my team were very supportive.

I was the first person to get the role and did not have a handover from a student. This meant that I had to struggle and try and figure out how things are done on my own. The role I was given was completely new and daunting at the beginning. However I feel like I have done well with settling in and learning new stuff. My skills have expanded and I have learnt a lot this year.

The company invests in you. It is good that we are given responsibility from day one and also not treated and given baby work. We are entitled to do online training and there are many training schemes online that we are encouraged to do whenever we have some time to do it. This allows us to widen our knowledge and improve our skills in different aspects.

As an international student, I am disappointed to say that sponsoring visas for graduate jobs is not common. Therefore, there are not many prospects for a bright future for an international student. In fact, we are encouraged to go back to our country and look for employment there which is highly unfair as we should be able to compete with all students whether based in UK or not.

we only had four interns in our building and we were all separated from each other and put into different teams. This was not nice as we never really got to bond together. In addition, we did not have a cafeteria in our building and therefore it was difficult to gather and meet up for lunch and eat together.

Cost of living was very high. Due to my commute I had a very high cost of living during my placement year. As my placement included multiple modes of transport such as a bus, a train and a twenty minute walk I had to get a bus pass, and a train pass. The train pass would cost me 135 pounds a month from Birmingham to Warwick. In addition I would have to pay rent as well as sort myself out for food.

I barely went out for any events and neither did I take part in social events. This is because I commuted one and a half hour to work one way which meant I could not get involved in after work activities as this would mean that I would get home late. The trains were once an hour and hence If i missed my train I would reach home very late.

There were many opportunities to get involved in. IBM has a giveback scheme and this allows us to get involved and do community work or volunteer to build up our skills and enhance them. I have been able to go for career fairs and represent IBM as well as carry out presentations and mentor students. This has definitely helped to make me a more confident person!