Interactive Developer Review

My placement was a lot of fun. I got to work on some great projects with a lot of high profile clients and write real code for applications that will be going into production environments with real clients. I love programming, and I did a huge amount of that during this placement and learnt a lot, which just added to the great experience I had.

My colleagues treated me like just another full time employee and saw great value in the work that I was outputting for the projects I was on during my time at IBM. We frequently went out as a team, whether that was for drinks, food, or something like crazy golf and it was always a great deal of fun.

My managers gave me all the support I needed throughout my placement. Whenever I had a query, I could either email them, slack them, or go and see them and I'd get whatever information it was that I needed. My Task Manager also ensured that I was always on the best projects, working for great clients on high profile projects to give me the best experience that I could get.

Most days I had a good workload, working in an agile team meant that we never had a huge panic to hit a massive deadline as you have a set amount of work to complete in that sprint and if one story falls out of sprint, you just take it into the next sprint and try to make it up there. Occasionally there were days where I would work late, however these weren't very often, and the effort was always hugely appreciated by the entire team.

During my placement I took on the role of a DevOps engineer, setting up and maintaining environments for an entire project with a total team size of around 70 developers and designers. Nearing the end of that project, I was given the tech lead position for that team due to the knowledge and experience I had shown throughout my time on the project. On another project, I was doing Android development and was contributing core features to the app the same as any other full-time developer on the team. At one point we had a large amount of architecture work that needed doing in which my opinion was highly respected and lead to key decisions about how we would architect the final solution.

The experience that I gained during this placement will help me hugely for my final year project, and will be a huge asset when applying for jobs after university. In this industry the languages and technologies used are always evolving, and in the team I was in, we were constantly using the new technologies which is great for both the client and the developers experience. As well as technical skills, I have learnt how best to work with clients, how to communicate effectively with team members in the same office and remotely, and have used tools such as Jira, Bitbucket, Confluence and more extensively, which are tools used throughout the industry.

The atmosphere in the office was fun, especially on Fridays where a lot of people worked from home and the rest of the office would play music out of the TVs to relax a little. People are always happy to help you if you need it, I don't think I ever had someone say they were to busy if I needed something from them which creates a really nice environment where everyone helps everyone else out.

The placement setup at IBM is well established and has been running for multiple years. There are people within IBM called EPMs who are your Early Professional Manager, they are there specifically to manage how you are doing whilst on your placement and take care of any issues you have whilst you are there. Throughout your time there you will fill out a placement journal and do 3/6/12 month reviews. These reviews and placement journal along with feedback you have received on your placement will all help you if you decide to re-apply to IBM after university.

During my time at IBM I didn't attend any specific training courses, however if I had wanted to I could have done. If you want to go on a specific training course, then it is down to you to go and request this from your manager and the placement team. I didn't go to any training because I was receiving great experience from my team mates and having a great time working on the project, therefore I did not feel the need to seek go on any training during my time there.

During the last few months of your placement, you get asked if you would like to apply to the graduate scheme. If you have done well during your placement, you are going to have a high chance of getting employed back into the company after your final year at university. It's also possible for you to request to take some time between university and going back to work. I already plan to apply back and hopefully I will be able to return and work in the same department again!

During the summer, the social scene was great, however it was significantly less vibrant during the winter months, however it probably didn't help that I was in a different part of London at the time due to the project that I was on. During the first people tend to make facebook chats which people organise events in, and the IBM placement team themselves group all the placement students for each location into seperate facebook pages so you can organise housing and talk between eachother after you arrive at IBM.

I was working in central London on the Southbank, so housing was expensive, however I lived with my parents outside of London and commuted in for the year which saved me a significant amount of money. Socialising was also quite expensive as that's just how the prices are in central London. In the pub right next to the Southbank office (The Understudy) you are looking at around £5 for a pint of cider, and that's after the 10% IBM discount is applied.

It's London, there are bars and clubs in every direction. If you want to go out, it's very easy to find somewhere nice to go, however you will definitely feel the cost of it the next morning.

IBM does something called Giveback which lets you get involved in different activities. Within your teams people will also organise different activities, for example just last week someone in my team organised for people who wanted to go and play football after work with other people from the team. Stuff like this is great as you get to know the team better and it's a lot of fun too!