SWG Finance Integration Assistant Review

I did enjoy my placement year at IBM. There were good opportunities and the overall structure of the placement year is well set up. However, I mainly enjoyed the year because of the other interns which I met. Most elements of my role were not very interesting and so it became hard to stay motivated.

I did feel valued by my team as I was given a lot of responsibility, and I was the only member of my team who worked in the office so this gave me a lot of independence. However, at times I felt as though I was not as I could go a whole week without talking to my team. This could mean that I was not seeing how my work fit in to the rest of the team, and I was not seeing the value I was adding. Not having my team in the office also meant that we did not have team meetings and there was not much chance to gain feedback other than the 3 EPM reviews which were pre-arranged for the year.

I was given a good handover by my predecessor and was given extensive notes to help me with each of my processes. After this I did not have much guidance and do not think that things were explained to me very well if I needed help. I think that this is because IBM is such a big company and the majority of any explanations and learning I was given was done over calls.

I had a good amount of work to complete in my role. The workload was very varied depending on the time of the month and also on what was happening in the business, as I was working in the acquisitions team. In quieter periods, I was able to take part in activities out of the office (giveback), shadowing, and also worked on improving the spreadsheets which I worked on to make my tasks more efficient.

I was given a lot of responsibility to take control of my own workload and manage my own calendar. A lot of other interns had team inboxes where they would essentially be told what to do on a day-to-day basis. However, I essentially had my own role where I was the only member of my team who knew my tasks. I think that this was a good amount of responsibility, however it was sometimes very stressful when different members of my team wanted me to complete work for them in very short time frames, which were equally as urgent as each other.

I do not think any of the work I have done has taught me any specific skills which I could use in my Economics degree or even in the finance/accounting elements of my degree. However, I do think that I have developed transferable skills considerably in the year. For example, networking, communication, teamwork, professional emailing, work load prioritization e.t.c.

There was a friendly atmosphere in the office. I was asked to join another team as an honorary member and was invited out on team days, team meals and team meetings. It was nice to get involved with another team even though I was not working with one of my own. It was a very relaxed environment, however, people were respectful in terms of not talking loudly and the like.

The placement was very well organized from the outset. I felt as though my induction was very exciting and it introduced us to the opportunities that the company had to offer. After this there was a very relaxed structure and it was more about finding opportunities for yourself. We then had to give 3 presentations which I think was good for self reflection and helped to keep me on track and get the most out of the year. I do think that if there was potential to do more of these presentations or reviews, it would be beneficial to the overall structure.

I went on one course which was an accounting basics course, other than this I did not have any real training in any of the areas I was working in. Learning was done mainly on handover and from other colleagues. I often had to network with people on the online chat system to find out more information about things and how to complete tasks. I think there could be a lot more training and it would help to get a better idea of what I was doing really meant for the business. But, I do understand that a lot of my processes are a little ad hoc and that I have a European role, meaning a lot of my time was spent learning from contacts in different countries. So it may have been difficult to provide training.

There are a decreased number of grad roles being advertised this year and I do not think I will be applying back as there are no roles which suit what I am looking for.

There was a good social scene with other interns. There were a lot of interns in my intake and we would get together at least once a week. We set up our own socials and teams: for example we had finance socials and big meals together e.t.c. Portsmouth nightlife is not the most exciting, but the other interns which I was working with made the year really good.

Portsmouth is cheap for cost of living and for socializing in comparison to other cities on the south coast. As it is a student city, It is perfect to live here on placement as there are obviously student nights and events to get involved in. The city is mainly just students during term time so prices are often low to entice students. Gunwharf Quays (the outlet centre) also has good deals for people looking to go shopping.

The nightlife was good because Portsmouth is a student city. However, it is very limited in comparison to other larger student cities. There are 2 main clubs which we would go to (Astoria and Tiger Tiger), then there is also Liquid which we didn't go to (and being a Portsmouth student I would not recommend). There are lots bars on top of that - but Portsmouth is quite small in terms of nightlife. However, there are cheap drinks on student nights which is good.

There were lot's of opportunities to get involved outside of work as the interns used to set up socials and such. On weekends it was often a lot quieter as a lot of people would end up going home/back to uni as there was not much to do. I personally used to play tennis with other interns, go for meals, go to the cinema, and go on nights out most weeks.