Transition and Transformation Operational Manager Support Review

I enjoyed my time at IBM. After carrying out a 12 month placement I was able to learn a lot about the company and how a large corporate organisation runs. i was given tasks and was always learning new things and kept busy. I would definitely recommend this placement to others.

During my 12 months at IBM I was given plenty opportunities to be involved and take part in the team. I was given meaning full tasks, one of which needed me to create agendas and keep meeting minutes. I needed to keep track and note down actions from the calls and ease up members of the team to make sure they were carried out.

As an intern at IBM I had two managers. One being the Early Professionals Manager (EPM) and the other being my Task Manager. The EPM looks over a number of students and is there to reassure and provide help if there are any problems that could effect you and general questions about the placement year. The task manager is the one who gives you your day to day tasks and will assign you your role. Due to there being two managers, someone is always available to help and support you.

Being a large global organisation, there is lots going on. It takes time trying to get used to the new internal intranet systems used. Due to this, it could seem that at first it is quite slow and not as busy. However as time goes on it does not take long for your diary to get filled. Even if there are gaps between your calls, meetings or you have finished work, there are extra educational learning courses available to complete to further improve your skills.

My role gave me a lot of responsibility. I was assigned a project that required me to contact project managers from a wide number of existing IBM clients. I needed to collect data, which meant that I had access to highly sensitive and confidential information. I was trusted to access and handle the data, moreover was given the opportunity to work as a junior project manager and create some of these documents myself.

At IBM I was able to gain professional skills. This involved how to communicate effectively through written and verbal means. I was able to attend workshops that helped enforce these professional skills. In addition there were online courses that i completed that will help me in my studies as i was able to further improve my Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel skills.

The atmosphere at IBM is very good. It has a good culture and the environment in which you work can vary depending on your role. In most cases interns from all roles and departments tend to sit together. This is good as you are with people in education and looking to achieve similar goals. You can make friends and go to the canteen together. Once a month there is an intern roundtable where all interns attend and take it in terns to present educational topics in fun ways.

IBM were very organised with the overall set up of the placement. All paper work was provided beforehand were we were able to read and look through. This meant that we had a lot of our questions answered before starting. We were also given training where we were given our IBM equipment and talked through how to set up the passwords and different softwares.

IBM does very well to invest with its employees. There are a number of additional training and development opportunities. As an intern there is a platform called ThinkAcademy and Think40 that has many upon many different courses, ranging from organisation skills to how to guides for softwares. We are encouraged to complete 40 hours of this learning before our placement ends.

IBM helps with further progression and career progression. It has many types of internships allowing the schemes to appeal to many people from different backgrounds. If you join as a futures intern, coming straight after sixth form or collage, you are encouraged to apply for the apprenticeship scheme. If you join as a placement student you have the opportunity to apply for the graduate scheme.

IBM interns communicated with each other and went out with each other often. Whether this be something we organised ourselves or an IBM organised event like a Christmas party.

I worked in the Warwick area, the IBM site is not really in walking distance to town especially not enough time to go out and come back during lunch. However there was a canteen on site and the pricing was not too bad. Although once in town the prices were not too high and there were a number of classic well known retailers.

Unfortunately there is not a lot to do in Warwick, however when going out coventry and leamington spa were a short train ride away.

IBM has something called Giveback, where we could attend events organised by IBM to represent the company such as careers fairs.