Health Check Analyst (LEADing to Africa Programme) Review

The nature of my role meant I was fairly busy on a day-to-day basis and the responsibility given to me meant I had to account for a number of customer accounts, although there were downtimes where things were a bit quiet. The role itself was quite repetitive each month and followed a strict end-to-end process. So external activities (Giveback) and online learning was a way for me to get some variety during my placement. In addition, I had initially applied to LEADing to Africa scheme and was hoping to be involved in related projects in this area but due to some unforeseen circumstances, none of this happened, if they did, I think I might have enjoyed my placement more.

That came through good feedback received from fellow IBMers that I worked with, including my Task Manager, which was always lovely to hear. I was also often the first point of contact for some issues in the accounts I had to look after in my role. Although the feeling of being valued wasn't something I felt with every colleague I interacted with, for them it was more about the work being done than letting someone know their work is appreciated, and I feel at times this did have an affect on my morale.

When I did have problems, I spoke to them with my Task Manager and EPM (Early Professional Manager) where possible, it was also lovely to have long chats with our Task Manager to get an update on how our section of the business is progressing, even though his schedule was often busy. However, for my day-to-day tasks, I didn't feel the environment was one of guidance or somewhere I could receive support, so often I did just try to figure things out on my own or with the other interns I was working with.

This varied depending on the time of the month. At the beginning of the month, I was less busy but month-end often meant a rush to complete all health checks and associated tasks that go along with this.

I was allowed to be in charge of the management of some our customer accounts, meaning I was first point of contact for the health checking of those accounts from the teams that belonged to them.

I came from a mostly Business background and the role I had was more IT related, so I wasn't able to really develop anything I had already built whilst at university. However, I was able to develop my Excel skills throughout the year and to an extent my presentation skills also in events outside my role and in my quarterly review. I was also able to gain some knowledge on some specialist programmes, however, these will not really assist me in my business degree.

Warwick office was very quiet as most people worked remotely. There were quite a number of interns based here.

Induction days at the beginning were organised well as well the careers academy, quarterly reviews and our monthly intern roundtables.

Any additional training/development provided to me was mostly virtual.

IBM is a very innovative company which invests heavily in student schemes, so it is a good place to be at the beginning of a career path. IBM itself have moved into areas of large growth such as big data and artificial intelligence, so there's a lot of opportunities available.

I lived in Birmingham so it was hard to really socialise outside of work near Warwick

Reasonable

Not much to do in Warwick itself so most people went out in Leamington Spa which is the next town over.

IBM Club which is cheap to join, but I did not get involved in this.