Project Support Administrator Review

I enjoyed my work placement as I was given a lot of opportunity to expand on my skills and personal growth. There was lots of activities to get involved in off my account and intern events which we could attend - only downside was most of these were based in London.

I felt very valued by my colleagues and peers. I was treated as if I were a normal member of staff and most people weren't even aware that I was an intern as you are made to feel like part of the company from day one and given task which are the level of a professional member of staff.

I was given a lot of support and we had regular checkpoints at 3,6,9 and 12 months with our manager who went through our goals for the year and how we were coping. I felt very guided by my manager and felt as though I was never bothering her with my queries. Management were always on hand to answer questions

I was very busy in my role due to the account that I was on increasing massively in size during my placement year which meant I had to take on additional work that was meant for at least 2 people as well as covering for another intern who left suddenly so I found myself covering 3 peoples work load.

I was given a lot of responsibility during my placement year and often found that I had quite big decisions riding on my shoulders and if they were not completed then the account risked loosing money. I forgot I was on my placement year due to the amount of responsibility I had.

The skills I have learnt I will be able to carry with me into another job and when I go back to university. Being in a business environment will assist me when I am writing my dissertation as I now better understand the workings of a business and the challenges faced on a daily basis. We were also given the chance to complete badges which will stay with us on our LinkedIn profiles even after we leave

The atmosphere was quite fun in that we often had events in the office such as lunches, cake sales and treats whenever someone had a birthday or was leaving. It was an open office with no personal offices so even the account lead would be sitting in the open space with everyone

It was well organised in that IBM have large intern community so they have a good set-up with a lot of support and guidance on offer. The application process was easy to follow and I was kept very up to date. We were given a manager who was specifically allocated to us to help with any details of our placement such as checkpoint meetings - this helped.

We were given a thing called Think40 which every IBM employee had to do at least 40 hours of learning a year. There was a range of choice in what we could choose in terms of the courses and badges we could complete. We were also supported in our graduate applications

They are very appealing as they have many schemes but the most appealing to me is the graduate scheme as this is what I would be looking to come back into once I have completed my final year at university. If we done well in our final presentations we were given the option to skip our graduate assessment center and go straight to a business interview

There was a good social side but with my account there were only 3 interns compared to the many of interns which are based in London. Many colleagues on the account were young which made it better as there was more chance to be social. I feel I missed out on a bit of the social scene by not being based in London which is where majority of the events were held

It was more expensive than living at home and being based in a non-major city I thought it would be cheaper. We were not given any re-location fees and paid for accommodation out of our wages. There were cheap student nights but these were on weeknights and starting work, sometimes as early as 7, meant that these were often ruled out.

The nightlife was okay but I was used to partying in a big city with many clubs and coming to my placement there were only around 2 clubs which were any good. There are lots of pubs but not a lot of clubs which are open past midnight. The company in the clubs made it rather than the bar itself

There were a few activities outside of work such as Wednesday drinks where IBM would pay to hire out a location and pay for the bar tab so everyone could socialise and network outside of the office. There were also account events such as walking challenges and Diwali. There were also lunch and learns which taught you different things within the company and helped to build on skills