Mergers & Acquisitions Support, Europe Review

At times this year I was challenged and I gained a lot of exposure within my European team in an interesting area of the business. I enjoyed the times that I was busy and working on more interesting work; however, due to various factors there wasn't always enough work leading often to boredom.

Despite working in a remote role, I felt very valued by my colleagues who placed a lot of trust in me. They were based throughout Europe, but were easily reachable by phone, email and instant messaging. They showed a lot of interest in me and my enjoyment of the role.

My manager and I had a weekly one-on-one meeting to catch up, discuss work and check that I was still on the right track. As well as this he was always easily reachable to ask any questions.

There were periods of the placement when the workload picked up and I was very busy; however, for large parts of the placement I didn't have enough to do or the work that I did have were the less interesting tasks that I had been putting off. At times this has been frustrating.

The data that I was given to manage was pretty important and for some tasks I was the main point of contact in Europe for this. I was working on behalf of the European leads for this area and became the main point of contact for many internal stakeholders on certain issues.

If nothing else, I will have gained a greater focus. Working full time is totally different to university and it is my hope I carry this work ethic over in to my final year at uni. It will also give me something to work towards as I have a greater idea of what I do and don't want from a job.

It was quite a fun office with a decent intern community.

Overall pretty well organised, but many opportunities were only really feasibly available to the students in London as they were often in the office there. Often there would be talks from various senior people/external people that were announced last minute and travel not expensed, this was disappointing as I feel I missed out at times.

There is a wealth of material available via self-guided online courses, with the opportunity to do badges - qualifications validated by IBM that look good on your CV. There could have been more formal training days.

There is a possibility of coming back as the graduate applications open earlier to placement students that to the general public. The variety of roles on offer is pretty limited and the information available on them extremely sparse. The attitude generally seems to be that if you want information then go and find it yourself, which can be difficult. Having said that, I have spoken to graduates that recommend the programme.

Initially yes, it did die down towards the end. I was fortunate to have a close group and we did go out every week - some of the people I met I plan to keep in close contact with after the placement - but not too many.

Portsmouth is cheap. I expected moving south that I would have to pay more for rent, but it is really affordable and even drinks in pubs/clubs are reasonably priced. On an intern salary there is a definite benefit to being based here rather than in London.

This depends on your expectations. Having lived in big northern cities I find the Portsmouth nightlife to be poor. It's possible to have a good night, but choice is limited. It is however close to Southampton and pretty easy to get to London, both of which I have done a couple of times. It's very manageable for a year, but I am glad I didn't come to uni here!

Not really. We had an intern Christmas boat party on the Thames, which was very enjoyable (but self funded). Anything else we have done e.g. 5 a side football has been organised among ourselves, which is a shame. There is an 'IBM Club', but I don't know of any interns involved in this in Portsmouth, perhaps it is different in London.