Commercial Business Support Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year on the whole. I was given a lot of responsibility from the get go and found my role challenging and interesting. I enjoyed my year because of my team, but also felt like I wasn't restricted to my day job. IBM allows interns to get involved in a lot of other stuff (called giveback) which enhanced my experience. However, I found some aspects of my role frustrating, such as 'corporate' change of processes without any notification.

I felt extremely valued by my colleagues. Me and (most of) my team all worked from the same location and share an office. This meant we built relationships that surpassed a working relationship (which could be common in a company where a lot of staff work remotely). I felt the work I was doing was an important part of the service. And my team valued the work I did and valued me on a personal level.

My day to day managers were supportive of anything I wanted to get involved with that was not related to my day to day role. However, they were all extremely busy people and didn't always have the time to provide support and guidance. However, if at any point I had any concerns, wanted some feedback or support, I knew I could approach my mangers and they would all have been more than happy to help. Overall, I think my task managers were great. My careers manager (EMP) was really friendly and easy to talk to. However, as my EPM was based in a different location to my self - it meant that I only got to meet my EPM a few times. This meant I could not build a real relationship with her. Even though, over the year we were told to build a good relationship with our EPM's as this helped when applying back to IBM. For me this was one of the only drawbacks of being based on a client site rather than at a main IBM office.

I found that some days I would be extremely busy, but some days not as busy. In my team there was always different stuff I could get involved with, so I never felt I had nothing to do. Sometimes I felt that when I was already fairly busy. As I was working in a financial team I found a lot of the teams task all fell at the same point in the month so those periods became increasingly more busy throughout the year.

I was given a lot of responsibility during my placement. This was surprising but felt good to know I was trusted with the work load and the type of work I was doing. I was responsible for multiple different things that were all associated with costs associated with the running of the account. Overall my task managers trusted me, didn't feel the need to micro-manage, and I became a vital part of the team.

I felt I developed a lot of skills over my year. I earned a universally recognized badge and learnt a lot about Agile PM. My excel skills improved drastically, and I became used to presenting to people. IBM encourages everyone to do 40 hours of learning year, an initiative called THINK40. This means as interns there is a lot of online material for us to develop skills different to our day job. All of these skills will help me as I continue my career after university. Overall, I feel doing a placement has hugely benefited me in terms of skills but I now also feel prepared for graduate employment.

I worked on a client site, which was interesting as you could tell the difference between the two companies culture. Overall, I thought the atmosphere in my office was great. People were friendly, and there was always something to celebrate (any excuse to eat cake). Our account hosted monthly All Hands where different employees would be rewarded for their hard work. There was a handful of interns, grads and apprentices working on the account, so we would eat lunch together.

The placement was well set up. However, IBM differ from most other companies. Interns have set roles they need to fill, rather than following a program. This means that everyone in IBM has a different experience (can be a good or a bad thing). For me, when I was applying for IBM I was interviewed for a role, offered the role and then was informed that role no longer existed. This was a frustrating part of the process as I was out of the hiring pool for a month. Although, having said this, I am now in a role which is much more interesting than that role would have been.

There was limited investment from the company to interns. There was a two day training course at the beginning of the year and that was it. We had access to a lot of different online material which we could use. But I think the investment was focused mostly on graduates. As I was not working at a main office, I found attending the events they had a struggle. A lot of events and training sessions were at IBM in London. Although expenses were often covered by Foundation (early careers) this was not always the case. Some of the time we were expected to pay for this, or put this cost on our account. I don't think it is fair that some interns where at a natural disadvantage because of this.

I would like to work for IBM as a graduate after university and I think this is achievable. But, as I have mentioned before IBM match employees to a role, rather than a scheme. This means that they don't always know how many positions will be available, or what kind of positions. I find that this means placement students at IBM find out much later in the year compared to students in other companies.

I lived with two other interns at IBM which meant there was normally someone to chat to. The foundation community in my office went out a lot. But this was organized off our own back. IBM host 'First Wednesday Drinks' which is a networking event located at a pub. The account I work on also planned events such as bowling, escape rooms, tobogganing and so on.

Warwick is a fairly expensive place to live. Although I manged to spend less on rent and bills during my placement year compared to being at university, I did find I still didn't have lots of money left over at the end of the month. However, my spending on going out for meals, drinks and activities increased.

The nightlife is ok... Warwick has more of a local pub scene which is nice, but not that lively. I found going to Leamington Spa was better. There was more atmosphere there, a wider variety of bars and restaurants. The bars in Leamington are mostly independent and different. Often there are live music nights which are fun.

A lot of opportunity. IBM host 'First Wednesday Drinks' which is a networking event located at a pub. The account I work on also planned events such as bowling, escape rooms, tobogganing and so on. There was also an all account training day which consisted off an afternoon off work, doing team building followed by a night out.