European Software Deployment Project Office Manager Review

I honestly loved my placement with IBM. The responsibilities were of course, fantastic, but the friendliness from the people I worked with was just amazing. We are really lucky to have such a large intern community in many of the locations at IBM, and this made organizing things with the interns outside of work hours really easy to do.

This really did depend on what departments you were working in. A lot of the time my work would be praised and my contribution credited. I never felt that my contribution was not valued unless I felt I could have done better in an area of work. There was only one instance where my efforts felt discredited, but even then it wasn't anything major nor something I couldn't take away and learn from.

All the time. I never felt afraid to ask for more help and one of my task managers who had a role change half way through my placement year even continued to give me support whenever they could. It wasn't even my managers who were happy to provide any help - most people in the departments I worked in would be happy to take out time to give you some guidance on something you wanted help with.

This depended on how far in the quarter I was. Near the beginning and end of a quarter, work was always intense and I was always doing something from the start to the finish of work. Of course we had 'down days' where work would be less intense - but this didn't mean you couldn't be getting on with something in the meantime. IBM encourages you to increase your level of learning and had tons of online courses that you could take to learn more about a skill that interests you.

This varied for each role - but for one of them, I was given a high level of responsibility. I was co-managing the entire project from start to finish and would always be arranging calls to discuss the logistics of the operation. Because IBM is so open, if you wanted more responsibility it would be quite easy to ask for me.

I did a lot of work using excel, which, as an Accounting and Finance student was really helpful. I used and developed a lot of the management modules that I student from university, and I am a lot more confident going forwards in my final year that has a lot of management modules in there.

Very calm. Our 'boss' was always really friendly and chatty and there was never really a dull vibe in the office. We would go on department day outs and would get involved with events together as a team. Some of the people I worked closely with were always easy to talk to and made you feel very welcome.

Speaking to other graduates who work in our offices, I have always heard great experiences that made me want to come back. The positions available are always related closely to work you have already done with your placement and the roles are exciting. They make it very clear that you can go into any role if you wanted to.

The social scene was great. There were about 60 interns in Hursley and there was always something going on during a weekend, and lunchtimes were spent chilling and chatting. We'd often plan on going around Southampton as well, which is really close to Winchester which is where most of the interns lived.

Absolutely tons. IBM pride themselves on giving the option to get involved with extra activities outside of work. I had the chance to get involved with over 5 different things outside of work - helping out at careers events to being a 'business judge' on a panel in a scheme set up in Manchester.