Recruitment Coordinator Review

I highly recommend working at IBM on placement. It exceeded all expectation. The job was challenging, exciting and busy and I grew so much over the 12 months. Outside of my role we had a great intern community, which meant that there was a great social aspect to my experience. They are a fantastic company who constantly encourage you to voice your ideas, challenge the why and make your own mark.

One of the best aspects of IBM is their culture. It is an incredibly flat hierarchy where everyone's voice and opinions are valued. I was never made to feel like 'an intern', I was an IBMer, just like the Exec sat across the table from me. They have an incredibly inclusive culture, with fantastic people who are always willing to help wherever they can.

There was a huge amount of support. I had an Early Professionals Manager who tracked my progress and was there if we needed anything, this could be personal or professional. I also had a task manager, to manage my day to day tasks with me. I was also provided with a Mentor, who coached me throughout the 12 months, this covered many areas such as; my career, my placement dissertation and she also provided me with opportunities to shadow her role and see other areas of the business.

I was incredibly busy. There were days where I was leaving the house at 5:30am and not getting back until 8pm, but I loved every minute of it. It was challenging and I learnt a lot from this. Although some days were incredibly long, we were able to leave a little earlier on a Friday if we had a really busy week. So they were very good at managing the work life balance.

I was given far more responsibility than I previously thought I would. As I mentioned earlier, I was always treated as an IBMer never an intern. There were a few admin tasks which came with the role, which was to be expected but other than that it was challenging and I grew a tremendous amount throughout my placement.

Although I loved my placement and wouldn't change anything. It was not hugely relevant to my degree. I felt like I could have completed this role without having learnt the content I learnt in my lectures. Therefore, although I will be able to take back a lot of knowledge, some of it may not be very relevant to my degree.

We were a TEAM. We had a small team yet a great team. We all got along really well with a variety of ages and personalities. We did lots of social activities together such as; Go Ape, Bowling, Nando's etc. The people you work with play a huge part in your placement and I was very lucky to have such a great office atmosphere.

My placement was well organised. We had a structured layout of 3 month, 6 month and then 12 month reviews which tracked our progress and kept us focused. When I began my role I was provided with a handover document, so I could refer to it, to ensure I was learning my role correctly.

We were provided with learning platforms, which we had to complete 40 hours of learning to ensure we were always improving and growing. IBM were also willing to invest in us to attend external events, I was lucky enough to attend a GTI Breakfast and then report it back to the UK Talent Acquisition Team. So I felt there was a fair amounf of investment.

I have applied back as graduate as I would love to return to IBM. I see myself having a long career there due to the vast amount of opportunity and great culture. There are many people you meet who have been there 20 years+ because there is always a new challenge to take on.

There was a good social scene, within my office there was about 20 of us who all socialised together, both in the week and at weekends. IBM also set up social events for us, such as; the Christmas boat party which all of the IBM UK Interns were invited to in London.

The cost of living was extremely high and with a small salary it was difficult to budget. I was based in Winchester and lived in Winchester, so I had to pay London prices without even being in London. So this was a down point of my placement unfortunately.

Nightlife was good. We often went out in Southampton and Winchester. Sometimes people found it difficult to afford it, but we made it work.

There were loads of opportunities to get involved in outside of work. This included CSR activities, Workshops, External events and fun activities. We were always encouraged to GiveBack to the community which I got involved in a lot. They had a great culture of the more you get involved with, the better!