Systems Analyst 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.

As previously mentioned, the structural changes within my business area impacted the organisation of my role initially. During this time I was particularly thankful for my EPM who was able to advise me in how best to deal with this situation. Throughout the year Foundation have been of utmost importance and I'm very grateful for all the support I have received.

There are endless online training materials, workshops, and personal development opportunities within the company to allow you to develop existing skills, and work on new ones. You gain recognition for the amount of time you spend of personal development, and can be rewarded with badges. IBM uses many different pieces of software which you can learn how to use.

My experience so far with IBM has confirmed my belief that this is a fantastic company to work for during your early career - I will therefore most definitely be hoping to secure a role after graduating from university with them to continue to develop my career path with them. I believe the skills I have gained this year will be beneficial in for a graduate role.

As I was on a client account away from IBM offices I very rarely go to meet up with other placement students in the company. I already knew a few other students from my university, however if I hadn't then I would have had very little interaction with the other students unfortunately. But there were still things going on after work and events such as an intern Christmas boat party!

The choice is between living in Leaminghton Spa and Warwick, For a single room (en suite) they are both expensive - Leighton more so, but if you can find people to house-share you can go down to £350 or so per person per month. Leaminghton Spa en suite is £600 (bills included) but is a better location for going out (no clubs in Warwick).

In Warwick the nightlife is limited to very few clubs and mainly pubs (spoons is always a good choice) but if you want to go to a proper nightclub - go to Leaminghton. There are a lot of students from Warwick university that go to Leaminghton. If you value this it might be a good idea to live in Leaminghton not in Warwick

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!