Financial and Sales Analyst Review

A great overall experience at IBM. I was a part of a very good team and received amazing support from the leadership team. I was able to develop and improve a lot of skills, had a chance to visit different company's sites, completed various kinds of work and met a considerable number of incredible people.

A lot of my responsibilities were handed over to me by my Task Manager himself, which meant that I was aware how valuable my work was. At the same time, even though some of my tasks were rather administrative, I never felt like less valued for that reason. I was treated as a regular IBMer throughout my whole placement.

My managers and leaders I was assisting were always very supportive and helpful. Some of my tasks were slightly more challenging than other ones, especially at the start of the placement when I was learning my role, but I could always ask my manager or colleagues as many times as I needed, when uncertain.

Generally, I had more time to spare during the first months of my placement. This was because I was mostly learning my new role, did some ad-hoc tasks alongside and filled the rest of the time with completing courses which helped me boost my skill-set. During the second part of the placement, when I was confident enough in my role to pick up additional responsibilities and seek new opportunities to learn different things, I started being fairly busy every day.

Prior to joining IBM, I was expecting way less responsibility than I actually got. I felt very valued throughout the whole experience and as I did a lot of work on my Task Manager's behalf and completed tasks which used to be a part of my manager's role, I believe that shows how much responsibility I was given in my role.

I could not compare my IBM experience to anything else. Not only I had a chance to learn my new role and develop and improve my skills within the role, I also had endless opportunities to do different types of trainings and courses outside my main role, which is something I can always benefit from in the future.

My base location was not a usual large IBM office but it had a very nice and friendly atmosphere within a professional environment. Although a lot of IBMers like working Fridays from home, my team came in the office on Fridays as well which was very pleasant. Compared to other sties I visited, my base location was very unique thanks to the fact it was a smaller office.

The team which looks after all interns did a great job supporting us throughout the whole placement experience. We had a very well organised induction and everything was well communicated. On the other hand, some of the information we received was more specific for the main IBM locations where most of the interns are based, which could sometimes be a bit inconvenient for the few of us based elsewhere.

I never had an issue completing a course, doing a training, seeking an opportunity to learn/shadow or attending an educational event. In this sense, my Task Manager was always very supportive. What was slightly limiting was the fact that a lot of opportunities for interns in general was limited to those based in South Bank. This is understandable as most interns are based in the south anyway, but could be limiting for those from different locations.

IBM has a great graduate scheme and a lot of roles to offer. During my placement, I spoke to various graduates and IBMers who joined the company through the graduate scheme and I understood that the company offers great opportunities to work in different roles and continuously learn and develop ourselves.

It was only a few interns in my office but we became very good friends, spent the lunch time and tea breaks together and hung out outside of work too.

I was based in the north so the living prices were very reasonable.

Not much of a nightlife in the area I lived in. It was often very challenging to organise a social event with my colleagues because of the limited number of places we could go to so we preferred visiting nearby cities which were luckily not too far.

There were many opportunities I could get involved in outside of work. However, I was rather busy in my role so did not attended that many of them and a lot of them were limited to interns based in the south.