Channel Managment operations Review

My work Placement provided a lot of experiences and taught me a lot about the corporate world, a different and busier lifestyle, but most importantly about myself. It helped to show me what I wanted and don't want to go into after university. It also helped me to overcome fears of IT and AI that I might never have concurred.

This is a difficult one to answer, as I believe you build this trust and respect from your colleagues over a period of time. A the start I would argue not very much, this was due to lack of knowledge of the job and my incompetence in IT Skills. However, now I think I'm very much valued and play a vital role in the running of the business.

I was given a lot of support and guidance from my management team. I was lucky enough to have a restructure of management in my placement year, which allowed me to work with a different manager and get a less micro-focused manager in the second half of my placement, which allowed me to grow.

I was in a sales team, which goes through peaks and troff's of month and quarter ends. In the periods of the start of the quarter and month, my workload would stay at a steady but lower level, and this is the time to capitalize on education and giveback opportunities. However, near the end of the quarter, my workload would massively increase and I would little time for University or other work.

This again slowly increased over my placement as I become more confident in my role and within the organization. It also increased due to gaining not only my manager's approval but her/his peer groups approval which led them to have to give me responsibility, due to them wanting approval from this group.

The skills I developed will be more of an asset in the future rather than my degree. As the skills to be able to not only operate in a very larger organization but to be successful are vital for graduate employment. The skills I will take back for my studies is time management, as I can now get a larger amount of work done in a shorter period.

The general atmosphere in the office was quiet and not lively, due to the transition of remote working and home working. This was nice because we got to work from home 40% of the time, and this decreases stress even if you have the same work todo. I also would of like a busy office on times however, as I thrive off business.

It was extremely organized, to the point where they have a whole team dedicated to looking after graduate and interns. The induction process was very good, and the support throughout the year if needed is there. However, I would add that if you didn't need the support this can act as a burden and another person you have to impress.

I think this is an area for interns in particular that is lacking some push, and this is due to interns having no future commitment to the company and therefore not getting put on management, leadership, sales courses. The online learning was a good start, but not enough, you could argue it's what you put into it, which I would agree with to a certain extent.

This is massively down to how you performed whilst in your placement year, but also who you were placed under and how much good feedback did you get from the wider network. I think the progression rate is good from interns to graduate, but it would be nice to see the statistics of graduate to early professional and beyond.

There was a good social scene yes. This is very much like freshers at first, where everyone is getting to know each other and everyone is nice to one another, this does die down to a certain extent. However, there are plenty of opportunities for socializing with work colleagues and managers, many would call this networking

It was very expensive due to being in London, but its not about the expenses but the experience of living in London. For socializing it can be very expensive, yes, but it doesn't have to be, you can look for offers and make it quite affordable. To conclude, yes it is expensive.

It was good in the summer due to it being warm and having many outdoor bars. However, in the winter it died down a little due to being too cold. I would say this wasn't helped as many people would commute into work from university cities and therefore want to get back home early.

There was plenty of opportunities for outside of work activities, this was called giveback. I set up a project at the start of my year called Intern Vlog, to help candidates in the application process, in their journey into IBM, and to give them a feel for what IBM was like on a daily basis.