UK Early Professional Attraction Marketing Coordinator Review

I really enjoyed the whole of my 12 month placement - my role was varied and allowed me to explore my interests. My role was not a '9-5 desk job' as I spent time at events and working with students. I also shared an office with other interns, which meant I was surrounded by my peers, but also managers.

I was very close to my immediate team and my office and felt valued by them all. Throughout my placement I worked with a large variety of people, from teams around the globe. Because some of my colleagues are based overseas, I was not as close to them as my team based in the UK. Regardless, I was still very valued by them!

At IBM you are assigned an everyday task manager, alongside an Early Professional Manager, who is a dedicated manager to support your development and training. I was able to ask either manager for support or guidance at any time, whether it was work related or not. We also performed reviews every 3 months, where we could discuss our concerns, goals and progress.

During the first 6 months of my placement, I was very busy every day due to hiring demands in the early professionals market. During summer through to winter, IBM UK were hiring for apprentices, summer interns, placement students, gap year students and graduates. I also worked with around 20 third-party suppliers within my role to promote our roles online and I also redesigned all websites and brochures in this time period. My work load became more manageable from January onwards, which allowed me to complete university work, my 12 month review, extra training and my graduate application.

During my placement I was given a huge amount of responsibility from the start. Within my first 2 months I was redesigning all of IBM's recruitment brochures to printed and distributed to events and I was also working with a team in Slovakia to redesign our recruitment websites too. My manager gave me the opportunity to work with external suppliers and clients individually, but I was equally given the chance to work with my team on a daily basis. I also managed IBM UK's social media accounts and scheduled any content at a time of my choice and had freedom to experiment.

I am hoping that the structure of a full time role will help me improve my time management during my final year at university. I have learnt new ways to priortise work and block out time to complete certain tasks. I have completed alot of training during my placement, which I think some will assist my degree studies. I think that some training will assist me more when I am in a graduate role.

I sat with others interns during my whole placements, with a group of managers sat next door. We all had a great relationship which made my placement year so much fun! We still managed to get our work done and support eachother, but equally enjoyed having fun!

My whole placement experience has been pretty smooth. I started off with a 2 day induction where I recieved my work laptop and work phone and met my team. I took over from a previous placement student, so it was just a case of them handing over the role to me. We were reviewed every 3 months and it was clear what training we needed to complete.

We were able to complete IBM official badges throughout placement, but they were all online based. We also had the opportunity to take part in 'giveback' but due to my role, I often did not have time to do this. However, I know that if I wanted to invest time in personal development, my managers would support this.

I really enjoyed my year at IBM and would very much like to return in the future. However, there are limited graduate role to choose from and I would not be able to work in a similar role as a graduate. However, IBM have put a good process in place to apply back, which I have done!

Yes - the IBM placement student community is very socialable. There are many communities within the workplace that you can join e.g. coding clubs, sports societies, as well as outside of work opportunities. The interns are invited to a Christmas and summer parties, that are all organised by fellow interns. There are alot of opportunities to meet others, also at other locations.

My placement was based in Winchester, but I decided to move to Southampton and will continue to do so after my placement year. My bills each month only cost around £400 including food, as I split my rent between 2 people. Socialising also comes at a reasonable cost, depending on where you go! Winchester and Southampton are similar in terms of pricing.

Winchester itself has a selections of pubs/bars and clubs, but I mostly went out in Southampton as do other interns as well! In Southampton there is a better selection of clubs to go to, and it isn't far! You can travel via car, bus, train or taxi at a reasonable cost.

The 2018 intake of IBM Hursley interns had a group chat running throughout the year where we would organise monthly meals and also nights out. Some clubs within work also arranged their own meeting outside of working hours.