Commercial Marketplace Analyst Review

I would highly recommend the IBM Futures Scheme. A paid 12 month placement at a large corporate firm, it provides an insight in to the operations, management, and workings of one of the largest companies in the world. From the start of my placement, I felt welcomed and settled in well, with the people at the company being one of its key assets.

I would class all the people I have worked with as my collegues, given the vastness of the company. There was fluctuation amongst this. On the one hand, I must respect that I am the most junior position in the team/company and thus cannot be expected to be valued and given large amounts of respect and responsability. On the other hand, I feel some collegues valued me more than others, and some could have made more of a conscious effort in this matter.

Throughout the year I have been guided a great amount and this has significantly helped me develop both personally and professionally. Linking to the responsability topic, you as an IBMer are expected to take responsability and get on with the work, given we are all mature and conscientious workers. Further, It is my responsability to approach people for help and guidance when needed. In contrast, I feel there were times in the year where both management and supervisor could have given time to me for good discussions etc, rather than just a quick call/check in.

IBM, being the vast company it is, is never short of opportunity, workload and things to do. This spans from day/core role work for my central team, to giveback, to work for other stakeholders in my circle of interest, as well as taking opportunitys placed to all Interns. Therefore, I found there were moments where I was sat there thinking what to do. I always made a consctious effort to avoid this.

Again, this can go both ways. On the one hand, you are given a lot of responsability from when you join the company, and you feel valued. As the year continues on, it becomes clear that you need to chase that responsability through opportunity as well people valuing you and giving you responsability. I feel I could have been given more responsability in my placement, thus being challenged more and stretching me to be the best I can, important given the one year time span to achieve this.

On reflection, I started the year with little of idea what IBM was and who they were. I was also in a school mindset having started my placement 2 days after finishing my school A level exams. Therefore it was a large change of atmosphere, scene and environment in a short space of time. This helped me adapt quickly to a professional working environment, both culturally and professionally through communication etc. Looking ahead, this will put me in good stance for University where it is your responsability to do the work and research. Further, it has opened my eyes up to attractive roles in IBM and hopefully a graduate role post university.

As I lived close to Warwick, my IBM base location was Warwick, and I soon realised in to my placement how quiet the office was. The general number of employees of the office size was low, but also the number of interns there were low (5). Despite us having a strong community between us, it is not secure if all will get along at the start of the year, so looking ahead for future interns in IBM warwick, this is something to consider.

The Futures Scheme itself is high quality. The structure of each students development is well laid out, regarding the journal, EPM and 3,6,9 and 12 month reviews. Further, given it is a fairly small scheme, there is a good community aside from the interns. We have our own meet ups and events. This also helps you make friends within the company from the start, to help you avoid being 'lost'.

There is two sides to this answer. IBM has vast online resources and education at your finger tips, allowing you to gain knowledge and understanding at your own lesuire. On the other hand, you are given an Early professional manager to aid with personal development and training. My task manager also aided this too, guiding me through the year and with general advice. The reason why the score is not higher is because more time should be put aside for face to face coaching, discussions and topic talks etc. Instead it is normally a quick drop in call which i found wasnt enough focus.

This placement year I have explored the various business units in IBM, shadowing many people and gaining an insight in to different job roles. This has helped me 'narrow the path' and in the future I would know what I want to access. Further, the grad opportunities are vast and again exploring those this year looking ahead to post university; they are very appealing.

Company wide, there are lots of young people on placement as well as apprenticeships allowing the social opportunities to be great. Given the distance between these networks, effort has to be made to plan events and meet ups. Futher, we had a christmas and summer party amongst the futures and interns; two key highlights social wise during the year.

Being based in Warwick, costs were faily low. This fits a students budget and living style, as aopposed to London for example. I didnt live/rent in the area and so didnt have to see the range of rent in the area, but from collegues these were reasonable given the good location to office, shopping and supermarkets.

We would go out in Leamington Spa for nightlife as Warwick is a small town better suited to pubs and a couple of nice bars. This suits different types of placement students, as not all will want a clubbing atmosphere for example. Leamingto is limited though so sometimes we had to go to coventry or Birmingham, a further travel and harder areas to access.

There was the IBM Warwick club, which posted offers to entertainment events such as the rugby or ballet. This was more a perk than opportunity, hence the lower score. Further, given the small social scene in warwick, there was little outside of work opportunities, as opposed to Southbank for example. The fact that my team were country wide also meant that we didnt have many work meet ups/socials.