IBM iX Studio Co-ordinator Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement at IBM iX in Southbank, London. It was a fantastic experience as I was able to develop many of my skills, and given the opportunity to work with many clients, meeting new great people along the way. The work culture in iX is fantastic and would recommend.

I felt very valued by all of my collegues. My managers gave me the freedom to work on tasks on my own, while still being there if I needed support. Many people came to me for help as that was part of my role, and my input was always valued.

The level of support and guidance was very good. Eventhough the majority of tasks I would complete on my own, my managers would always be there if I had any problems. Additionally, in the first 3 months, the support was fantastic and enabled me to settle into my role seemlessly.

I was relatively busy on a day to day basis. I had days where I would be completely booked, and others where I would have a bit more free time. However, this gave me the opportunity to try new things outside of my job role which I valued very highly.

I was given a lot of responsibility over my placement year. I was allowed to complete tasks on my own, and able to speak to new people to pick up additional tasks. I had monthly meetings with my managers to make sure I was doing everything correctly, but they were always on hand if I needed anything.

The skills I have built upon and new skills I have learnt will be essential in my future degree studies. My presentation skills have improved massively due to the amount of presentations I have given to people on placement, as well as general organisation and time management which will help in my studies.

The culture in the IBM iX Studio is fantastic! It has a very relaxed atmosphere where you can wear t-shirt, jeans and trainers to work, which has helped me become the best I can be. The atmosphere makes it easy to approach anyone, which I have found to be very important!

At the start, the handover was a bit rushed and the actual IBM induction had nothing to do with iX - the department I was going into, but after that, it has been very organised. This has been fed back to the relevant people and is due to change this year to make it better.

Personal training and development has been key during placement year. You can have time dedicated to yourself every week to be able to train and develop skills. IBM also provide 'YourLearning' where you can take calsses and workshops to receive badges, which show off the new training and skills you have earned.

This is very appealing within IBM as they offer a Consulting by Degrees (CbD) programme, which is their graduate scheme. This gives you support for the first two years, where you will have a CbD manager aswell as your day to day manager, where they can help out with promotions and joining new roles.

The social side of IBM is fantastic, in Southbank there are roughly around 100 interns and many social events which means there are plenty of opportunities to network and make friends. In iX, we also had our own social events every month which helped us get to know eachother and make new friends.

I was lucky enough to work in Southbank, London. This is central London so the night life was amazing. There is always something to do on every night of the week. Also, on the first Wednesday of every month, IBM GBS open up a free bar after work, which was a great addition.