OS Platform & Virtualisation Review

The placement year was challenging and rewarding. The support and team at IBM are very friendly and welcoming, they help you to know what you need to and to get to where you need to be.

The colleagues at IBM are very kind and helpful, they are aware that you are a placement year student and took their time explaining things whilst still making sure you feel like a valued member of the team.

The team were very supportive with a manager that looks after your work and another manager that looks after your wellbeing to ensure that you are as well looked after as possible.

There is a constant amount of work to do each day which keeps you busy. This helps you to feel like a real member of the team as you are being used for lots of work.

IBM is really good at giving you responsibility and allowing you to seek opportunities and push yourself. They encourage you to take on extra roles and to lead projects giving you lots of responsibility.

Whilst my placement year was not directly linked to my degree, it has really allowed me to push myself in the workplace and has given me some invaluable experience that I couldn't have got at uni.

The general atmosphere was very welcoming and supportive of helping you get the most from the placement year. There was a professional working environment which helped to give a real working experience for a placement year.

The placement year is very well set up with lots of activities put on for the placement year students and lots of support from the team that looks after the placement year students.

Whilst working with IBM you are allowed access to all of their online learning resources which allows you to push yourself and develop skills in the areas that you are most interested in.

There is a lot of opportunities within IBM, whilst you aren't necessarily more likely to get a role in IBM after doing a placement year, it is really helpful to be able to look at the job opportunities and to meet some of the people in charge of hiring post-university.

There was a very large social scene within the placement year employees with lots of people living near each other there were many events organised within the students and not through IBM.

Winchester was more expensive than Southampton making the general living rate much higher as housing is more expensive. Despite this, it is definitely possible to rent and go out and socialise with the money that you earn through the placement year.

With both Winchester and Southampton being near the IBM site that I was working at, there are lots of different options set up for students to go out and have a good night. As there are two universities in these cities there are a lot of events put on that you can attend.

There are sports clubs that take place using the company facilities after hours which is a great way to try new hobbies and hang out with colleagues in a relaxed way that you wouldn't have the opportunity to do otherwise.