Marketing Placement Student Review

I wholeheartedly enjoyed my Placement Year at IBM, I was truly respected and appreciated as a team member and my ideas and contributions were always considered. I would highly recommend anyone to apply to IBM it was the best decision I have made in my academic and future career so far.

My contributions and ideas were always welcomed and taken on board. It was really good practice to see how problem solving would be utilised in a real-life industry scenario so I am very grateful for the experience. My manager would often delegate responsibility to me which affected business performance so I felt like I was making a quantifiable difference.

We are all assigned a Task Manager who we report directly to within our individual teams as well as an Early Professionals Manager who is responsible for our wellbeing at work. I had a great relationship with both managers and felt like I could go to them with any problems inside and outside of the business.

My workload fluctuated depending on the financial year. I found myself busier at the end of the months and end of quarters but in the slow periods I would find something else to keep myself occupied, whether this be streamlining our systems or involving myself within another team to see if I could assist in a different part of the business.

I was given a lot of responsibility, more than I was expecting as an 'intern' but at IBM the intern label is dropped as soon as you walk in and you are treated as if you are a permanent team member. My tasks were direct contributions to my team and overall performance of the business sector.

The skills I have developed are directly transferable into my degree and vice-versa. Although my degree does not directly relate to my Placement role, the skills I have learned will be extremely useful in any aspect of my life not limited to University alone. I feel that IBM has made me more more employable and I have life skills that I will take with me forever.

The general atmosphere in my office was varied as it is such a huge London office but mostly a business formal attitude. We provide a number of large value deals so the employees are always focused on the higher floors. On the lower levels, you would find a more relaxed atmosphere as these housed Marketing and Design departments. Everybody is free to sit anywhere so you can always change up the vibe depending on your personality.

The Placement was very well organised and you could immediately tell IBM are well established in providing this service. There is a dedicated 'Foundation' department for dealing purely with placement students and we had reviews/check-ins on the 3rd 6th and 12th month to check our progress. There were a number of careers fairs organised for us so we could progress further in IBM if we wanted to, it was not just limited to a placement mindset.

IBM facilitates personal learning and growth for any employee. There is a goal of 60 hours of learning per year and we were encouraged to earn 'badges' which are widely recognisable and can be uploaded to LinkedIn. I was also given the opportunity to work within a number of different departments I was interested in and travel off-site to attend workshops and client meetings.

IBM has a graduate application scheme which I was always keen to apply to. You can choose to apply to a variety of departments which is why IBM actively encourages networking and the ability to move around the business trialing new things. I hope to be accepted back as a Graduate as I have enjoyed my time there so much.

Being in the heart of London makes the IBM office a great central location to take advantage of the social scene. As IBM hire so many placement students, it was always easy to make friends with people outside of your team. We had 8 waves of induction days which meant a flow of new faces to get to know.

The cost of living was very high as the office is based on the Southbank in London. This lucrative area meant the prices of living and socilaising were very high however IBM tried to compensate against this by offering those who worked in the London office an extra One Thousand Pounds which those outside of London did not recieve.

The nightlife was brilliant, London has the largest variety of clubs, bars and areas to socialise in with your friends. I did not move out this year, instead choosing to save money and commute from home but I would reccommend anyone doing a Placement to move out, despite the cost of living, just to better take advantage of the social scene.

There were not many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work other than activities facilitated by us interns ourselves such as a Social Netball team. Being in Central London it was always easy to find activities outside of work though whether that be going to the cinema or playing crazy golf etc.