Foundation Business Administrator Review

Overall I have really enjoyed my placement at IBM, I have a lot of really interesting people, some of which I know I'll stay in contact with when I leave. I really liked the IBM Culture where everyone is valued whether you're intern or a manager - I always felt like my opinions and questions were always welcome.

In my team we all sat in the same area so we really got to know eachother in our year at IBM. We all suported eachother and were quick to congratualte eachother whenever we did completed a big project. Whenever one of us had a lot of work to do, we would all pitch in and help eachother as we were a team

My task managers have been supportive and positive from day one, they have always encouraged me to branch outside of my day role to make the most of my placement. I had regular calls with my managers so that way they were aware of the projects and work I was completing which made me feel supported and valued. I had regular review meetings at checkpoints where I presented what I was doing and things I would like to do in the future, my manager then helped me reach out to people to achieve these things.

I was busy for most of the time, I was lucly to enough to have lots of different projects happening where I was able to see lots of the business. However sometimes I found it difficult to complete the work being set although my time management skills improved whilst at IBM.

I was given the right amount of responsibility - I felt that the work I was doing had a lot of value. At the start I felt that it was almost too much pressure, however my managers would still check my work for mistakes which helped ease that slight anxiety at the start.

The performance reviews throughout my year at IBM have improved my communication and presentation skills which will be very useful for university. In addition my time at IBM has improved my organising and time-management, again key skills for university. In addition, I have been exposed to large amount of technology which is really interesting - however not key for my degree but still useful!

The atmosphere in the office was very positive - I sat with my team every day so we got to know eachother well. There was quite a large intern community who we saw at lunch time - so there was opportunties to get to know different people. There was events happening in the office such as school visits, external speakers and social events.

My placement was very well organised - the process from recruitment to induction was seamless. At induction there was clear communication about our review checkpoints and that communication was mirrored throughout my year. At induction we received education about IBM's history, values and included information about how we were going to be assessed.

I felt that the company did invest in my personal training, as there was a set learning platform which selected learning activities for interns. In addition my task manager would reccomend learning for my role. I was given lots of opportunties to present to other people - so I feel that they trusted me to deliver

There is a really good graduate scheme within IBM centred around consulting, however it is very competitive with a lot of interns competing for the roles. From my knowledge IBM doesn't offer any graduate marketing roles which would have been an area I would apply for - however there are plenty of other roles

There was a good social scene in my office, there was plenty of opportunties to make friends if you wanted too. There was lots of events which made it very easy to get to know people in the company, also networking was encouraged from the begining.

The nightlife was okay, it wasn't excellent as Hursley is a small area as opposed to London Night Life. However it was still fun but the clubs are quite small!

There was some opportunties to get involved with such as sports events.