Business Administration Review

I really enjoyed my placement year here at IBM. Not only was I able to gain experience in multiple different areas such as project management, communication, auditing, and website design. I also was able to gain training in Design Thinking & Agile and get an actual certification for these skills. IBM also had an amazing work culture, unlike a lot of other companies I applied to.

All my managers never reviewed me as an intern and just gave me little jobs, that didn't have much worth. Right from the start they said to us that yuou are a full time employee here, and that is how we will view you. They put their complete trust in you to complete, and project manage many large projects. For example I got to project lead an event with pver 120+ people, as well as design a whole website for IBMs Apprenticeship scheme. My managers really valued the work I did, and would always give me construtive feedback.

At IBM you not only get you task/work manager, but also a manager that was there to support you throughout your year, that you could go to if you had any issues with your placement. Towards the end of the year, they also gave you great guidance and help with Apprentice/Graduate applications, to ensure that you had your next stages of your career set up.

Within my role we would have peak periods when I had lots going on, and would be very busy. However, even in periods where I wouldn't have much work on, I was always given opportunities to go and gain experience elsewhere in the company, or get involved in other projects away from my daily job role.

At IBM the do not view you as an intern, but as a full time employee. This meant you were given lots of responsibility. Within my role I was approving large invoices for clients by myself, as well as leading many large projects such as a whole new communications project, and designing and building a new website.

At IBM they give you endless opportunties to further your training and skills, and if there is something specific you would like to learn more about, they will support you and find ways of you learning more about it. During my year my managers assisted me in learning more about UX Design, as this was something I became very inetrested in. Thanks to them helping me gain experience in this sector, I was offered a new job role at IBM within the design sector.

My team consisted of 4 interns, and we all worked together closley in the office. We always helped each other out if we could see one of us was swamped with work. As a team we got on together amazingly, and would always have a laugh together in office, and have become friends for life.

It was a well organised work placement. On the first few days of starting, we underwent a 2 day induction, where we learnt the basics to IBM, as well as meeting our teams. Throughout the year there were reviews, where our progress would be tracked by our managers, and then towards the end they would host talks about our next steps in our careers.

If I wanted to do a certain training course, my managers would support me with this completely. To do courses that would cost, all we had to do was apply for finacial approval to attend the course by our managers, who would then approve our time off to do the course. However, IBM offer 1000s of free online course you can attend/

Future employment prospects within IBM are very appealing, as I love the overall culture of the company, as well as the work ethic and opporunities here. I have already re applied to join back as an Apprentice here at IBM, and hopefully look foward to coming back to the company in the near future!

IBM hosted many social events themselves, which would be a great opportuntiy to relax, as well as network with new students/colleagues you hadn't met before. As well as IBM organised events, students themselves would organise social events. For example there was a winterwonderland trip, a Christmas boat party on the Thames, as well as many other sporting clubs, social lunches etc.

I travelled into work everyday rather than lived in Winchester. However, within Winchester itself are many affordable pubs, as well as chain restuarants. However, if I worked away in London the cost of socialising would be high, however my food in London could be expenses as it was away from my base location! As well as this IBM has a rewards card which gets you money off many shops, restaurants etc.

There wasn't much nightlife around Winchester itself, as it is quite a small old town. However, it had some nice pubs and a small club available, that we would get a big group of us all to go to and it would be great fun. There was also house events at students houses who were living in Winchester as well.

In th Winchester location, we had on site sport clubs such as tennis, football, badminton etc. As well as this we also had a gym which would host classes you could get involved with. We also had a games room, where people at lunch would host board game competitons, as well as table tennis and pool tournaments .