UX Designer Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year at IBM. It was full of fantastic opportunities to work with some top clients, including Liverpool FC and NHS, and easy to gain recognition from senior members of staff. The environment within the company is fun and energising, especially within the Design department which I was in, and the culture is very accepting to anyone and everyone. I would definitely recommend IBM to anyone who is considering doing a placement year as a designer.

As mentioned above it is easy to gain recognition from senior members across the account, with organised events specially for interns to demonstrate the work they have achieved to high up members within the organisation. In every case of this, they were full of praise for what the intern community had achieved and certinaly make you feel valued. Even within direct teams, they tell you to avoid referring to yourself as an intern as they do not see you as one. To them, you are just as much a valued worker as any other.

The support provided throughout the year was exceptional. At all stages of the years I had 3 members of senior staff accounting for me. Each intern is assigned an EPM (Early Professional Manager) who oversees their year and answers any questions/resolves any issues that comes up over the year. Each intern has a task manager who is directly responsible for their work and answering questions relevant to the project they are on, and then finally there are grads who take charge of the wellbeing of each departments interns.

It fluctuating across the yea. In the build up to deadlines and such days became longer and required hard work throughout the day, however these were normally phases and died down after the deadline came and went. Throughout the year I was busy, but never too busy, and the days are completely what you make of them. If you take it easy for a week you will have a more stressfull following week. Very rarely you are required to stay later, normally for special occasions such as client workshops, for which the day may not end til 8/9.

I was given more responsibility than I thought would be issues to an intern. By the 3 month mark I had pitched to clients and agreed to implement a tool I had created off my own back with little external help, and I was surprised at the little difference in value both IBM and their clients have between interns and those who hold jobs at the company.With the responsibility comes the pressure to do well, but it is always manageable.

The skills I learnt on my design placement were just a mirroring of the skills I was beginning to learn throughout my first 2 years at uni. I ended up growing my portfolio of technical tools, including software packages such as Sketch and Adobe, but also significantly improve soft skill sets. Noteworthy soft skills that were improved were presentation skills, through leading workshops and pitching to clients, and time management, through having to meet tight deadlines. All of these skills will be directly transferrable to my next year at uni.

The atmosphere and environment is amazing. There is a constant work buzz throughout which makes the place feel busy and lively but it is never too intense that I was unable to work. I was part of a dedicated team on my account that helped create the optimum working environment in and out of work, through the organisation of fun event, socials and day-to-day activities. It was certainly a friendly place to work and there is a mutual respect for one another throughout the office, regardless of what stage you are at in your career.

The scheme had been running for a number of years at IBM and it certainly showed. It was a very smooth on-boarding process and I felt immediately at home within the four walls of IBM. There were frequent events, sadly less so with the arrival of Covid-19, throughout the year to keep things fun and fresh, along with regular check in calls to see how interns were getting on. Slack channels were always full on information for those slightly lost.

IBM has an internal system called 'Your Learning' which helps you to track the number of training hours you achieve over the year. They also bide by the "Think 40' approach, which is a requirement for all IBMers to do 40 hours of personal training each year. Events to contribute to these schemes were often paid for by IBM themselves in order for their employees to reach the goals. I also had the chance to visit my university to deliver workshops and talks, which was all expenses paid for by IBM.

This was one of the key flaws with working in London. Everything was crazy expensive. I personally lived outside of London due to the ridiculously high rent prices anywhere near the IBM building, but even then the train ticket each day was close to £20. Travel for the year cost me approximately £3000. Prices of everything to do were also hiked because of London, including £10/15 to get into clubs and rarely pints for less than a fiver.

It was fantastic. My office was on Southbank, right in the heart of London, and so there was always something to do, and everywhere was easy to get to by a quick train. We had a pub 20 yards away from the entrance of the building which was a popular spot for IBMers as they provided an IBM discount. Away from pubs, there were many clubs and bars nearby offering student discounts and happy hours to ensure you always have a good night.