Events and Experiences Specialist Review

Working within the Innovation Studio team, supporting all team members, assuming full responsibility for some activities overtime. Monitoring Innovation Studio TASK ID, responding to IBM & Client queries. Innovation Studio Desk - helping with phone, email and face to face enquiries, helping on the day of the event with the technology, ensuring catering arrives on time, event registrations Meeting, Workshop & Event Support - scheduling, booking speakers, support on the day Innovation Studio Demonstrations - identifying demonstrations to include in our Innovation Studio, liaising with the relevant IBM people and the design agency, becoming a skilled user of the demonstration Consistency and currency of information on the Innovation Studio Media including Events, Case Studies, Innovation Studio, IBM Campaigns etc Communications - within IBM and externally using multi channels i.e Social, Web Site and using tools to create eye catching and innovative social tiles

I have learnt a lot of about the different products within IBM - due to my role, I've been able to be exposed to a huge range - from asset management solutions to the IBM Quantum computer. It was also developed many of my soft skills - I am now much more confident with presenting as well as talking to clients. It's also developed a lot of my hard skills such as Powerpoint and Excel which will be very useful once I get to uni.

There is definitely a huge jump in responsibility from school to the placement - I felt like a lot of responsibility was given to me during it. I was responsible for presenting to clients one on one about our technology as well as answering the questions they had about it. I was also in charge of leading multiple events and being the main logisitics contact point for them which was also a huge responsibility as well.

Since I was in every day as were my team, I felt incredibly supported by everyone. Once I had gotten over the fear of asking questions, I found that my development progressed very quickly from that point onwards. Everyone, my team and the employees in the wider company included, is very willing to help you out and answer your questions if need be. The structure here is very non-hierarchical which in turn does mean that everyone is very approachable.

As I said earlier, the company culture here is not as hierarchical compared to other companies I've experienced and I think that has lead to the very friendly, incredibly approachable company culture here. Everyone is always so willing to answer your questions and help you out and with everyone being so friendly, this has helped me reach out to other employees to hear about their job roles and it's allowed me to hear lots of advice from people.

I definitely did enjoy my placement this year - the job role that I was given provided me with a very well rounded view of the company - allowing me to dabble into almost every department that the company has to offer. The variety of communities that the company has to offer also added to my positive experience of the placement as I found people who had similar backgrounds to me and connected with them as well as people who had similar interests to me. The general friendly atmosphere also enabled me to enjoy this experience very much.

Yes

You may not be allocated the role that you ultimately want; however definitely still keep an open mind because you may end up enjoying the role that you're given. Don't be afraid to reach out and network with other people within the company and say yes to every opportunity that comes your way (especially the unusual ones) as those are generally the ones that you will be able to learn the most from!