Sales Support Analyst AND Events and Marketing Coordinator Review

Working for IBM was great from perspective of meeting new, smart and intelligent people who are experts in their fields as well as posses a wealth of knowledge in other areas - either IT or non-IT related. When it comes down to actual work and day-to-day duties - I felt that majority of the tasks were very mundane and passed to me for the sake of either giving SOMETHING for me to do or giving me the jobs (like data entry) that people ranked higher than I was just did not want to do or did not have time to do. However, I did get an opportunity to be involved in larger projects and lead challenging projects myself. This has put my skills to the test and allowed greater character building as well as widened my perception about IBM and corporate organizations as a whole.

Colleagues did value my contribution and always were nice and helpful. I did get a good work appraisal and my duties evolved in line with the job-role and overall business environment. The reason for lower mark is the scale of IBM. It's one of the biggest employers in IT sector with branches all over the world with dozens of divisions and sub-divisions, hence, even if you do exceptionally well in your day-to-day duties and other external projects, there's always a feeling that you are just the tiniest bolt in this massive machine and do not make any difference on a grand scale.

If I needed something - I just asked and was given any support needed and beyond. People in IBM are very, very helpful and will go out of their ways to solve your problem or at least point to someone who's skills will help you. Having two managers - Task manager and Personal Development manager was great - one was really helpful with business/day-to-day job and the other helped with personal growth and skill development.

Due to the business hierarchy of any large corporation - being on the bottom ladder of a career steps it's inevitable that the most boring work (data entry, google searches) will be passed on to you. And there was plenty of that during a year. First half of the year I was very bored and constantly asked for additional responsibilities and challenges, second half of the year was much more busier and not much time was left for external/out-of-day-to-day-scope projects.

Like it was put across me in the assessment center prior the placement: "IBM will support you, but if you want, it will also give you a chance to shine or fail". And it has been true, during the first few months it was the matter of catching up with internal processes, systems, jargon and business structure and I was surrounded with people who would provide guidance and be there if I ever needed anything. As my time progressed with IBM, the managers became more demanding and trusting in my ability to execute tasks with relatively low or no guidance - which meant I was developing my skills and they had more time to get on with their business. I had daily tasks that were easily executable without any guidance, plus ad-hoc urgent projects where I was facilitating execution of a project (usually unfamiliar to me) and therefore I was grasping as much help as I could get, and also I run independent projects and events and saw their execution from inception stages to follow up activities.

First and foremost I've learned about myself and decided what I do and do not want to do for my career. Numerous presentation have helped me to be much more confident when speaking in front of the people. I've learned that self motivation is very important and it is very easy to slack off if you do not constantly remind yourself of your goals and what you want to get out of this year (degree). This year gave me mature look on how big corporations operate and motivation to do well in my final year at uni.

Atmosphere was very professional but also lighthearted and fun. A lot of cakes on weekly basis and staff night out on bigger celebrations. I could talk to any person in my office and they would always help me out.

IBM has a whole sub-division (called Foundation) dedicated to run and enhance students' experience with IBM. They run education courses, mandatory skills trainings, give opportunities to get involved in external projects and sort out any HR etc problems that you might have so there's no need to bother your task manager with it. Placement was well organized indeed, one drawback that I can think of is slight confusion and messages about how our year will be assessed and about the reapplying processes to come back to IBM as a graduate.

When you have a spare minute - there are thousands of online courses or dozens of educational workshops that you can enlist and develop your skills. From deeply technical stuff on Linux RedHat to presentation skills and project management. The wealth of experts within IBM means that if you have a problem or want to learn more about something - ask around, your colleagues will point you to an expert and they will help. You can shadow industry specialists and gain experience by observing what they do on day to day basis.

I like IBM;s diverse culture and outgoing people. I would love to come back to IBM. My drawbacks are - 1. Relatively slow growth prospects within such huge organization, 2.I have learned that I am not that much into IT sector to enjoy every day at IBM, even though I worked in a business role, there is much overlap and if you are not that interested in IT, IBM might not be the right choice for you.

Pub quizes, sports games, nights out, movie nights, team building trips (parties) etc. The IT community is great -a lot of placement students eager to meet new people, do new things and organize new things. One of the best bits about IBM placement.

As I was based in Hursley (South West), everything here is pricier but not by a huge degree. Going out for drinks once a month was a must, every week pub quizes, some take away - and I still could afford my rent, bills, car and food. Salary provided by IBM is more than enough to cover student's lifestyle.

Southampton is not very "going out" friendly if you look for something slightly more superior than cheapest student nights, but not as expensive as ferrari drivers can afford.

Plenty. All Industrial Trainees get constant emails about things they can get involved with (called "giveback") as well as offers from other placement students and graduate community to participate in numerous activities - such as football tournaments, movie nights or helping repainting local school