Resource Planner Specialist (HR) Review

This year was a great opportunity to expand my skills (technical, professional and inter-pesonal). It cannot even be compared to Uni. This is where the actual learning happens and you understand how you actually need to prepare to achieve and what you want. It is definitely not the best job ever, as everyone needs to start from somewhere and some of the tasks are very boring and meaningless in the big picture, but I was always motivated by the fact that this is only what placements students do, whilst the Graduates had a totally different story to tell.

I worked with a world wide team, communicating and collaborating with people mostly from Europe, but other countries in the world as well. As you can probably expect, the communication was mostly through emails, internal chat and phone, whereas it is fairly difficult to establish a healthy working relationship with someone. On the other hand, the placement students and graduates in the office really made it like a close community. Tea at three became a daily habit, pub lunch and drinks in the weekend, birthday celebrations in the IBM canteen, developing ideas and projects together, for a better placement and graduate scheme; not only colleagues but friends.

My manager was very approachable and supportive. She always helped when I needed her. However, there was a bit of a confusion who my actual manager was as most of the time I received tasks from her managers.

Sometimes it can get really quiet. This is where it is up to you to get involved in other type of activities outside work. IBM is really good at this which is known internally as 'Giveback'. There are opportunities such as organising events, delivering presentations, charity, promoting IBM at schools and universities.

Overall, a very high level of responsibility. I would have never expected to be given access to so much information, responsibility to deal with certain tasks that involved a high level of business, able to make decisions and my opinion to be heard. It seemed a really big deal at the start of the year, but now talking to an executive is just another regular thing to happen.

At this point, University seems just the science and theoretical side of things that is useful to have, but not a must. Looking back, I would probably choose an Apprenticeship in companies such as IBM rather than spending so much money on education to use it to thick a box during an interview. The actual skills that I enhanced through working are incomparably better and more useful than the ones gained through reading, attending classes and preparing team assignments. I would not only recommend a placement, but I think it should be compulsory for someone to be able to finish university!

People tend to be very serious, mind their own work and laptop. I had the opportunity to work from home whenever I wanted, but chose to come in the office usually 4 days/week as the atmosphere was really welcoming with the right people around.

Foundation is an internal organisation that assigns a PDM(Personal Development Manager) on top of your task manager who will give you the necessary support throughout the year to develop and grow.

Few events organised for Placement students

There is an internal application process for all the placement students who want to come back as graduates. Obviously, they choose only the best employees with the highest performance before advertising the jobs externally.

As I explained before, absolutely!

My base location was Manchester, definitely few times cheaper than living in London.

Manchester - endless opportunities

Most of the opportunities were in the South so we tried to make our own, but this is definitely ongoing and will improve over the next few years!