Techline Europe, Business Operations & Communications Review

I enjoyed my placement year very much. It had its ups and downs but fortunately for me, more positives. I met many new people, built my connections and had a good laugh whilst doing this.

As a whole, I felt quite valued, especially when I had work to dot hat needed to be sent out to the team but other times, when it was quiet, I dint seem l[like I was giving much back to my team, hence I felt less valued.

Sometimes I would have a lot of support and guidance by my management and supervisors but as it came near the end of my placement, so the last 3 months, I had less guidance as I was more used to knowing what to do and how to complete tasks.

Sometimes during my placement I was very busy but other times, I was less. I joined in with something called BlueFusion and when I was doing this I was very busy. At the end of each quarter, I would also be very busy collecting information for different reports to send out to the team. Sometimes I would have to find my own work and at the beginning of my placement I was doing this quite often.

At times, I was given a lot of responsibility with my job. I had to send out quarterly reports to the whole of the European team and I had to make sure that this was done to the correct standard and that it was sent out on time.

As I have been planning to go to university to study computer science, a subject based on programming, I have learnt a lot of skills in programming to get me started. These have included HTML and Java.

My office consists of myself, another placement student and a graduate. At the beginning of my placement, when we first moved into the office it was good fun but near the end it got slightly more boring as more work was piled onto myself and others in the office. When it is just myself and the other placement student, we tend to invite other students to the office for breaks and this splits up the social side of work with work.

After joining IBM, it was very good. Setting up laptops was a pain but the problems were trying to join IBM in the first place. I did not receive emails letting me know where my placement was based and If I passed or not and this made it very frustrating for me.

I received no extra training as my job did not requite it. But I do know that if someone is in a job that requires training, it is out their to be used.

I would love to put 10 stars but this is not possible as I am not sure where my application is with IBM. I am still waiting to hear but if I get offered the job, I will be sure to take it (depending on the job of course)

At times we would invite other placement students to our house for dinner but other than this, it was very quiet and much didn't go on.

It was very expensive living in the area that I live in. Travel to work is a fortune but as the area is small, it means it is close to the station allowing for ease of travel.

I did not think there was a good night life at all. There was about 3 different "clubs" and that was it. Winchester is a very boring place to live for a teenager.

There were a few to get involved in. I used to play football on a Tuesday but that stopped and I still play football on a Friday after lunch which is good fun and allows for me to meet new people.