Project Coordinator Review

The people I work with are very friendly and helpful and I have developed a lot of my skills during my placement so far.

My colleagues never treated me as a placement student, they have all been very helpful and been very willing to help me out with my own development. My work and effort has always been noticed and my colleagues always made an effort to include me in everything from the start of my placement.

My task manager has always played the role of a mentor which has been of great help during my placement.

My work schedule varied a lot although overall I would say it wasn't as busy allowing time to concentrate on my own development. There has always been a good balance between my daily role and my own personal development, this is due to my task manager being mindful of this.

I have always been given a lot of responsibility with projects although I believe more could have been handed over to me. However I think there are some limitations to how much responsibility can be given due to the nature of me being a Placement Student.

Many of the soft skills I have developed during my Placement will always help me in life, whether it's in a workplace environment or personal life; this will definitely be of great benefit during my final year at university as I feel I'm a much more organised person and have improved my time management loads. As for training in my role, I don't believe much can be transferred although there are little bits that can be adapted to help me in life and in my degree,

Very friendly. The office is quite "young" which makes the atmosphere very enjoyable to work in. I always felt comfortable and quite laid back.

In the office I was based in I was the first set of University Placement Students that they were hiring, therefore the structure in place was not too well organised. Although I think they did adapt quickly to my needs and always kept these in mind, with my task manager having bi-weekly catch up meetings to ensure that I was getting the most out of my placement. I have been involved with the structure for the next placement students which I think it's great as I can bring my own placement experience and help make the structure better.

There were events organised by the internship team (Foundation community) that focused around the placement student's development. However I think they could improve in this area by collecting feedback/information from the placement students in a forum to find out what their needs are and then incorporating these into quarterly events. In the office I was based in I feel my personal development was left more in my hands and they expected me to be more proactive at seeking out opportunities, although they were always willing to help if I asked.

The graduate scheme offers a wide variety of roles and it seems to be very well structured. I am definitely looking to apply for a graduate role with IBM.

Because of where I was based there wasn't a lot of opportunity or incentive to interact with other placement students, although they are very social and even create their own community on social media to advertise events amongst each other. As for my work colleagues, they were very sociable and made an effort to include the placement students at all times.

London is an expensive city so living and socialising costs are quite high in comparison to other places. IBM does offer an allowance for being based in London, although it doesn't fully counter the expense.

London is very lively and I worked in the city, the nightlife is very good here however it's quite expensive.

IBM has a sceme called "Giveback" where they offer opportunities to take part in activities outside of work to giveback to the community through events such as Career Fairs in schools, presentations to students to give them an insight of the world of work etc.