Spring Business Consultant Review

The main reason I enjoyed this placement was because of the atmosphere, the opportunities for socialising, the company of other interns and the nature of the work. Also the location was ideal, accommodation, food and transport was paid for, and we had a mix of relaxed evenings and crazy night-outs.

We were shown and were given opportunities to engage in lots of emerging technologies and novel projects which aimed to reduce inefficiencies at macro and micro-economic levels. The fact that our contribution to such potentially game-changing developments were considered from such an early stage, made us feel highly valued.

I was given one-to-one guidance by our team-leader and my team supported me in every way they could. They encouraged me to develop novel ideas and contribute something from a fresh perspective during my placement.

More time would have allowed me to develop more useful skills to increase my employment prospects for future recruitment and assessment opportunities. However, I gained an insight into how technology consultants operate, their daily lives, and the nature of work this sector normally addresses.

We were shown how to build and present proposals and provided business cases with set targets. Despite the numerous accommodation / transport / food bookings, networking events and skills workshops, everything was executed perfectly and on-time.

There were networking events, fancy meals, both informal and corporate night-outs and a lot of other things to look forward to at the end of the day. Our work was interesting and there were a lot of exciting opportunities to get involved with. As a result, the atmosphere was calm and relaxed and we enjoyed our time at IBM.

We were shown around research-labs developing emerging technologies and were given overviews and insights into a lot of systems and machines being build by R&D teams. There were also team-building and networking events most evenings, followed by free drinks and food.

Since we were working on hypothetical business scenarios rather than for real customers, it was difficult to get an understanding of every little aspect. Generally however, we worked, travelled, transited, and dined like the full-time consultants normally do. The nature of work was close enough to the real thing too.

We worked with, met, and spoke to a lot of full-time consultants at IBM, across different positions in the organisation structure. This allowed us to get an in-depth insight into the company culture. Speaking to some of the people on the graduate scheme helped to understand the company's values and operating methods from a graduate perspective.

We worked on the things usually expected in consulting, such as business scenarios for different industrial customers, available technological solutions, implementation and smart application of solutions etc. Since I've been interested in consulting for a really long time, this insight helped me to confirm my opinions about this sector.

We stayed at the executive-suites of The Winchester Hotel (4-star) in Winchester, We had a full continental and english breakfast buffet, free lunch in the on-site canteen, and a catered 3-course dinner. We were also provided free coffee, tea, biscuits, and lots of sweets and chocolate throughout the day as well.

There were multiple meet-and-greet events and sit-down networking dinners in the evenings. We were also joined by many people on the graduate scheme over lunch, in the canteen, and they spoke to us in-depth about the company's culture and future job prospects with IBM. There were also speed-networking events towards the end of the placement.

We got to talk to employees from the most junior positions (graduate scheme) to quite senior positions (senior managers with 40+ years of experience), and everyone else in between. We also had an opportunity to talk to the HR and graduate recruitment teams. All of these experiences allowed us to get a really good idea of what the company values are like, what roles are available to us, how the 'average' employee lives their life etc.

There are a lot of industrial and training lectures and events that graduates can attend. Most of these activities aim to give employees a good understanding of everything going on in the industries they cater to, and equip them with the skills and knowledge needed to engage effectively with current affairs.

If you are passionate about technology, if you are passionate about consulting, and you are passionate about how the interplay between them can be leveraged innovatively to implement novel, cost-saving solutions across a multitude of scales to revolutionise the future of industries, then this insight is definitely for you.