Level 2 Support Tools Automations and Workload Manager Review

Taking a year out to do a placement has been one of the best decision I have ever made! You learn so much and develop yourself both professionally and personally. I have seen myself grow at rapid rate and have had many new experiences that have shaped who I am today. Not only this but, working in the South Bank office in London is the best! There is so much to do and there is always something on.

I know this sounds really cheesy but I was lucky enough to have a great team who I do consider as my family. All my colleagues have been very helpful and supporting throughout my placement year. If I ever needed anything personally or professionally my team were always there to help me out.

The great thing about IBM is that you are given both a task manager and an Early Professional Manager (EPM). A task manager gives you your day to day tasks whereas your EPM supports your career throughout IBM. For example, with queries relating to shadowing/mentoring your EPM can help you.

I guess this question depends on the time of month as I found that there were some periods where I was really busy and struggling to cope and there were some instances where I did not have much on. Although it is important to speak to your task manager if you feel like you have too much work or too little.

Again I guess this varies to what role you are given. I would say that I was given moderate to high responsibility because as a part of my job role I had to queue monitor for 7 of IBM's software products that deal with the problems with these products. With problems that were sev 1s ( system down) I had to act fast and was responsible for making sure this problem was seen by the relevant engineer.

IBM has a platform called THINK40 whereby you can self-learn absolutely everything! I used this to do many courses that I wanted to learn more about. During my job role, there are certain transferable skills that I have picked up that I will be taking with me to university such as presentation skills, leadership skills and networking.

The general atmosphere was always great, especially if you are based at South Bank because there are many interns based here as opposed to the other locations and we usually go out on Thursdays. As mentioned before, there's always a lot to do and there's always events on at South Bank. This is one of the best locations to work at! Although it is worth noting most employees work from home on Mondays and Fridays.

Socially this year has been great! As I am based at the South Bank location there is a lot to do and many places to go. Every Thursday the interns usually go to Understudy which is the nearest bar and we get a discount there too. I think it is a good social scene because there are so many of us here as opposed to other locations.

As mentioned South Bank is a great location as there are many things to do. However, the cost of these things is not so good... It can be very expensive especially if you live in central too as I do. But as long as you balance everything out and keep an eye on your bank balance you should be fine. But just to give yourself an advantage it would be a good idea to start saving some money now if you do intend on living and working in South Bank!

Yes, IBM offer an opportunity for interns and grads to get involved within many things. For an example, thanks to IBM you can get wider experience other than your day to day role, so you can volunteer at schools or become a mentor or even organise a piece of giveback yourself too. In a nutshell, there are endless opportunities.