Analyst Review

It was a great experience working for an international company at such an early stage in my career. I gained a great deal of insight into the sales process and worked with some of the most senior people in the company. I would recommend a year with IBM to anyone

I was given real responsibility during my time with IBM and was able to contribute to critical tasks such as external presentations and internal reviews. Colleagues openly asked for my opinions and I was able to contribute to meetings with both external and internal participants, adding real value to them.

In IBM you are given both an early professionals manager (EPM) and a task manager, the latter being the manager you work with every day, and the EPM involved with quarterly reviews and tracking overall progression through the year. I was given support by both managers continuously, although it may be better to have less students assigned to each EPM in future

Work ebbed and flowed as the year went on, with some periods extremely busy and others less going on. I found that I had to find my own work in these periods and it turned out to be a lesson in becoming more autonomous. This however did allow me to tailor my work to what I wanted to learn

I was given a lot of responsibility in my time with IBM. Responsible for documents that were shown to some of the most senior people within both IBM UK and globally. This was a great experience in producing such high level documents and was a stand out aspect of my year

If I didn't join IBM for a placement year I simply wouldn't have any idea on what to do for a graduate job. I was able to develop so much in just 12 months I look forward to returning as a graduate next year. I have taken what I have learnt back to university and have become a much more rounded individual as a consequence

Office was London so empty on Monday and Friday but very busy all other days. Canteen was ok with decent selection of food. Coffee places and bars surrounding area are very good, with most of the workforce tending to eat from there instead of the canteen. Productive office environment

Well organised with periodic reviews and appraisals. IBM have been doing this scheme for years and therefore all the on boarding etc is very smooth. Expectations are clearly set out to you at the start of the year and reviews are well documented, this all made the placement experience easier

I was given as much time as I needed to talk and network with people within IBM. I also received free online training as well as the opportunity to go to conferences related to my field of work. This was above and beyond what I expected when I joined IBM

Good, but I do worry about career progression as there are a lot of grads who tend to be stuck in the same place for a number of years. That said, if you are good enough in any organisation you should progress. I think IBM is a very good place to start my career.

I was isolated from most of the other interns due to my job role. There were a few intern social events at the start of the period but most seemed to patter out as the year went on. The social scene with experienced colleagues however was very good, and most of my socialising was with them.

London is expensive both for rent and for transport, therefore as an intern a large amount of your income goes straight on this before you have time to think about doing anything you enjoy. However, if you are lucky you may save some money by being able to work from home when it suits

It's London so nightlife is plentiful, just expensive. There is also the issue of being hungover in the office the next morning which is a painful experience. However, the overall nightlife in London is very good - i just don't suggest you pick to work in london solely on this

Yes - IBM do a formal scheme called give back which is where you volunteer your time to do a charitable activity on IBM's behalf. I worked interviewing year elevens for job interviews which was a good experience. It did seem however that some interns full time jobs was doing giveback - don't let it distract you from doing what IBM pay you for.