GTS UKI Finance SWS Cost and Revenue Analyst and TSS DSO Support and CECS F&P Review

I have enjoyed my placement thoroughly. Given, there are a few lows and to counter many highs along the way. I will always remember this year and I am very happy with it as a first stepping stone to my career.

Working in a large Hierarchical structure, sometimes it's hard to get the recognition deserved, especially with the subtle gestures. However, certain colleagues do appreciate the work you do for them and others less so, it's just a given I've found.

Certain aspects of the Placement year that I have been given support through my Early-Professional-Manager have been great. The difference can be seen when heading into the business with the likes of Task managers, where some can see that guidance is required, whereas others just add to the pressure.

The Placement year started off quite slow when I was still learning the basics, but then as my skills developed and knowledge expanded then the workload piled on. Situated within Finance, my workload goes from busy to very busy at month ends and then extremely busy during the Quarter-ends where then I would work the weekends to cover for it.

During my placement year, I was able to develop my skill-set and knowledge in order to progressively increase my responsibilities. From for example doing the medial data crunching for certain calls for our side of the business to presenting this information myself. I Became more independent by the month, and even obtaining an award by one of my managers because of this.

The Large factor in my profession within finance is excel proficiency, of which I was able to develop tenfold during my time at IBM, to where I was the most excel savvy intern. IBM also pushed for us to develop our own skills using e-learning methods, such as gaining an insight into Blockchain. A subject which will be evident in the future for Finance.

The atmosphere within my office was an interesting dynamic between us interns and our high up managers. Which, cause for a serious environment but one of which we could just talk to the heads easily and get an insight into the overall business. This was different from other offices within IBM but I quite liked the dynamic that unfolded from it.

IBM’s placement scheme beholds the most sense out of any other due to it being most supportive in developing the interns and seamless in its process (especially for next year with the application process), hence the awards that have come from that.

IBM invest in their interns from the get-go, giving us requirements to do some personal training/Learning on IBM badges before our 3 month review. These 3/6/9/12 month reviews are a way in which we can set goals and continue to have an idea of how much we were able to personally develop over the year.

There are many, many Business consulting job roles that all slightly differ between one another which is great for the business interns. However, with only having one sub-par finance consulting graduate scheme of which didn't provide any advancement in the industry was not appealing.

Whenever we had the overall IBM Intern events, I found that our group was definitely the most situated as a group, which I enjoyed. However, seemingly there was not enough of these events took place though throughout the year, and many failed to get through.

In the Portsmouth office where I was able to work from home was indeed 'cheap as chips', but I know for the other interns that were in accommodation had a quite easy time with the affordability of the year. Although, IBM doesn't pay well so some were struggling in that way.

The nightlife of Portsmouth wasn't the best club wise, but we as a group preferred just going to a pub, which Portsmouth definitely isn't short of.

This is one of the differences between the IBM London and Portsmouth office to here, we struggled in having if any opportunities organised for outside of work. On the other hand, I do know some offices within Portsmouth that had their own Netball/ Zumba/ Football opportunities.