Rapid Prototyping Developer Review

I really enjoyed my placement year. The office had a much more friendly atmosphere than I had anticipated before starting my placement and my team and managers were very friendly and welcoming. The other interns who were at IBM were also all very friendly. I also enjoyed the projects I worked on throughout the year.

I felt very valued by the rest of my team. Very early on in my placement I was working with developers in my team to deliver work for clients. Towards the end of my placement different developers on my team would often ask for help with different technical issues and I was helping to teach new team members.

My managers were both very friendly and made it clear straight away that if I had any problems throughout my placement year I could ask them for help. Both made the effort to check up on me from time to time to check how I was doing and both also provided me with valuable feedback.

I was kept quite busy throughout my placement year which was challenging at times but a good learning experience. How busy I was often varied throughout my internship - when I was on projects I was often very busy as my team worked on short time scale sprints. Between projects I had more time for education and other tasks.

I was given a lot of responsibility during my placement which was one of the things I enjoyed the most about the year. During projects I was often interacting directly with clients, running workshops and presenting. I was given the time to develop individually and with other team members. I also taught other people some of the technical skills I have learnt throughout the year.

I have learnt a lot of technical skills that I feel have opened a new possible career avenue for me. I have also learnt lots of soft skills including presentation skills and how to interact with clients. I think the skills that I have learnt will help me throughout the rest of my life

The atmosphere of the office was good, my team was very friendly and easy to get on with. I never felt uncomfortable asking for help during work. Everyone in the team was available to talk to for help with any issues I might have. The didn't move throughout other parts of the office much but most people I interacted with were friendly.

The placement was very organised - I started my placement with a group of other interns and we had an induction into IBM. After that I had several checkpoints (3 months 6 months and 12 months) where I discussed my progress with my manager and was given feedback to work on.

IBM invested a lot of time in my training and development. When I first started my internship I was out onto a month long technical training course to give me an overview of the kind of skills I would need in my day to day role. There were lots of other training opportunities shared with me.

There were lots of other interns and apprentices at IBM who were very friendly and sociable. I was part of a group chat for all the interns where social events where occasionally organised. there was also an intern boat party at Christmas. Occasionally my team would go for drinks after work.

I was working in central London so the cost of living and socialising was very high. There were cheaper options for food at lunchtime such Sainsbury's meal deals and a moderately priced food market on Fridays. Going out for drinks and socialising around the office was very expensive which was a bit annoying.