IBM UKI Early Professional Talent Acquisition Coordinator – University Placement and Futures Scheme Review

I have enjoyed my placement to a great extent - I have grown both professionally and personally and have been challenged in many different ways.

I felt very valued in my role as I was hired into a job which had a direct impact on the internship scheme and had to work with multiple stakeholders within the business, which held a great deal of responsibility.

Having two management structures, a task manager and an early professional manager meant that everyone had a great deal of support. Both my team and task manager were fantastic in challenging me as well as providing guidance. I felt that I could've had more support at times from my foundation manager but I had a great deal of support from elsewhere in the business that meant the lesser support was not detrimental to my placement.

I was extremely busy, working in an agile format - I had key job responsibilites but each day varied.

I worked not only in my job role but in several different Business Resource Groups so my responsibility was extremely high and helped to enhance my placement experience.

The skills that I have learned this year, from networking to developing business acumen, will help aid my career in the years to come in more ways than is evident now! The connections that I have made within the business are vital and have helped guide me to the way I would want my career to evolve.

My team was generally very sociable and the intern side of the team had regular meals and nights out, we also all attended internal events together which made the first few a lot less daunting. However, there was a slight amount of office politics within the team, which made executing some tasks more difficult.

The placement was very well set up and through systems such as slack, you feel very connected to the rest of your cohort.

Personally, I received no external training or certifications but I have been able to do a lot of internal training to develop skills through obtaining badges.

There is a lot of opportunity and supprt regarding employment prospects, as long as you are proactive in searching for them.

Everyone is extremely social and there is a huge social scene! There are lots of nights out and pub evening/quizes, everyone gets on with everyone and there is a lot that is organised!

Cost of living was relatively low as I worked in my local area, it all depended on the frquency of activities but everyone is very mindful that you want to be saving money for your final year of uni!

Nightlife was good as we were not far from local citites and also was living in a Uni City, so always something going on!

There were lots of sports clubs that you could join or try out, including yoga and pilates, as well as social activities such as pub quizzes.