Business Support Review

The work was frequently repetitive and not challenging enough. On the other hand, the people I worked with made the job more enjoyable and there were frequent opportunities to do things outside of the day to day.

Because the team works remotely it can be difficult to build relationships.

IBM has a dual manager approach so you have a Task Manager to deal with your day to day role and a Professional Development Manager to guide you through your year. Although I think this is a good idea in theory, in practice I don't feel like PDM offered me any support or guidance. I was very lucky with my task manager and we were able to build a good relationship but this can vary between roles.

My workload varied greatly throughout the year as I reported to more than once person. This wasn't a problem though as flexible working means that you can stay late some nights and go home early others.

I felt like I had lots of responsibility but this was something I earned throughout the year. It is possible to "get by" without getting real responsibility but the better you are at your job, the more responsibility you will be given.

I have definitely learnt lots of skills that I will take forward - some are very specific such as Excel skills but others - like networking - will be useful for life.

I feel like a the level of investment is very low. Most things you have to teach yourself or learn from your task manager. Training that was provided - such as the roadshows - was mostly useless.

One of the biggest advantages of IBM is the huge number of placement students and graduates they employ each year. It means there is a lot of people in the same boat as you.

Expensive but it's London so it's worth it.

As above

I really enjoyed all the activities I did outside of my role. These included working in schools, going to careers fairs, helping with student recruitment, going to conferences, etc.