Extreme Blue Business Intern Review
by IBM
This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
-
The Role
4.7
-
The Company
4.4
-
The Culture
3.9
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
You are given the freedom to take your project in any direction as well as being trusted to get on with the work. At the same time you will find that other IBMers are keen to help if you need it.
You work in a team of four interns as well as living with all the other interns. This means that over the summer you form really good friendships. In addition you are given a support network of other IBMers who mentor you over the 12 weeks. This includes a specific person to help you with the technical side of the project and another person for the business side of the project.
If you need help your mentor is always close by and will usually drop everything to come and help you. They really want you to do well and so will dedicate as much time as is needed to your project.
Because the team is self managed the workload varies. There is also a lot of variety in the work that you are doing, for example there is a weekly presentation, usually some client meetings and obviously software development for the technical interns. I think IBM is really great because of the work-life balance, there are some days when you will work later than 5pm but mostly we finished at 5pm or could leave earlier and make the time up later. Some team members worked from home on occasion.
As the business intern it was my role to make sure the team hit the targets set to us by our client. Although we were given a specific problem to work on I found that the way that you solve the problem and really any direction you want to take the project in, is ok with your manager.
One of the aims that your manager has is that you develop transferable skills. I feel that I gained a lot of transferable skills.
The Company
All the interns work in one big office- lots of fun.
Everything was well organised but it's up to you to organise how your project team will work.
A lot of time is spent developing skills which you can use outside of the internship.
Flexi Time
Subsidised Canteen
Sports and Social Club
Subsidised/Company Gym
National Travel
International Travel
Company Parties/Events
Working from home
I have a job offer. I think it's pretty much yours to lose from when you start.
The Culture
You live with the other interns so there is always something going on. We also went for a weekend away to do a charity run which was really fun.
Winchester is quite expensive but your accommodation is paid for by IBM so it's offset slightly.
We went to Southampton for nights out and there was a good local pub round the corner from us where we went for Thursday drinks.
Lots of opportunities
Details
Internship (1 Month+)
Business Management, Computer Systems Engineering, Computer Science, Market Research
South East
October 2013
