Project Mangement Office (PMO) Review

I really enjoyed working at IBM for my placement due to the extensive responsibilities whilst being flexible on working times and locations meaning you hold a lot of independence and I have been treated like a permanent employee instead of a temporary placement student.

During my placement I have received good feedback from different colleagues which have praised me and thanked me for my work making me feel very valued. My colleagues have also all got me involved with meetings which makes me feel like a valued team member.

Due to the large size of IBM, there was no difficulties in finding guidance and support if required. I was given a Supervisor, a Task Manager, and a Personal Development Manager which have all been available and happy to help with everything that I have needed. Otherwise there are so many other management team members who have been happy to help me when I have needed it. It has also been good that my managers haven't 'spoon-fed' me, and have let me use my initiative and got me out of my comfort zone to complete work before assisting.

My workload depended on the amount sold by the sales team; which was often high. However, during any quiet weeks, I was able to get involved with other projects therefore was always busy but most of the time it was manageable.

I was very surprised when I realised the extent of responsibility I was given. At first this was fairly daunting but after a while, i would be asking to people up more roles/tasks and be more value to the business.

Firstly, working at IBM has taught me many personal skills such as consistenly getting up early and working a full day - which will really help me complete high workload in my final year and will be very useful for working after my degree. I feel i have also developed my communication skills massively which I believe will be useful for team work projects at university, during interviews for graduate jobs and when i work after my degree. The list of skills I have developed goes on and on; including more technical skills such as advanced excel skills and HTML code, despite my placement being in Project Management. There is so much free education, shadowing and mentoring available to placement students at IBM that can be used to explore different areas of a business like IBM.

Due to my Project Management role, I was at a number of different offices from midlands down to south england. I was mostly in London where everyone was polite and friendly making a nice atmosphere to work in, with the ability to concentrate when required.

The placement was very well set up as you are automatically part of a community of placement students which keep you up to date with news which is important to us. However, Sometimes the work required part of this community can be a bit too high when I was always already busy with the work of the business sector i was within.

To start the placement all students are sent on a two day induction. Due to the distance from home, my hotel, travel and food were paid for. The two day induction was detailed and was obvious alot of planning had been involved. Throughout the year, IBM had organised various training events and learning sessions for placement students which take alot of planning and investment in time to set up. These we're useful but if anything, probably too much!

As a placement student, you are given the ability to apply for graduate roles earlier than the general public. However, they limit the grad intakes to a small percentage of placement students. However, as you have a year to impress, if you rank highly amongst other placement students, you have good chances of getting a future job.

Every year there is a facebook page set up for placement students so they can communicate and organise social activities; this was used at the beginning of the year but as everyone got to know each other, it was used less frequently.

I worked in London where the cost of living and socialising can be fairly high depending on where you go. However, I do get paid London waiting allowance to cover extra costs.

I worked in London where the nightlife is very good with a very high amount of places to visit, it never gets boring.

There were a big range of sport groups you could join, groups to learn languages, and many other social groups that we're set up by IBM employees that organise activities outside of work. This of course is optional, and i personally didn't do much of these.