Junior Management Consultant Review

I sat within the customer experience and design practice of IBM. A lot of the work I did involved understanding client challenge areas and working with teams in order to design high value solutions.

Many. Understanding of ways of working, such a Agile, Design Thinking, DevOps. I also learnt design-based skills such as prototyping, how to run a Design Thinking workshop in-person and virtually. Furthermore, many of my soft skills were developed, such as presenting, problem solving and team leadership.

Very much so. IBM provides endless opportunities, I've had countless chances to try different roles and get involved in different pieces of work within the company. It has been a great way to shape my early career and also find out what I'm interested in.

The programme is very well structured. We are given a learning plan when we join - this allows us to work at our own pace through online learning courses that cover the content of the apprenticeship.

We receive at a lot of support from day 1. You'll be looked after IBM foundation, which is essentially the area of IBM that looks after early professionals. You get allocated a foundation manager, who you'll have monthly check-ins which for the first two years of your apprenticeship (but you can meet with them more frequently if you'd like). Foundation also hosts a large variety of socials through their communities. They have a sports community, different BRG communities etc, so there's a lot to get involved in.

The training provide gave guidance on the standards for our portfolios and how the end point assessment should be run. Most of this information came through from our IBM foundation managers though, I didn't personally have much contact with CMI up until the final assessment.

I think it was a great way to ease myself into the business. It taught me a lot of the fundamentals of consulting, and broke things down into chunks. Consulting can be fast paced, so starting on the apprenticeship scheme enabled me to upskill while getting involved in client work.

Many - teams often host their own socials, but you also have wider consulting socials. For example in the summer you'll have the consulting summer social series, including office pizza, cocktails on the terrace, sweet treats in the office etc. Foundation communities run a wide range of socials too. The sports community hosts rounders, bouldering, socials for watching rugby games etc. I think a lot of people applying for apprenticeship feel they might miss out of the social aspect of university, but that's not the case.

Yes

Great opportunities for growth and the company is very supportive with helping you achieve your career aspirations.

Be yourself and be confident!