Project support Review

Project management. I'm running time bound upgrade projects on IBM's legacy hardware for banking customers, managing over 1000 machine upgrades in a short time period. As part of this, I'm in daily contact with the national team leaders and induvidual engineers to schedule and book visits. In parallel to this I am also in weekly contacct with senior IBM executives and client executives, keeping them posted on any issues and ensure they are kept in the loop with the project. This means a lot of my role is communicating with the engineering teams as well as senior stakeholders. My daily tasks are to ensure the project is kept up to date, the next weeks visits are booked and authorised, and to plan for future upgrade cycles, through creating project plans and a detailed roadmap to share. It is hard work but rewarding

Confidence and project managment skills are the two main ones - as I'm constantly involved with all manner of stakeholders, I've been somewhat thrown in at the deep end learning how to communicate effectively, and run the project as successfully as possible. I am also at university twice a week, studying for a technical computer science/business degree. In addition to this I have been on multiple internal courses learning everything from hardware safety to client conversations

Mostly. It's a lot of work, especially as I'm studying at the same time, however I get a lot out of it, particularity from university. The work is sometimes dull but I get recognition for the work I do. My team is remote so I rarely see my team (in fact I haven't met all of my team in over 1 year) but we interact on the phone a lot. The company culture in my specific business area is involved heavily in hard work and staying late, which I try to avoid where possible by completing work in normal hours. Overall, it's good

I feel valued for the mostpart. Internal recognition from my task (daily) manager is good, and I get bonuses when the projects I run are ahead of schedule, or I've exceeded client expectations. Other internal recognition isn't great though - there are recognition programs through IBM foundation but only very very small numbers of people seem to go through it. I am often not involved in the planning stages of the project until later on in the planning process when I am then asked to perform without knowing all the details.

The IBM part is very well organised, the university side, not so much. With so many apprentices in IBM, the induction, training and managerial support is very good. I have a mentor, senior sponsor, and 2 buddies, whilst I am a mentor for a new apprentice. My reviews are always thorough and I am able to get answers quickly, or be put in contact with the correct people correctly. This means there's a lot of well-connected early professionals and a good culture of supporting each other. However as I am a part of the pilot scheme of the degree apprenticeship, the university is a lot less organised. We have a work based project each semester which is consistently badly organised and comes out late. This leads to tight deadlines and massive issues with time management as we have to complete a task meant for 12 weeks in just 7 ( or less in some cases.)

A lot. The universities pastoral and personal tutor scheme is very good. As there are only 5 degree apprentices, our voices are always well heard. With the exception of the work based project, our concerns are addressed very quickly. We also have weekly meetings with our personal tutor to discuss academic problems and personal issues if there are any.

A reasonable amount. The support is good. The apprentice program is very organised and we get a lot of support when it is needed. My manager is often away but endeavours to help me when I need it. My foundation manager is supportive of me too, and is able to offer a lot more pastoral and HR support when needed. I feel like I am covered in the event of a problem and I know who to go to.

My expenses into London are covered as my base location is near to my home. However despite the high visibility and time bounded work I am doing my salary is not truly reflective of it. It has been raised above my joining salary but is still significantly less than others in my team doing a very similar job. As such it is not high enough for my location, I cannot afford to move out of my parents house and I cannot afford to spend money wily-nily.

So many. There's a massive focus on "giveback" - and this affects your review positively. We're encouraged to perform community outreach, attending schools and career events, and join in with classes. There are also internal language classes, vast amounts of online training to do, and a lot of location specific activities. This means there's always something on and suitable for your lifestyle choices. Company events are frequent and there are lots of events specifically for apprentices

Yes

It's a good, well organized program. There are lots of different roles to apply for and there's a good choice of business/technical/marketing/HR role. The salary and opportunities may not be exemplary but they are good enough whilst you are only just an apprentice. There's lots of good teams to work for and a good company culture. This allows you to gain lots of experience and move forwards positively in your career.

Go for it! The interview process was very long for me (I applied in december and didn't get an offer until July, and joined in september), however it's worth it. As there are several interview and assessment centre stages, it is very good practice for future. There's a wide range of candidates too which means that you can meet new people. I wish I'd known the interview(s) are less scary than you first think! at the end of the day it's a 2 way process and whilst you're being assessed, you're also weighing up IBM as a company.