FBA Review

I work in admin as a Foundation Business Analyst. Foundation is the business within IBM that takes care of all Interns, Apprentices, and Futures (school leavers). I am responsible for the induction and onboarding of Apprentices. I am also the FBA (Foundation Business Analyst) for core education, which means all of the courses Grads and Apprentices are required to take before they can progress. My favourite bits of the job are going out to inductions (get to stay in a hotel!), running the Apprentice Slack Channel (basically a community for us all to interact and have some fun) and doing the finance for the courses I run. It's really cool to have all this responsability!

I have never worked in Finance before and this job role was a real eye-opener for me. It was a learning curve but I got the hang of it and am now super comfortable with all the responsibilities I have. I also get the chance to take online courses during my time here - I loved the design thinking badge and alot more! these badges can be externally shown on linkedin too which will help me in the future for sure!

I have alot of fun on my day to day. My team is super tightly knit so we are always there for eachother in times of crisis! My base location has a relaxation hub with games and collaboration spaces which is lovely when I need a change of scene after sitting at my desk all day long. The futures have a quarterly meeting which is always so fun! Last time we went to an escape room!!

I feel extremely valued by IBM because of the extent that I get given as responsibilities (if that makes sense) I basically am an 18 year old in charge of a giant business's core education and finance! I am responsible for bringing new people into the company too, how cool is that? How many 18 year olds can say that !! I get lots of recognition for my hard work through tools IBM have like ACEAPP and BLUETHX. These are basically feedback websites on the intranet that others can see!

My program is very well organised. We had a great thorough induction and the training was easy to understand. We werent thrown in the deep end and we all have reviews, starting at 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, and yearly! This is a time for us to feeback the scheme to our Early Proffessional Managers and for them to feedback to us. After the 6 month review you either pass or fail a probation which means you officially have a 2 week (i think) notice. What's really cool is the schemes FBA is also a future! Which means the scheme is by futures for futures. We all schedule our own quarterly meetings and yearbooks, etc. Its great fun while being extremely well organised!

I am a future so I dont really have a training provider, but I do have a task manager and EPM (Early Proffesionals Manager). They are so supportive, my task manager always listens and adjusts workloads in the team depending on our comfort zones and bandwidth. If there is a problem, she doesn't get angry - she just gets the team together to tackle it in a logical way! My EPM meets with me less often but she is very welcoming and I can always come to her with a problem.

Like I mentioned before, by managers are very supportive. I was not given a mentor when I joined, but you are welcome to go out and find your own! In fact, its probably recommended! Apprentices are all given ‘Buddies’ which are more experienced apprentices that can give advice and help out when needed.

I get given 15,000 a year before tax, which is definitely enough to get by. I live in Hursley, where rent is about 400 and bills about 100. After that I have about 681 for the month for food, council tax, and travel. Alot of us carpool into work so travel is cheap, and if you need to go to a different location expenses are covered for travel (just make sure you get your managers permission). I don't personally go out bvery often but some people do - spoons mostly which is affordable!

So many! IBM has something called giveback which is when you go out to help people on other projects. For example I have attended a hackathon in London, I have done speaking at schools, etc. Its great fun and a way to give back to IBM! There is also the corperate games where IBM competes with other companies in sports like dragon boat racing and football. IBM Hursley has a clubhouse with events like fireworks and discos!

Yes

It's amazing to feel a part of a family while being in such a big company. I dont think youd find that anywhere else! There are so many young amazing people here that have bright ideas and make an impact. You arent just here to make teas!! You are responsible for major parts in the company!

Be yourself on the application, have fun and make sure to spell check! The interview is a chill talk, on the phone for most people. I think the hardest part is the assessment day but you need to remember - They arent assessing you on whether you can figure out the logical problem, they are assessing whether you work well in a team! Also, dont get discouraged if you dont get the job - I know plenty of people that didnt get the job and applied the next year and got it!