Business development representitive Review

I am a business development representative who's daily tasks include prospecting potential and current clients in the aim of gaining more pipeline for my client adviser. I collate lists, update and check on accounts and cold call in order to drum up business. My daily interactions are between my team and potential clients. I am responsible for setting up meetings for my Client advisor in order to gain business.

I have learnt that I can digest a large amount of information in a short amount of time in order to have the best possible conversations with prospects. My people skills have been tested due to being in an office with a variety of cultures, work ethics and work processes which may conflict with mine.

I enjoy the training courses we go on to complete the apprenticeship as it is apprenticeship orientated, whereas my job role maybe isn't as much as I would have liked. The career prospects looked promising from the start and I have been enthusiastic in learning as much as I can.

Regular training and meetings with my apprenticeship manager have proven structured and organised. This includes induction, training and mentor support. However, when aligning my apprenticeship with a job role, the matches seem to be wrong for my career progression and application, and those of my team. When it comes to task delegation within the work place, some communications have not been clear and often results in me being moaned at like a child.

Employer is not the main business, it is one acquired a few years ago, there is still not enough integration between this company and IBM and we have been tole to treat it as the other company. Communication between managers and general guidance and support has been poor and we clearly seem to be more of a hinderance than good.

The training provider provides us with training courses that align and contribute towards the industry standard. However, my actual job role means there is no way to actually put information learnt into practice. There is regular training sessions available to everyone in the company, not just to benefit our work now but our careers. This is a huge positive.

Unfortunately, the things I am learning within my apprenticeship will not help me with my current day-to-day role but may help me when I progress my career. The theories we learn we have to meet up with other apprentices to discuss how they have put it into action and report on this.

There is one monthly thirsty Thursday event within my office, a company wide give back scheme which includes charity and sport events. office and company wide sports events and teams, extra-carricular training courses. There is also a few sales events which allows for training, leisure, social events and company sales drinks.

Yes

I would recommend IBM to others, however I would not recommend Bluewolf, an IBM company as the work environment is odd and communication is sparse. Regarding the apprenticeship, I would recommend the apprenticeship if the individual does not get placed into a cold calling job role on an IT tech sales role.

IBM is a great place for career growth, learning and inclusion. However, I believe they need to be more aligned with the businesses they have acquired in order to have a complete flow. Additionally, when going through the application process, make sure there is a clear view of progression as my team of apprentices have been informed after we finish our apprenticeship we are not allowed to move into the main IBM - we have to stay in Bluewolf.