Junior Project Manager Review

There are a number of aspects to my role. The first is keeping up to date with financial forecasts and reporting expenditure against forecast costs to ensure the project is in line with the agreed budget. Secondly my role focuses on reporting on progress of the project. This involves working closely with the development team to report on their completed/incompleted tasks for each section of the project in order to report on whether or not milestones are likely to be met. Other than this I assist with the on-boarding/off-boarding of resources and making sure all resources have correct access to project documents.

Through multiple training courses and experience in the workplace I have developed my communication skills and become much more confident both with team members and with clients. I have also been able to develop my Excel and mathematical skills through having a role looking after the finances of a project. Through working towards my degree I have also improved my English skills through essay writing.

I really enjoy my programme. It's been great gaining hands on experience while studying. I work with a really good team of people who are always happy to help out if I'm stuck on anything. I feel a good amount of support both at work, however sometimes find the workload of university difficult during busy periods at work.

I feel my programme is very well structured in terms of being allocated days to study at university and having set checkpoints throughout the year to go through my goals. I also have an apprenticeship manager who can help out if I am struggling with anything - I think this is a particularly good aspect to the programme to have an apprenticeship manager. The university course has changed a few times in the last year so that has made assignments unclear, but overall I feel the programme is well structured.

I receive a lot of support from my employer. I have an apprenticeship manager who I can contact any time about my apprenticeship or any HR related issues. I have quarterly meetings to set goals both in the work place and for my apprenticeship. My work manager is also very supportive of my apprenticeship and ensures my role is as relevant as possible to work that needs completing for my apprenticeship.

I feel my training provider could provide more support in our assignments as I often find it difficult to go from a lecture to fully understanding the requirements of an assignment. For example I would find it really helpful to have more sessions where we can begin assignments with the support of our lecturers at hand.

I think as I get further into my course I will study topics will help me to perform better in my role. I have just completed first year and I don't think I've studied topics that have had a particular impact on my performance at work, not to say they haven't been interesting. There is a module in a future year on finance and accounting and this will definitely help me to perform better when looking after finances for a project.

There are lots of extra curricular activities to get involved in at work. I went on a corporate ski trip earlier this year and I am on the organising team for the corporate games, for which there has been lots of interest expressed across the business. There are also lots of social events running throughout the year to get to know colleagues better.

Yes

I would recommend IBM to a friend because I feel very well supported in my apprenticeship both in terms of university work and in the workplace. I definitely feel I have been given really good exposure to exciting and interesting roles which are giving me the experience needed to further my career.

IBM is a really exciting company, offering so many career opportunities for young people. I would say it's really important to take an interest in as many parts of the business as possible and ask lots of questions to gain knowledge of the different services IBM provides to clients.