Customer Engineer Review

Customer Engineer: Usual tasks involve arranging maintenance with the customer on the various IBM and other multi vendor servers. Internally there is Foundation which is the scheme that focuses on building business, personal and technical skills including many courses on all areas.

As part of my job role, technical skills have been gained primarily. There is a large repository of course based training available on the intranet. Foundation covers a wide range of professional and personal skills.

The whole programme is really enjoyable and has been a huge boost to personal development. There is a great company culture and a strong team ethic.

Despite the size of the company, there is a genuine care given by those that you work with and a strong culture of sharing knowledge and appreciation. Achievements are recognised as long as you make it known what you have achieved.

There is a definite structure featuring a strong week-long induction and milestone courses of development. There is an importance for the apprentice to manage themselves while on project in order to stay on top of the programme.

There is a lot of support provided by the Foundation Professional Development Manager who guide you through the various stages of the apprenticeship qualification.

With such a large company, there are huge piles of support resources and a strong HR network. With Foundation you will have a Professional Development Manager alongside your Functional Manager to cover all areas of personal development.

Apprentices are paid really well with a plan in place for two pay rises yearly. Though this is not guaranteed and mostly out of the apprentices' hands as it depends on business unit performance.

There are incredible amounts of opportunities both within the company and to go to schools, universities and other events. Participation is encouraged, the only difficulty can be arranging it around job role responsibilities.

Yes

Huge flexibility of development. Wide career growth available. Massive opportunities.

IBM is business-to-business so though it may not be the easiest information to obtain, look into the areas of focus for the company. Cloud, Big Data and Analytics, Partnerships with Apple and Twitter, Social Media.