IT Consultant Review

If I am on a project my day to day role is working as a PMO (Project Management Office). Some of the things would include handling documents being sent across across party's, creating and updating a project plan,, transcriptions and keeping contact with the client. The PMO role is can include so much more and I find it a great was of almost shadowing the project manager and getting to grips with how things are run whilst still having responsibility's.

I would say I have developed lots of new skills during my time at IBM. Firstly my professionalism, this is something I have just picked up on the more meetings I go to and is constantly being developed. Another skill is my presenting ability, this is something I have always been comfortable with but in a IBM training course I really learned how to take it to the next level with theory and roleplay involved.

This is a tough one as working from home full time as a new apprentice is always going to be hard as it is less hands on and you are not surrounded by an office of helpful employees. However, IBM has done an incredible job of connecting everyone virtually and making my experience still enjoyable so far, there are lots of things to do other then just WORK! Social groups, games night, give back opportunities, useful training and many more.

My programme is well organised as I have a foundation manager who regularly checks in to see how I am doing with welfare wise and making sure I am on track to meet goals the expectations. I then also have my main manager who finds me billable work and projects to be apart of which I am the put into a team who will reach out to me and set me up ready to start. On projects we start every morning with a daily stand-up to get rid of any blockers for the day.

I receive lots of support from my employer as I have different managers for different aspects of my role. My foundation manager is the one who organises call to check how I am doing and talk about any problems I am having and what is going well at that time. I also have scheduled reviews for example 2 months, 4 months, 6 months to look at my progress. There is also lots of support advertised to me via email if I ever need it.

The support given from the uni is good. I can reach out to them if I need additional help or extra resources to help me understand something that I don't understand. I also get given day a week off work to have a a chance to study and revise university work. All lectures are recorded and online which can be played back and watched at anytime and lectures are happy to go back to clarify something.

I am yet to see a huge difference from my qualification knowledge translate into better performance as I am still fairly new to this apprenticeship. It is also hard to find correlation sometimes as something from a lesson at uni could be displayed in a completely different way with a client so it is learning how to translate that across and also the fact that every client is slightly different with a new spin on something.

Yes, there are lots of social activity's available to join even while we are in a lockdown. There are lunch time hangouts, game nights, movies and coming up in September 2021 is the corporate game. This is a huge sporting event that lots of companies take part in, it is over 2 days and are over 20 different team events. This is something I will be participating in as it will be great fun and a great chance to widen my network.

Yes

I would recommend IBM to a friend and I have done exactly that with multiple applying for 2021 positions. It is a great way to kick-start your career with education and experience. Along with this I am building the foundations of my network with one of the worlds leading tech companies. I also get a very good salary for my age which motivates me to work hard and perform to the best of my ability.

My tips for applying to IBM would be to do lots of research on some of the projects IBM are working on currently, Express yourself on your application showing your passion for the role and what impact you will make working for IBM. Don't be put off if you have not taken technical subjects at school or college as there are so many roles at IBM that require all kinds of skills. In addition, IBM provides a great training platform that you will use to learn new/relevant topics to greater your knowledge.