Technology Sales Review

My day-to-day role is a technical sales role, I provide support to clients and partners during the technical sales cycle, whether it be buying new IBM technology or dealing with licensing renewals. I require both technical experience and interest as well as excellent interpersonal skills in order to actively engage and interact with both colleagues and clients.

I can split this category into two sections, technical skills and interpersonal / people skills. Immediately I was placed into my role after a thorough induction and the talk was all about IBM's technology, at the start I had a large information gap in this area being brand new, so this area was developed immediately otherwise it would be harder to engage and speak to clients and colleagues in these subjects. My people skills were also immediately developed by being placed on client calls early. My mentor would often lead to way in terms of the interaction, this proved a great benefit to me from a learning and developing point of view.

I thoroughly enjoy my program, my day-to-day activities vary and are different meaning I am never stuck in repeated processes, yes some elements of my job are repetitive however this doesn't consume my whole day-to-day. I am incredibly well supported by my managers and mentors, this allows the blending on university to be very seamless.

I believe this depends greatly on the university as they control the largest element of learning and educational development however I'd say that generally, its well organised. The university leaise with my employer regularly to ensure I am on track and achieving what I should as well as providing lots of feedback on areas that I can improve.

I cannot fault to the level of support that I receive from my employer, my manager has been fantastic at accommodating all of my requirements as well as supporting me with my degree and university, IBM also seems to get a great balance of day-to-day work and also university but being cautious with the work loads.

I have weekly meetings with my employer regarding my university qualifications, which means that any required support or concerns can be addressed. Furthermore, the university has discussions with IBM in order to discuss my progress and university goals and requirements, this is regularly fed back to myself so that I always have areas of which I can use for development.

I believe this very much depends on the course that you're enrolled on as well as your role, my role incorporates a large variety of elements meaning it is generally very applicable to my studies and university. I also have the opportunity to develop areas of interest and thus apply this directly to areas being studied at university.

Definitely! IBM offers a vast range of business resource groups to get involved with, these range from technical communities, sporting teams or groups dedicated to organising trips and activities. You can easily get involved with as little or as much as you'd like, it all depends on what you're interested in because I can almost guarantee you'll find a group for you.

Yes

I have and will always recommend IBM, this is for a number of reasons but one of the main reasons is the incredible amount of opportunities available. IBM is a vast organisations with so many areas and niches which you can get involved with, whatever you're interested in IBM will be able to support you.

My main tip is to be yourself, during the application process just express yourself, your interests and why IBM excites you. IBM are looking for people who are enthusiastic about technology and the values that IBM operates itself by, see how you're able to apply these to yourself and just enjoy the process.