Technology Engineer Review

Every day is different as a Technology Engineer in IBM’s Client Engineering. We work with the rest of the team, which consists of many different roles, to create PoC’s to solve our clients’ pain points. One day I can be working with designers to facilitate a client workshop, I may also be pair programming with other technology engineers and AI engineers to create solutions.

I was given a great amount of responsibility in this placement. From the beginning I was trusted to go into client workshops, speak to them and really understand their pain points. From there I was assigned project tasks to complete, both independently and with my colleagues on my team. As I worked on more projects, these responsibilities increased and my confidence grew as I completed them successfully.

This placement has enabled me to learn a lot of new skills and develop my existing ones. Working on real client projects with the rest of my team has not only motivated me to expand my knowledge but also to feel confident with getting stuck in to solve challenging problems- I have found great value in learning from my colleagues. IBM also has an online learning platform where you can access a large number of courses and earn digital credentials.

We are given 2 managers: a foundation manager and a task manager. If you have any queries or things to bring up regarding your projects/technical responsibilities, your task manager is there to support you for that. For anything else, you have your foundation manager. Having being given two managers during my placement has made be feel supported in all aspects of my role and I think that this has been great.

Throughout my placement I have felt incredibly supported and welcome. The culture is fantastic and really focuses on employee wellbeing. There are many communities within IBM where you can bond with colleagues, who are not necessarily in your team, on areas that you are interested in. Also, there are many team socials you can get involved with that really brings everyone together. All in all, the atmosphere is great and it has been a pleasure to work with so many friendly people.

Doing this placement has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. Placement years are not offered at my university so this meant that I had to take an interruption of studies to carry out this placement.
My technical skills in frontend, backend, AI, Data Science and many other areas have improved immensely. I am confident in my abilities in full-stack development and have great motivation to build on my skills. As well as my technical skills, my soft skills have also improved. I have had a lot of opportunities to present talks on AI, my role and project solutions to clients in high stakes showcases.
The people I have met and worked with at IBM are incredible and when reflecting on both my social and technical experiences, I am very grateful for what I have achieved.

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