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IBM

CSI Intern Review

at IBM

Placement (10 Months+)

Software Engineering

Winchester

Review Submitted: May 2023

Overall Rating

5 /5

The Overall Rating is the average of all the ratings given in each category. We take those individual ratings and combine them into one final score!

5/5 - Overview of Role
5/5 - Skills Development
5/5 - Support and Guidance
5/5 - Company Culture
5/5 - Overall Experience
5/5 - Future Career Prospects

Overview of Role

Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis.
• I was responsible for designing, developing and delivering complete epics to introduce and change functionality to our production build environment, including the UI for the Cognitive build monitoring system.
• Each week I am involved in triaging the entire cross-platform testing for WebSphere Liberty consisting of over 4 years of testing in terms of Machine time. This triage includes identifying and raising defects and communicating with the global delivery teams.
• I have created and presented designs and demos to the global development teams addressing solutions to problems in the WebSphere environment.
• I have paired up with the Developer Tools team to reverse engineer their test machines to recreate in an automated fashion. I've written automation scripts for creating new test machines, handled credential security better and scheduled it so we have brand new machines every week.
• I was given a role in the introduction of ML algorithms into our software. I’ve written Python scripts that train a ML model to prioritise the tests that we run.
Were you given much responsibility during your placement / internship?
Yes. I was responsible for designing, developing and delivering complete epics to introduce and change functionality to our production build environment, including the UI for the Cognitive build monitoring system. I was also trusted with the task to replace our virtual machines before on time, failure to do so was going to cause loss of very important information and stoppage of our testing. I was trusted to implement ML algorithms as an outcome of 2-year hard research. I was empowered to put my solutions and ideas into the designs and was accountable for their delivery, showing that I was trusted by my team leaders.
Please rate how meaningful the work you were doing was
5/5

Skills Development

Have you learnt any new skills, or developed your existing skills?
As I never did front-end development before, I have developed skills in JavaScript and Vue.js by working on UI and event streams.
I have greatly improved my skills in Java programming while working on microservice development and delivery.
I have gained new skills at building with Gradle as well as in OS Virtualisation with docker.
I have improved my Python skills by writing ML scripts for the new smart features of my team's software.
I've never used Linux before. I have learned a lot about it by going trough IBM's eduction sources and practiced it when I was doing mainframe management.
I've improved my presentation skills by attending IBM's speaker clinics.
How would you rate the training provided during your experience?
5/5
How would you rate your development of industry-specific skills during the experience?
5/5
How would you rate your development of personal / soft skills during the experience?
5/5
Please rate how these skills have helped you in your career development
5/5

Support and Guidance

How much support and guidance did you receive during your placement / internship?
I had great support throughout my placement. I felt like I can always share my concerns with my team and managers and I will be supported. All the education I needed was available to me. I've constantly received help and feedback from my colleges when I was stuck on a task. As transport to the site was hard, the management team arranged private transport for me very fast. I was also unfortunate to have some health issues halfway trough my placement but I received great support from the managers team and was able to get a medical leave to recover.
How would you rate the support and guidance from your line manager?
5/5
How would you rate the support and guidance from the wider team?
5/5

Company Culture

What was the company culture and general atmosphere like?
The atmosphere in the office was very professional and social at the same time. I had a very good relationship with all the people I worked with. I had regular meetings with my managers which did their best to make sure they create a friendly atmosphere for me. I was able to get help whenever I needed. There was a great balance between meetings and work time. Also, I was ways able to express my opinion on any solution or conversation and people listened to me not matter that I had less experience than them.
How would you rate the inclusiveness of the culture?
5/5
How would you rate the social opportunities?
5/5
How would you rate the diversity initiatives?
5/5
How would you rate the charity, sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives?
5/5

Overall Experience

To what extent did you enjoy your placement / internship?
I have enjoyed my placement to a great extended. After going through my placement, I developed a passion for that company and its goals. This placement provides skills development, challenge, variety of tasks, business outcomes, and social life. I have a lot of friends and relatives that were on placement this year and I had way better experience than any of them. I had a great time throughout this year in terms of my personal and professional life and I strongly recommend IBM for a placement provider.
Please rate your level of enjoyment on your placement / internship
5/5
Please rate how your experience met your expectations
5/5

Future Career Prospects

Please rate the future employment prospects at IBM
5/5

Recommendations & Advice

Would you recommend IBM to a friend?
Yes
What advice would you give to others applying to IBM
I would advise to apply early as the application window opens Around the start of the year and closes whenever they get a lot of candidates. So being first is and advantage. As the application process involves an assessment centre that consists of group exercises I would suggest to practice your teamwork and communication as they will be very beneficial. Also, make your research. You will have a way better chance of being accepted if you show that you know about the company's goals and that you are passionate about contributing towards them.
In This Review
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