Andy Townsend

Country of origin: United Kingdom

Placement: IBM

The opportunity of a placement year was something I jumped at because I wanted to conceptualise the theory I had learnt throughout my first two years of Economics at Lancaster. The experience of dealing with real world problems in a competitive and fast-paced environment appealed to me as I wanted that brief, yet comprehensive, look into a potential career. To learn if my interests were well aligned to the types of careers I’d considered, without the rigidness and ties of a full-time job, presented a wonderful opportunity to assess my early career choices midway through my degree.

I supported the Global Government Centre of Competence team who provide specialist consulting to win opportunities. I Conducted extensive research, pipeline reporting, communications (newsletter-type), built case study win portfolio, attended international client events, developed technical skills, presented and managed. First ever Intern to receive a Service of Excellence Award, for client dealings.

Spending a year in Industry with IBM has been a truly fantastic experience that has given me an invaluable insight into the business world of work. The programme has allowed me to dive in to many exciting, complex challenges where I’ve had to call upon and test many key competencies required to excel in the workplace. I have thoroughly enjoyed the constant learning process and have relished the opportunities I’ve had to put my own stamp on things. Working with real life problems in the Government sector has been fascinating and my appetite for consulting has been truly whetted by weekly interactions with the Government CoC team and attendance at two international conferences.

I thoroughly enjoyed being able to add my own creative insights and stamp my exuberance on the work I carried out. In particular though I loved interacting with clients and senior IBMers on trips abroad – broadening my knowledge of consulting and a taste of the scope to travel and work with clients. Educating and engrossing myself in key IBM initiatives has allowed me to have meaningful, content enriched, conversations at international conferences in Rome and Vienna. I have tried to expose myself to as many different people at IBM, committed to finding out as much about the company as possible and absorb their insights to learn and grow.

I hope that the experience of the past year, through the quality of work I have produced and competencies I have demonstrated, will reward me with an offer of graduate employment with IBM. It has given me the necessary exposure to feel confident and sure of a career within business and from that I have started to make better informed decisions about possible careers.

I have developed a great relationship with the careers team at Lancaster which I helped to run several very successful mock assessment centres for, allowing students at the university to gain exposure of a ‘live’ assessment centre to practice and hone in their skills before applying to placements themselves. I also delivered numerous IBM workshops and worked with the university careers team to give these. I will continue to help the careers department upon returning to Lancaster.