Amy Blanthorn-Hazell

Country of origin: United Kingdom

Placement: IBM

I decided to do a placement year as I wanted to experience what working in a global company involved. I had worked previously in part time roles in restaurants and for the university but I’d never experienced a global, professional working environment. As I wasn’t sure what career path I wanted to take, I saw the placement year as a good opportunity to try and discover what I’d like to do or what I didn’t want to do.

My role on placement was Business Operations Specialist in the Central Business Management Team in Global Technology Services (GTS) for IBM. I was responsible for providing support to the General Manager of GTS and the business lines. My role involved processes including pipeline, coverage and cost reporting and access control for various business lines to complex projects including promoting online collaboration and driving cost optimisation. 

I would say I definitely learnt A LOT while on placement. Although I had studied business management from an academic aspect at university, nothing can prepare you for being thrown in at the deep end on a placement. as a result of that, you pick up things very quickly and develop so much over the year; from writing basic emails to delivering education to 100+ people.

My favourite thing about my placement with IBM was the opportunity to take part in Giveback activities. Giveback is IBM’s version of volunteering where you can take time out of your role to give presentations to schools, help out at assessment centres and support internal communities. This allowed me to develop my network and experience the wider company which really enhanced my placement experience.

In the future, I am hoping to return to IBM as a graduate in Software Group Sales once I’ve finish my final year of BBA Management at Lancaster University. My placement at IBM opened my eyes to all the potential career opportunities through being able to experience different areas of the company and build an extensive network. As a result of this, I have now decided that Software Group Sales is where I would like to start my career and I am really excited about the thought of this. In addition, during my placement I was heavily involved in ‘Connecting Women in Foundation’; an internal IBM community to help attract and retain females. I am now extremely passionate about ensuring females enter the STEM industry and I am going to complete my dissertation on what attracts and deters females in the undergraduate market from entering the STEM industry.

After speaking to students from different universities, I soon realised that what LUMS Careers team offers us as Management School students is an outstanding service. From reviewing my CV, setting up practice interviews and assessment centres to assisting on the week’s crash course ‘Research @ Work’. Their support was essential in both my success in securing a placement and performance during my placement. Looking towards my final year the ‘Research @ Work’ module also opened my eyes to data collection methods to use for my dissertation which was extremely helpful whilst collecting data from IBM.