Jed Just

Country of origin: United Kingdom

Placement: IBM

I’d been attracted to doing a placement year when I applied to university as I wanted to gain some real workplace experience before I graduated. It also seemed like the perfect opportunity to put some of my learning from my degree into practice.

I worked at the junction between the technical and business sides of IBM’s solutions for clients within our European Technical Sales division. It meant I got to work alongside some incredibly talented technical people working to transform our clients’ businesses. 

I love technology but I’m not the most technically skilled person, so working in a business operations capacity was the perfect combination for me. My role focussed on developing our technical workforce and supporting their client solutions across the continent.

My placement year has been diverse in the sense no two weeks have the same. I’ve been really lucky to have been given a huge amount of responsibility and a wide variety of tasks and project assignments. I’ve also had the ability to pursue totally different opportunities outside of my role that interested me.

In addition to my main role, I also took on additional roles elsewhere in the organisation. I began working with one of our Diversity & Inclusion business resource groups. That’s led to huge personal growth for me, as well as making great connections with people inside and outside the business that I wouldn’t have made otherwise.

LUMS were a great support in preparing me for my placement year, especially in first year. I was provided with training in a number of areas that made me a stronger candidate, especially for applications, assessment centres and interviews.

This placement year has given me the ability to put my academic learning into practice and also consider how my observations throughout the year can be used towards the final year of my degree. I think I’ll also be able to leverage a number of developed skills and relationships in the workplace after graduating.