A day in the life of an IBM Apprentice

• 8am- I like to wake up early and make a proper cup of coffee to start off my day. I’ll read and make breakfast and generally leave the house by about 8.

• 8:30- Depending on the traffic I’ll get to work around half past 8 and after catching up with email (I work with clients and other IBMers all over the world so it isn’t strange to receive emails at midnight!), I’ll usually do some work on my GiveBack projects (projects outside your normal role that nonetheless benefit yourself and IBM). Currently I’m working on: an innovation proposal for a very large client, developing an analytics tool for IBM hiring personnel, administering the IBM Apprentice blog and lastly, a project to improve the IBM Apprenticeship scheme as a whole and establish some best practices.

• 09:30-12:00 – At around half past nine I kick off my work for the day. I am an Architect which means I am involved in the high levels of projects: assisting in the direction of new proposals, finding areas for innovation in, or improvement of, an existing solution, and ensuring that the information (documentation) we have for the account is up to date and accurate (documentation may sound boring, but when you deal with Enterprise level solutions that may span many countries or even continents, it is the be all and end all!). I will attend or host multiple meetings throughout the day, either over the phone or in person and will spend the rest of my time updating or creating the already mentioned documentation, logging into client environments and actually performing technical work/changes or thinking (there are two white boards in my office that get a really good use each day!).

• 12:00 – 12:45 – I’ll grab some lunch with a colleague (a graduate who is also an Architect) and then go for a walk around the campus (IBM Hursley always surprises me with new paths or gardens I haven’t seen before!)

• 12:45 – 18:00 – I will usually be continuing what I was working on in the morning, or if I managed to complete that before lunch, I’ll move onto one of the other accounts I work on.

• 16:00 – coffee no.3 (usually!)

• 18:00 – shut down the laptop, leave the office. I’ll occasionally check my phone just in case an important email or call has come through but usually I’m pretty safe to just relax and plough on through Breaking Bad

The best part of my working day:

Working directly with the clients is always really rewarding. It helps you to develop as a person if you need to deal with difficult situations, and work to give the best possible result to the client. People expect big things of IBM and when you deliver, it is really satisfying.