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Name: Marion B - IT SpecialistDegree subject: BSc (Hons) Business Information TechnologyUniversity: Bournemouth UniversityJoined: 2006 Insider Tip: ‘Be willing to learn’

 1. Why IBM?I applied to join IBM because I came here as a placement student and I really enjoyed theexperience. My team were so supportive, they gave me loads of opportunities and it was justa lovely place to work.   2. What is your current role?My current role is as an IT Specialist. That means in essence you specialise in a specifictechnology. For me, at the moment, it is all about moving around and learning lots of differenttechnologies. I started off as a database administrator, working across sectors on a number of different projects. Since then I’ve moved into one of those particular projects, working for asingle customer. I talk to them on a daily basis about what sort of things they want from IBM. 

3. How has your degree linked to your current role?My degree subject is really quite strongly linked to my current role. I’m using a lot of things Ilearned in theory at university, in practice in my current role. Things like database technologyand networks, application developments and Java. One of the skills we touched on atuniversity but never really developed fully was teamwork, so that’s obviously come into light alot in my current role. 4. What training and development have you had?In terms of training and development I’ve been offered a lot of different things, courses in bothpersonal skills and technical skills. I’ve been offered quite a few invite only courses which isquite exciting for a graduate to get on those sorts of things. There’s a course called‘Unleashing your Potential’, which was really exciting, where we got to learn lots about your image and how you should interact with other people. IBM has also funded me to take some

of the DB2 exams. There’s an education road map, so you can follow a particular profession.This was database administration and I’ve taken 2 out of the 4 exams. I am thinking of doingthat for my current role aswell. 5. How do you see your career developing?I want to move around a lot in the IT Specialist profession, so rather than specialising in oneparticular technology, I want to move into lots of different roles, move around and get lots of different experience. I would quite like to move into IT Architecture, looking at performancearchitecture in particular, making sure systems are running effectively and fixing performanceproblems and just helping projects out when they have problems really. 6. What ‘giveback’ activities have you been involved with?Outside my day to day activities with IBM, there are lots of opportunities to get involved in

‘Giveback,’ which is where IBM employees give back to the community. One of the things werun here in Hursley is the ‘Excite’ Camp and Mentorplace scheme. This is a scheme wherewe get 36 school age girls into IBM and run different activities with them throughout the year.It starts off with a big ‘Excite’ camp in the summer. All the girls come in and do lots of activities, such as building egg towers and learning algorithms. It’s to get them excited aboutscience and technology really. For me it’s picking a give back activity that I’m really excitedabout, and is going to enthuse me to get on with my current day job. 7. How has your perception of IBM changed?My perception of IBM has changed since I started working for IBM. I started as a placementstudent a couple of years ago and have since come back as a graduate. I really enjoyed it asa placement student and that’s why I wanted to come back. Since coming back I have learnedmore about how we use technology for real client situations, which I didn’t get particularly

involved in as a placement student. I have also learnt that it’s not just developing technologyjust for technologies sake. We are using it to solve real business problems.

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 8. Why stay with IBM?You can just tell you are a really valued employee, there’s so much support, they help youwith your career development and they give you lots of education.