When I came to the Birmingham open day, I knew right then that it had to be my first choice. It has everything you could want for your university years.
It has dedicated professors and staff, that are genuinely invested in the success and development of students; it has a beautiful campus, with excellent facilities, and it offers numerous social and competitive activities both for academic and non-academic purposes.
And of course… the University of Birmingham is one of the most attractive universities to top graduate employers. Being able to write on the first few lines of my CV that I have graduated from a Russel group university has given me a sense of pride and has helped differentiate me from others.
Did you participate in any extra-curricular activities?
I played UoB netball for the first two years of university and then joined the women’s lacrosse team for my final year. My involvement in sport has been critical to my success at IBM. Not only has it helped me deliver results under pressure, but it has also taught me the value of teamwork and the importance of communication. I work as part of a team every day at IBM and so the experiences I had being part of these university teams has excelled me to greater levels of responsibility early on in my career.
Describe your current role and organisation
IBM is a global organisation, renowned for its graduate opportunities. I joined the company on the Associate Programme in March 2019. Following 2 years of graduate training and development, I am now an AI Consultant, specialising in delivering cognitive solutions. My core responsibilities include autonomously running the end-to-end cycle of project delivery. Aside from my project work, I am a member of various initiatives dedicated to driving collaboration and innovation to support professional development for external students and underprivileged adults. I am also a 2021 winner in the We Are the City Rising Star Awards in the digital category.
Describe a typical day
One of the great things about being a consultant at IBM is that every day is different. We tend to work on one or two projects at a time.
At IBM we always try to adopt agile practises where possible. For instance, each day typically starts with a “stand up” meeting with my project team where we talk through key activities and address any blockers for the day.
From there we could either hold solutioning workshops which involve using Enterprise Design Thinking, collaborating closely with our client to understand key requirements. It may also involve me taking these requirements and actually creating the solutions. Recently this has included building, testing and optimising virtual assistants (chatbots), but next it could involve me using an entirely different AI asset.
The collaborative nature of my job means I am able to create great relationships with those I am working with, making it a really fun and social environment. Undoubtably, it involves hard work, dedication and creativity, but it is incredibly rewarding to see the positive impact we are making to our clients.
What is the best piece of advice you ever received?
As cliché as it sounds, the best piece of advice I have been given is to: say yes. Put yourself forward for, and embrace every opportunity, particularly when starting out in your career. I didn’t ever think I would end up with the career I have built and the technological skills that I have developed. It would not have been possible if I didn’t have the courage to seek out and say yes to every opportunity I could. Starting a new job can be overwhelming, particularly if you aren’t sure of exactly what you want to do. Saying yes has allowed me to continuously learn new things and discover an area of technology that I am really passionate about.