crazybobbles

This will probably be a long entry. The day was pretty jam packed with stories and funderful adventures during the whole job interview process at I to the B to the M.

6.00am
Woke up tired and exhausted, got to sleep at 4am, spent most of the time trying to find my birth certificate and national insurance card for indentification at IBM. Twas an awfully long process. Tried to make the best of the day by having some crunchy nut cornflakes. Kinda woke me up an extra bit and prepared me for the day still to come.

6.30am
Out and heading to Southfields, pretty much in time so hope for the best when I get there.

7.00am
SHIT! :O :O :O
Found out I left quite alot of important stuff at home, this included the email talking about the interview day (wasnt too important but it kinda was, just to know what’s going on), the directions of the center, and the stations I had to take to get there. So travelling was all from memory with heavy doubtage along the way. Texted B. about what happened and she thought i was silly forgetting it.

8.20am
Met Anna from uni at Haslemere, began to feel relieved that the station was right, took a taxi to the center to begin the journey of industrial placementship.

8.40am
Met the organiser of the interviewer, seems like I’m the first one there Probably gives a good sign that we’re punctual and all. THe whole interview started at 9.30am so it most latecomers would catch up and not miss out too much. The center was very nice, the walls were painted green and the floor was patterened with carrots. There was a big ramp for disabled access and lots of free coffee/tea/water were served accomadated by some fruits and even muffins!

A corridoor
Coffee/Tea Maker, free obviously
The disabled access bit

9.30am
Had a briefing with the staff and all at IBM, one from some guy called Roy and two from two previous placement students who are coincidently both called Matthew. We had our timetable in what we had to do for the day. There were 24 students, each allocated a number and from this timetable, showed what we were doing during the day. I was number 16

Timetable
10.30am
Did an IPAT Test, it was basically an aptitude test. All multiple choiced questions and all linked to number reasoning. Separated into 3 parts, part 1 was about matrices and seeing how fast you can manage numbers, the second part was finding patterns and filling out the next number in line, the last part was just basic hardcore maths algebra Afterwards we signed some forms and signed some claims towards our travel expenses, bit boring at that part. After all that, lunch was served

12.50am
Aah lunch, twas a cool meal, had a choice between tuna paste bake or beef :D. Below are the contents that right now rest quietly in my stomach awaiting digestion *yums tummy*

Got a bit nosey and took a photo of the people there :D. The guy in the middle was the eldest interviewee for today, he was alright… funny hair hehe

After lunch we chilled out, went to the lounge, they had a massive version of Jenga which i began building a large domino Jenga thingy. People played pool, was a bit gay and the others talked, some talked to the previous placement kids for hints during the interview. It was mucho fun. The sleaziest thing during the day was that i found out the paper towel dispenser was controlled via infra red sensors. This center knows how to waste its money
Domino effect
Click here for miracle paper towel dispenser

1.50pm
After lunch came the interviews. There were two interviews, one was a personal interview, talking more about you and your life in general, the other one was a technical one, focusing on technical aspects such as programming language etc. Both of them went pretty well.
There were also group tests, where people montiored groups of us working together to compelte a project. That was alright, could have done better i guess. One of them involved lego
After that, we all said our goodbyes and went back home nice happy ending.
Results are told in teh next 10 days, quite scary, apparently theres quite alot of London placements for IBM. Many interviewees didnt want to do London due to its high living expenses. For me its grand as I just live at home and dont pay a penny ooooh yeah
I missed B. throughout the interview
Anyhows,
To sum it up, interview went well, had a fun time there very anticipated about the results, hope I do get in otherwise ill just wait a bit more for other jobs and choose to do third year straight after second if theres nothing good.