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You will have a professional development manager and also a task manager. Your task manager will be there to focus on your day to day role and the projects and clients you are working with. Your professional development manager will be there to help you initially with the basics like getting your laptop and ID badge, to helping you plan your career, network with the right people and make the most of opportunity that presents itself. Your professional development manager will know exactly what is happening with your career and will be focussed solely on helping you get to where you want to be.

Every year you will draw up an Individual Development Plan with your Manager, to identify strengths, interests, goals, training requirements and development activities. This will provide you with a clear layout of your short term objectives as well as long term goals and aspirations. You will review this plan once a year with your manager to ensure your continued career development.

Personal Business Commitments is the program by which all IBM employees worldwide set their goals for the year, receive feedback on their performance and development needs, and get evaluated on their performance. At the beginning of your career with us, and each year after that, you will set personal business goals which will align with IBM’s overall business goals and values. At the end of each year, your manager will evaluate how well you have achieved these goals, compared with your peers and rate your overall performance. The results of this are key in determining any performance bonus you may receive and future career opportunities.

There are various career roadmaps available within IBM to help you plan your career. These maps will help you identify what skills are required and how to gain proficiency in these for a particular job role or profession. They also detail what specific experiences are required and what relevant education you need to advance to the next level of your career, and in some cases, gain professional accreditation.

We have created the ‘Your career’ website to help you manage your career in IBM. All the things you need to perform online career-related tasks and activities are accessible in one easy place – from managing your objectives to creating your Individual Development Plan. This tool also helps you find available projects, jobs, mentors and provides a personalised all-in-one status of your career development tasks and activities.

Our virtual career coach helps you understand who you are, where and how you do your best work. Once you have evaluated your personality, workstyle, interests, skills and experience the coach will then help you explore the options available to you – understanding IBM and our business strategies, what is going on outside IBM, helping you understand about other areas or professions in IBM. The coach will then help you identify the experience you already have and where there are areas for development. This will all then feed into your individual development plan.