IBM

• Training on Your Learning
• Consulting Training by IBMers from outside South Africa

As part of a 20+ intake of graduates in 2017, we were promised by the IBM HR team that we would receive an intern salary of 4 figures within the first 3 months at IBM as part of the training and thereafter a salary of market-related value based on whether you were a developer or tester.

In the third month, IBM management said they were unaware of this arrangement and carried on paying the intern staff the same salary. Many, if not 90%, of the interns that joined had left permanent positions elsewhere due to this opportunity and what was promised.

More than half of the interns had left the program prematurely due to the lies that were told by management and misalignment between IBM partners and HR.

• Laptops were only issued after 2 1/2 months.

IBM management wanted to fire the entire graduate intake after they exposed them to senior management of the treatment they were facing. Senior management questioned the leaders of the graduate program, of which inconsistent answers were given.

I have never seen such a motivated and dedicated group of interns join a company and then be crushed and thrown under the bus as they have.

You lost out on a great opportunity to utilize the skills of the recent graduate intake. You demotivated them, threw them under the bus, and then were close to firing all of them, when all they wanted was an opportunity to contribute value to the company.