Adam Muir

BA Hons Marketing and HRM, University of Strathclyde

 

IBM, Shenzen, China

 

In the summer of 2009, I was honoured to have been given the opportunity to take part in the Saltire Foundation Undergraduate Internship Programme. I had an absolutely amazing 8 weeks working for IBM in Shenzhen which is in the south of China. I was working in supply chain - more specifically, inventory control for one of the servers manufactured by IBM. Supply chain is something I have absolutely no experience of coming from a Finance background, but this is one of the strengths of the Saltire Foundation. It throws you in at the deep end and lets you experience things that you would not normally have the opportunity to experience.

My day to day responsibility was to prepare and analyse daily inventory reports. The type of inventory found in IBM can be extremely expensive so it is important to have good control over inventory levels. Each day I would communicate with different supply chain departments to find out reasons for any adverse changes and report these findings back to senior management at daily production meetings. I was also involved in co-ordinating conference calls with other IBM sites across the world to help the inventory control department in Shenzhen learn from their experience.

I brought to IBM a fresh pair of eyes to help and try to drive the best results for inventory, and during the two months I was working in the inventory control team, we managed to meet our targets which was incredibly rewarding. I have also benefited from having taken part in the internship in a number of ways. Being able to say I have taken part in a prestigious international internship programme has been incredibly helpful in terms of approaching the graduate job market - this is the kind of thing that does make you stand out from the rest of the crowd. It exposes you to cultures and places that are just mind-blowing, and that you might not otherwise have experienced. It really opens your eyes to the opportunities that are out there.

The Saltire Foundation has been a fantastic experience and is something that I am incredibly proud to be apart of. It opens up so many doors for you and really sets you apart from your peers. I applied thinking I would never in a million years get through and here I am having completed my internship. My advice to those of you thinking of applying to the Saltire Foundation - go for it! You only get the chance once.