IBM is a Campus Forward Award Winner

IBM is the global leader in business transformation through an open hybrid cloud platform and AI, serving clients in more than 170 countries around the world. Today 47 of the Fortune 50 Companies rely on the IBM Cloud to run their business, and IBM Watson enterprise AI is hard at work in more than 30,000 engagements. IBM is also one of the world’s most vital corporate research organizations, with 28 consecutive years of patent leadership. Above all, guided by principles for trust and transparency and support for a more inclusive society, IBM is committed to being a responsible technology innovator and a force for good in the world.

Visit IBM's Career page here.

Building an Innovative and Multi-Faceted Approach to University Recruiting

In 2018, IBM was innovative and created a virtual recruitment team. This was designed to allow more inclusivity to all candidates and provide opportunities to all students at all universities/colleges. In 2021, IBM continued to pivot and craft business-unit-focused events available to all, no matter what school a candidate attends. IBM is truly focused on the skills of a candidate versus the school that they attend. Additionally, IBM has created a robust 6-week early identification program that provides both practical soft skills as well as business skills in one of 6 business focus areas to prepare candidates for both roles with IBM as well in the general workforce.

Crafting a Standout Candidate Experience

The Early Professional team at IBM understands that each candidate is their client. With that in mind, they look to ensure candidate experience with IBM is top-notch. This begins from offering 1:1 chats with the sourcing team to provide guidance and ensure they apply for the position that fits their interests, but also aligns with their current skill set. Additionally, events are provided that allow candidates to learn more about the business unit(s) of interest, have 1:1's with IBM'ers in that role, and provide a fun environment with live DJs, but also chat rooms to focus on their well being. IBM provides direct followup post-event and also collects data to continuously improve these experiences.

Moving the Needle on Diversity & Inclusion

IBM's early professional team is dedicated and passionate about diverse hiring. This truly is the backbone to continuously building a diverse culture across the company. Team members are aligned and focused on forging relationships with HBCUs, HSIs, faculty, staff and students but also building relationships with key student body members throughout the United States. Additionally, they've created events, such as HBCU homecoming, that allows current IBM HBCU alums to connect with current students at HBCUs. This allows students to connect, understand more about available business resource groups, programming such as the early ID program, and also identify potential mentors.

Investing in Impactful Internship Programs

At IBM, interns are not only aligned to projects and tasks that provide day-to-day solutions for clients, they also take part in a fun and community-building experience. The IBM Intern Radio Show is a unique opportunity for interns to host a weekly radio show on the IBM radio station. Interns interview their peers and bring on special guests. They also take part in intern-only Slack channels to build connections virtually with other interns, weekly lunch-and-learns, as well intern projects which allow them to team with other interns across the country. This program has provided an experience which has contributed to high conversion rates and a high number of referrals of their peers.

Supporting the Growth and Development of Entry-Level Talent

IBM has a number of programs aligned to an individual's assigned business unit that provides mentorship, training and networking opportunities. Additionally, IBM provides a robust internal learning platform which allows all IBM'ers professional development opportunities, business resource groups to build their internal network, opportunities to learn about other areas of IBM, as well as opportunities within their community or team, and volunteer opportunities. An example of this is Corporate Service Corp, a pro-bono in-country consulting program for top performers. IBM is dedicated to provide opportunities from day one to allow professional growth and development from the beginning of their careers.

Congratulations to the team at IBM for being selected as one of the winners of RippleMatch's 2022 Campus Forward Awards!

RippleMatch's Campus Forward Awards recognizes the top early career teams and programs in the nation. Through a detailed application process, early career teams shared their approach to recruitment, candidate experience, D&I, and internship & entry-level programming. The programs picked for this award represent the best of the best, selected from applications submitted by campus recruiting teams across industries.

See all Award Winners for the category of Large Early Career Programs, Large Team below