Retail Managment Review

That day to day role i partook in was a very enjoyable rewarding experience, you spend the day with the team which are a welcoming and friendly bunch. Being customer facing came mean that you can come across anyone in your day, this made everyday different and not one day was the same.

By the end of the placement i felt like an integral part of my department and resulted in my line manager and colleagues being sad to see me leave the team.

A big surprise for me when starting the role was the small level of structure that is initially put in place, however this does encourage you to drive your own development and if you are prepared to do this you can really reap the rewards.

Naturally in retail you will go through peaks and throughs leading to busy and quiet periods involving customers, but what good businesses and managers will do is to utilise the quite customer periods to develop other areas of the business resulting in numerous projects etc.

I pushed very hard to be put into a management position and was welcomed and ended up having my own section, I was also responsable for dealing with external businesses such as Nike to put in place a sports pop up shop as well as running clearance and stock take for my section (these are a big deal). I then, towards then end of the placement, ended up spending time within the next band of management, attending steering group meetings, having one to ones with Operations managers to understand this next level of management which would be my next area of development.

I am yet to return from my placement back into studies, but i believe i have definitely developed a discipline and can relate the theory i have learnt to my placement and vice versa with the practical skills ive developed there.

the atmosphere on the shop floor is lively and up beat and exciting place to be.

as aforemetioned there isnt a great deal of structure it is really up to you to decide what it is you want from the 10 months and drive for that. There are quaterly IP meet ups which are nice but outside of that its on you.

The company are very happy for you to attend management training courses and also I would encourage to push for your attendance to bi-weekly leadership meetings which can be insightful. Although again this is all driven by you, it is unlikely this is going to be handed to you.

Having been offered a place on the John Lewis graduate scheme the prospects are looking good, the scheme is arguably the best in retail so if it is retail you are interested in this is the place to be.

we had quarterly meetings and an active social media group but being spread across the country was certainly a barrier to the social aspect of our relationships.

London... do I need to say anymore. of course with the scheme you can work in any shop up and down the country, i choose to work in london and it was a great experience but in terms of living costs, its not cheap.

London nightlife could potentially be the best in the world, its just going to cost you. there are cheaper places to and are still enjoyable but if your looking for the 'made in chelsea' lifestyle be prepared to pay for it

There are alot of benefits and leisure schemes working in the partnership, however as they are partneship wide it can be a stuggle to find a local one.