Business Placement Review

The Placement was great in terms of personal development. There were fantastic times and there were tough times, but that is the nature of retail.

I not only had a fantastic commercial team that I worked with every day but a great network that I built up across the company. I was given important tasks to deliver and the fact I was trusted to deliver them made me feel valued.

I was given development support from all levels.

Mostly very busy. The day to day routine jobs become part of your every day life, however peak times or rapid deal switch on mean you have to be able to deal with a reactive environment. Although my hours were 8-5 I often worked over or did work at home to get myself more prepared or ahead on tasks.

I was given lots of responsibility, from being the only manager on the food hall 2 months in to organising and delivering Christmas Food To Order as well as a project within Loss Prevention to change the risk levels in outlets and then launching Sparks in our store. There was so much variety and so much I needed to be on top of. I was managing £250k a week departments and teams of unto 60 people - not many students can say that from their placement. Having your own responsibility and accountability made it all worth while - but with a strong support network around to help when needed.

I have become a strong people person - I can communicate, coach and lead far better than I could at the beginning of the placement. I have confidence in my own abilities and now like to look outside the box to find solutions and continuous improvement which are all skills that will help me.

The job is not office based - there's some office work and lots of meetings but you spend 80% of your time on the shop floor with the customers. The atmosphere can be stressful at times but there is a general feeling of being one team and working together to deliver the best results for the store and the best experience for the customer. I loved the competition with other stores and regions - it made everything more fun and worth while.

The placement had a general structure where you move to a different department every 3 months or so, however due to staffing changes there were times where I had less support and guidance than I would have liked. You were to follow a management trainee plan to tick off different skills and this was a great way of making sure you know what you are doing and where you still need development.

I went on many courses that have also built skills up.

I am currently still working with the company in a different role and am looking forward to starting with them on the fast track graduate scheme next year.

As a graduate team we met up when we had courses and some of the placements/grads from other areas of the UK are now my really close friends. There are often meals and nights out in the teams, but it depends on the people in your commercial team.

I worked in Pudsey and Leeds which are fantastic living and socialising costs - well within the budget of what you're paid.

Leeds City Centre... Brilliant

There were links to local charities you could be involved in.