Merchandising Admin Assistant Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my year placement at M&S. I was very fortunate to work with a great team, who supported me and helped me progress throughout the year. I learnt many news skills and understanding the process of the fashion industry, all of which will help me when applying for graduate schemes and in my future career.

I felt incredibly welcomed when I joined my team. The department I was placed on was very proactive in involving all team members within work and outside of work arrangements which helped to get to know my colleagues more and feel more comfortable in the work environment.

I was given support from my team members and other work colleagues who were also in the same as role. I had a review meeting with my manager a few months into my placement, which I felt was beneficial for me to bring up areas I wanted to improve my knowledge and areas for me to develop.

My work load varied from day to day, this was due to season and collection planning. once the buyer had agreed a price on a style I was able to start the process of ordering the garment with the suppliers. I always had delivery changes to negotiate and amend on the system every day as changes to styles were always being made. Meetings in the diary that would not occur every day sometimes made my work load increase in order to prepare for them.

I felt I was given a comfortable amount of responsibility with me only being on placement. My responsibility increased throughout my placement year once I had learnt more about specific tasks and Ila's able to cover my Assistant Merchandiser if they were out of office. I was given a large amount of responsibility in terms of training other members of staff, which I felt helped me to become more confident in my position. The level of my position I felt I was someone my employees of the same level could come to for help.

I have definitely benefited from my year placement at M&S in terms of skills for my degree such as using excell and knowledge of the fashion industry, my part time work position with figures and new styles and my general every day life working and meeting different people. All of the skills I learnt in my placement year will benefit me in all aspects of my future career.

The atmosphere in the office was always fast paced and moral was high especially on the department I worked on as it usually performed well. I got on well with my work colleagues on my team and other members of staff on the floor which made coming into work a good experience.

I thought my placement was well organised, however my only criticsim would be to ensure there is full training when starting the new role. I was lucky to have the previous placement student teach me and again lucky she was staying an extra 5 weeks instead of only having 1 week to learn from her. I think a longer hand over period is required in my role as an MAA due to company systems which can possibly take over a week to create a purchase order for a new style so can be hard to show this process. Other than training, I felt my placement was organised well.

I was able to attend workshops and sessions to understand more about a topic such as Merchandising or Plan A that will benefit me on my placement. My team members showed me tasks such as markdown so I would be able to complete them if someone was out of office. I think I could have possibly attended more workshops such as excell and presenting to gain further confidence however I hadn't due to time and work load.

I would love to be able to return to M&S. I thoroughly enjoyed working for the company and looked into the graduate programme whilst I was on placement. I also spoke to other colleagues who were entry levels and graduates to gain understanding of how best to apply for the company again. There is progression within the business which I saw whilst I was on placement, which was very appealing to me,

I was fortunate to have two other placement students on my brand and floor. Although they were not directly on my team, it meant that I was able to understand the different departments of design and buying and what their role entailed. My team were very proactive in organising team events outside of work such as karaoke, and after work drinks which helped to get to know more people around me at work who I may not directly work with.

I lived north west London, luckily not too far from Paddington. My commute was just under 30minutes. However due to this I was paying £700 rent per month not including bills. As I'm not from London the cost of living and socialising was a lot higher than I had anticipated. I tried to make the best out of my placement year in the location I was in.

I worked at the head office in Paddington. There were a few bars and restaurants nearby the office around the canal, however these were low key. If you were wanting more nightlife you would need to travel to different areas such as soho which isn't far away on the tube.

From memory, I don't believe there were many. Only organised activities from my department and charity events which I helped support.