Industrial Placement Student Review

Looking back over the year I really enjoyed my placement. I would definitely recommend it to people considering doing a placement scheme and to anyone unsure about doing one. However, on some occasions I did find it difficult. You have to work long hours over unsociable times and this can be draining. Coming straight from Uni the long hours is something I didn't enjoy, but I'm very happy I stuck at it. At some points I did want to give up on it. Working in store is when it was the hardest. Sometimes you do 14hour shifts and with the companies culture that's just what's expected of you.

In store you are given the job role as Assistant Manager. I felt that some of the current Assistant Managers in the store I worked didn't appreciate that I had the same job role as them. However, this was not the case all the time and not every manager was like this, only a few. I felt that sometimes they treated me as an extra there to just do a Store Assistants job. In store I ended up making very good relationships with 95% of the team. During your store time you have very limited contact with the other Industrial Placement students. You see a lot of each other in head office but seeing them more during store time would have been a lot better.

In Aldi the consensus is that you push for your own training and development. This is good to an extent but I felt that more support and guidance would have been helpful. I did have updates with my Area Manager Mentor but sometimes I felt that I couldn't fully open up about how I felt. Throughout the year I constantly felt as though I was being monitored, like a year long interview.

There is never a moment at Aldi where you have nothing to do. In store the days go so quickly as you have so much to do. You work 50 hours(ish) a week and they go very quickly because you constantly have things to get on with. When you come out of store and into the head office's you are given work straight away. If you ever complete your work the assistants will give you more.

You are given a lot of responsibility very early on. From my second week in I was giving people interviews for store assistant roles. In store you are given the job role as Assistant Manager which gives you responsibility from the off. However, this is quite difficult. You are taught how to put stock out by store assistants and then are expected to manager those very same people only a few weeks later. This was a great challenge. In head office you are given worth while projects which carry a lot of responsibility.

I have developed a lot more time management and organisational skills. At Uni I would lay in bed till 12pm everyday and skip lectures/seminars. Working a full time job I am so used to working longer hours Uni in final year will be a lot easier. I would do more hours of work in a day at Aldi then I would a week at Uni. I've also done presentations to Directors and this has helped developed my confidence. I even used to feel hesitant when ringing strangers on the phone. I don't even think twice about it now.

As part of the placement you spend 1/2 in store and 1/2 in the head office. In store the atmosphere is very rushed and frantic. Everything moves a million mph. This is good as it means the days go incredibly fast. This contrast a lot to head office. Everything moves a lot slower and is much more relaxed. You very rarely have time limits to complete your work. The people in head office are very friendly and make you feel welcomed. They are all easy to talk with and will always help you if you ask them for it.

The placement is very regimented and organised. It outlines what you will be doing week by week. This is good but only to an extent. As it is so organised it even outlines when your holiday will be. I only found it that you could potentially move your holiday dates when it was to late to do so (March).

The company puts a lot into you. They give you an excellent salary, lots of responsibility from early on and some excellent project work. However, the hours are long and you do have to put a lot of work in. They are looking at you as potential Area Managers so they do invest a lot into you.

Some industrial placements do get offered a direct place on the graduate area manager scheme after their final year at University. However, more do not get offered the job than what do. I felt as though the placement was a year long interview and sometimes I felt under pressure and this definitely resulted in me not always being confident in tasks I did. I feel this will work against me when they decide to offer me a job or not.

We had a whats app group with all the other placement students. We hardly saw each other during store time, and occasionally spoke on the whats app. However, during head office we all got a lot closer to each other and went on quite a few nights outs. These were always good fun.

I lived at home for the year so I was only charged a reduced rent by my mum and dad. Also, the North West is not very expensive to live in. I would definitely recommend doing this if saving money if important to you. A few of the other placement students lived in student houses and this ate into their salary a lot. I was given much more of an opportunity to save my money.

Where I lived the nightlife is good. However, during store time I was always so tired and worked over weekends I had little opportunity to go out. It is very close to Liverpool and Chester. However the region I worked in covers a large amount of the North West. Depending on which store your put in (they try to put you close to your address) it might be different.

Not really. I played two football matches with people from work but I wish there had been more set up. When we did the football matches they were always a good laugh and we would then go for drinks afterwards. It was a shame not more was set up. They were set up by area managers.