Aldi Review

Overall, I had a very enjoyable year at Aldi. It certainly took some getting used to at the beginning of placement and can at times seem like you've drawn the short straw when you’re working from 5am on the weekends all summer and your friends are doing their weekday 9-5 office jobs, you really haven't and actually begin to appreciate having the flexibility of having a weekday off or a 2pm finish. Working in store is a really fun environment, especially over Christmas and it really makes you appreciate the time in office when you get there! The variety of roles I seem to have been exposed to this year compared to a lot of my friends and the huge responsibility I’ve had is what makes this placement stand out from everything else and make the year so enjoyable.

Throughout the whole placement, you know your work is valued by the company which is a huge benefit of this year. Both in store, when you’re the only manager on a shift working and the company are relying on you to run the store successfully and in head office, when you are completing projects that are used by the company across the company and in cases rolled out to other countries. Everything you are doing is adding value to the company and it is acknowledged by the directors who you are constantly in contact with throughout the year which you couldn’t say about a lot of placements.

Whilst you are given support and guidance throughout the placement from your Area Manager mentor, a huge part of the culture at Aldi is to be driven and prepared to push your own training by being proactive at all stages of the placement. If you are someone who isn’t willing to go that extra mile on your own accord and need someone to hold your hand throughout the year - this probably isn’t the company for you. However, if you are always thinking one step ahead to improve you’ll find that the guidance and support is always there for you when people can see how much effort you are making.

There is so much going on at Aldi you are certainly never bored or short of things to do and this is an aspect of placement I’ve enjoyed throughout the whole year. You will learn to always make the most efficient use of your time and get the most out of your shifts which will be a very handy skill to transfer to University in third year!

The responsibility you are given is probably the one thing people mention when taking about both the Aldi placement and Aldi grad scheme. It is unparalleled to any placement I’ve heard of and when I talk to friends about my year they can’t believe how much responsibility I’ve been given. I thought it would be much more daunting than it was but in reality your trained so thoroughly from the first moment you step in store one day your suddenly managing a team of 20+ people on your own over Christmas and you hardly realised it happened - it’s by far the most rewarding aspect of the placement.

My organisation and time management have been the skills I have utilised and improved the most this year this will be a huge benefit next year at University in terms of completing my work. Whilst other people find third year stressful and a huge work load I can safely say I cannot picture this being the case after the workload I’ve had this year!

The atmosphere in the office was really fun, there were eight placement students in total and we all got on really well. The Area Managers and directors are also always friendly and sociable. It’s one of the best aspects of Aldi the amount of contact you have with top level management and how approachable they are.

Whilst at the beginning of placement you are given a set structure for the year, it did change quite a lot in terms of what stores you would be in. Often we would be staying in hotels for quite large chunks of placement due to the geographical location of the stores which did get quite lonely however, this is something we have been told will be improving for future years along with the short notice changes to the training plan.

The company definitely invest a lot in your training and development, they treat it like a yearlong interview and ideally want everyone to be at a standard to come back onto the graduate scheme by the end due to how much time they have already invested in you. I can safely say that even if I didn’t come back to Aldi the skills I have developed will be useful elsewhere.

Future prospects within the company are very appealing, they make it clear from the beginning that there is a job offer waiting for you if you are suitable for the graduate scheme at the end of the year and there are not a limited number of places available. You do not have to reapply for the graduate scheme if you are successful this year, the managing director directly offers you a place on it before you leave.

All the placement students I worked with got on really well and we all lived together for the entire placement so meant there was a much larger social aspect than otherwise. It was helpful due to how geographically dispersed we were, if we had not been living together it would have been a lot more difficult to see each other. I know this is the case in other regions as it is not common to live with other placement students.

The house I lived in I share with three other people and it was only £275 a month so this is a lot cheaper than my university house. I do think it was hard to find a house that big that would rent to students though as it is not a student area so a lot of landlords would only rent to families.

The nightlife where we lived was okay - there are definitely better areas in terms of nightlife from a social side but as far as I am aware in the future the region are going to recommend a different location to be the central point to live which has a much better nightlife.

There were opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work because we lived together, this is not something Aldi organised other than a Christmas meal. This is the one side of placement that I think could be improved slightly as it can be quite lonely when you are working in stores far apart.