BPP - Trainee Commercial Manager Review

At times I enjoyed my placement very much - mostly during busy periods or when there were special events on. However at times it could be a little boring and sometimes frustrating when there was not as much to do.

From day 1 I felt that I was part of the team and I felt that my contributions, however small initially, were valued by my colleagues. I was given feedback by colleagues to confirm this on many occassions.

I was given support when I asked for it but it was very much a self-directed year of learning. Whilst this gave me the ability to flex the placement to suit my needs, it sometimes left me feeling a little lost. I was given feedback when I asked for it and my team were very supportive of my development needs when I asked them for help.

At Christmas I was very busy all day every day. Outside of Christmas there were days that were more relaxed with slightly less to do and I occassionally found myself with nothing to do but in these instances I would only be without a task for a very short period of time - there was always plenty to do!

After my initial training period I was given various responsibilities; including time spent stepping up into the role of various managers in order to gain some real experience. All responsibility I was given, I felt that I had the full backing of my team and I felt confident that I could succeed because of this, It was important to my mentors that I should be given some form of accountability from very early on and this increased as the year progressed.

Very much so - I have developed a huge range of skills that I feel I will be able to talk about in future interviews but that will also help me when I return to university and in life.

A friendly atmosphere that was professional but fun at the same time. During busy/stressful times there would sometimes be a bit of pressure felt by all but I always felt comfortable and welcome. The mix of ages created an interesting dynamic and allowed me to draw upon the experience of others. Having another placement student with me was great, it allowed me to have someone to ask silly questions to in the early days and someone to discuss my experiences with later in the year.

I was given a pack to work through during the year but it was very vague and offered little detail regarding what I should be doing during the year. This did however allow me to shape my year to suit my needs and preferences, giving me a more tailored experience. There were oganised workshops and training days that I could book on to and these were always very well organsied and enjoyable days. I was given an overview of what I should do throughout the year but very little relating to specifics - this made it hard at times to track my progress or understand if I was doing what I was supposed to be doing.

I was given the opportunity to attend numerous workshops to develop a range of skills. Throughout the year I was encouraged to focus on my own development and 'be selfish' in terms of what I needed to do in order to develop, I was given opportunities to spend time in different stores, attend meetings and visit distribution centres - all adding to my knowledge and skill base. I always felt that my personal training and development was the most important thing.

If I were to return I would be able to enter a live role relatively quickly - allowing me to skip the usual graduate scheme process. From here I would have the opportunity to progress within the business as quickly as was appropriate for my ability. However, there is only one role that I would be able to return to - with the view to going into something different further down the line if I wanted to - and this puts me off slightly as there are many other roles within the business that I would've like to have had the opportunity to explore.

I got along very well with the other placement student that I worked with and we chose to do things together outside of work. I attended a few staff nights out and there was a Christmas party. However, the majority of my colleagues were older and married with children so there wasn't much socialising outside of work. It was also made harder by everyone working different shifts and people working at weekends etc.

York is a relatively expensive city however I was able to secure a reasonably priced flat and there are plenty of cheap supermarkets around to buy food from. The drinks in York are quite expensive because it is mainly bars and independent pubs but it is worth the money as there are many nice cocktail bars and special places to eat. I joined a cheap gym and train travel is relatively cheap from York because of it being a popular tourist city.

It was different to being a student - more bars and pubs than nightclubs. But this was a nice change and there was still nightclubs and cheaper drinks places to go to. There was very little in the way of live music but there are theatres and a nice cinema in town. Taxis are reasonable but it is also easy to walk most places in York - making it great for pub crawls and going to lots of different bars in one night.

There were very few through work but there are lots of things to do in York. There are lots of gyms and sports clubs as well as shopping parks, cinemas, bowling and the theatre, There are lots of tourist attractions in York and a ghost tour. I was able to take a paid day to volunteer and did so at a charity fun run. Because of the nature of the different work patterns in retail there was nothing in the way of work sports clubs to get involved in.