Category Assistant Review

I really enjoyed my work placement. I had a great team to work with, was given good training to get up to speed quick, and had an actual job with actual responsibility in the buying team. My job was very varied, i wasn't just doing admin, and it was very fast paced and different every day.

I was given a real job which is an entry role job. Got on really well with other placement students. Other members of staff valued my work and enjoyed the fresh approach I could provide. I was working with very senior members of staff, who valued my opinion and ideas, like the rest of my team.

My manager was great in helping me develop, she put me on the training courses required and did one to one time with me to ensure i understood everything. We also as a placement co-hort was given development training by HR which was really useful and helped from a mental point of view. Other training was on the job and provided by other members of the team.

If you were just to do the normal day job, not take on extra responsibilities or stretch activities you would probably get bored in the job. However, i was keen during the year to get as much experience as possible in every field, took on extra projects and this often meant i was extremely busy all year. I would be productive during the day though so i wouldn't go home too late.

An enormous amount of responsibility. Everything from negotiating with very large important suppliers, to creating emails that go to 100,000 people and even setting up promotions to go into 1000s of stores, i was given loads of responsibility from day 1. However, the support of my peers meant it wasn't daunting.

The skills i have developed will definitely help me be more organised in my final year of university, and has made me realise the modules i want to pick. I really enjoyed buying and will be applying for other similar graduate schemes as this is definitely a field i would want to go in. It's given me a great insight into the world of retail and supplier management.

The atmosphere was lively and pleasant in the office. My team were all quite fun and talkative, it felt relaxed in the office even with the senior managers. There was a nice culture, it wasn't too strict or overly-professional. We did team bonding days, and friday cakes and quiz and had breakfasts to make the team bond and have a more relaxed, enjoyable atmosphere.

The start of the placement involves a 4 week store placement, and we were able to choose the top 3 stores we would like to work in. We didn't find out our allocated store until a week or so before the placement started. We also weren't told what role we were in head office until the day we got there, which was very frustrating - especially since my manager and team knew months before i was coming into the team. Throughout the year once we started it was good as we had specific on the job training then very detailed whole group development sessions which were useful.

I was regularly put onto training courses to help with my job, and to also improve my knowledge in areas i seeked interest in. My job involved a lot of systems so for the first few months i was in training 1 day a week to try and grasp the basics. I also had training on useful skills such as negotiation and personal confidence etc.. which were great and can be used for my final year studies too.

I had been offered a fast track to the graduate assessment centre, and if i didn't want to go down the graduate scheme route i would be offered a role which would be a promotion for my current role now. The employment prospects are very broad due to the size of the company. Other placement students on different schemes e.g. finance, IT were offered graduate jobs straight away, however Brand Buying Marketing was more difficult.

As a co-hort, all the placement students got on really well, especially those who re-located to Nottingham. The day we all arrived at Boots we straight away went for drinks, then ensured we did group activities quite often whether this was going for a night out or just for a meal/watch ice hockey. We regularly had lunches together, and will definitely stay in touch when the placement is over.

My rent was £410 per month, excluding bills, which was quite a bit more than universtiy. However the flat we used was near the city centre and about a 10 minute commute to the head office. Nottingham has a huge range of clubs/bars/restaurants to meet any budget. We tended to go to the more cheaper/student clubs and bars where drinks were around £2/£3, however sometimes we went to more expensive bars where drinks are up to £10 each.

The nightlife in Nottingham is great - there is lots of variety for everyone. We tended to go to bars such as Market bar, stealth and Baa Bar which were slightly cheaper than other clubs, however also went to bars such as the Bodega. There is plenty of places to go to, however they are quite busy at a weekend and more expensive than mid week when the students are around.

There were numerous events such as firework displays for Bonfire night, a charity family fun day and a 10k run through the year that you could get involved in. Some of the placement students climbed Ben Nevis at moonlight to raise money for macmillan. i also think there were some sports clubs and yoga/fitness classes you could get involved in, however these weren't heavily advertised.