Distribution Development and Support Assistant Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement at Waitrose (in JLP), due to the wide variety of opportunities and experiences I have been presented with. These are both within my job role and outside, especially socially where I have met many different people. I would definitely recommend the company and placement.

All colleagues, called Partners within JLP, were supportive and willing to help. This wasn’t just my team members but other Partners that I interacted with throughout my time at Waitrose. In my opinion the welcoming business culture is what makes the Partnership stand out as an employer and is why I chose the company.

My manager was extremely supportive in all my responsibilities throughout the year, and if I ever had a problem she would be more than willing to help. I found this particularly important because this was a very new experience for me, in terms of the specific role and working within a business environment.

Most of the time I had a lot of work to get on with, but there were times throughout the year where I found myself with little to do and struggled. But this is part of the job, because of the peak periods, and so I soon learned to overcome this.

Initially, I was given small pieces of work to get on with, which helped to get me used my new position and the complex details of the Directorate. My responsibility soon began to increase and, despite this, I did want to take on more and kept requesting for this to happen.

Throughout the year I encountered many training and development opportunities, which include courses, experiences in other departments and conferences. As well as being encouraged to spend a lot of time on my personal development, where I was able build my personal brand. These will all help me hugely in the future.

Waitrose have a very well set up and supported placement scheme, they provided us with many beneficial opportunities. These include Development Days, where they organised talks, discussions and activities for specific areas of our personal development. In addition, there were several individuals who supported us throughout the year and were very helpful.

I definitely want to apply for to the John Lewis Partnership in the future, whether it’s through the Graduate scheme or a specific job role. Both businesses are individually and as a whole successful, and have brand that I greatly admire. As well as the model of co-ownership being very attractive.

Yes – I lived with 4 others on the Placement scheme and there was another house of 5 just down the road, they were all in different departments. This meant that in the evenings and at weekends we could do things as a whole group, which I really enjoyed. I also had several social events with my team members.

Although I worked in Bracknell, and so I’m not sure what the nightlife is like there, I lived in Reading. The nightlife is Reading is pretty good, with a decent selection of bars, clubs and pubs in the centre. This is because of the University and so there are a lot of students around.