Assistant section management replenishment Review

I throughly enjoyed my work placement. The ability to work in 2 different branches on 2 x 6 month rotations gave me an insight into different working environments and allowed me to interact with far more people than would have been possible had I been limited to one branch for my entire year. There is no doubting that there were tough time but they were heavily outweighed by the good and the memories I have made over the past 12 months

Being fortunate enough to work in a management role I felt valued by my colleagues as they would look to me for guidance on tasks on a daily basis. However, I felt that I should earn this respect and sense of being valued and I would hope that if you were to remove the job title I had then they would still value me the same due to the work and effort I used to put in to help the team.

I used to have regular meetings with my line manager about how I was doing and areas to improve but I also used to have more informal chats on a daily basis with a variety of senior members of the branch who would provide support and guidance should I require it. At each branch the senior management figures provide me with plenty of support and allowed me to pick their brains on things I was curious about and recall on their past experiences to help guide and allow me to make far more informed decisions going forward in the future.

Working in branch, there was never a shortage of tasks to be completed on a daily basis. Depending on the success of the night shift would determine how many tasks you would have to complete in a day, but on a usual day you wouldn't stop for the entirety of your shift.

The first 6 months I was given a reasonable amount of experiences but had to earn it and this accumulated with me being in charge of the turkey collection at christmas which is a huge responsibility. In the second six months I was assistant section manager of replenishment so would lead the section when the section manager was on holiday or off. I would on a daily basis calculate the figures for the night shift and help make informed decisions on their strategy going into the night. I would also for 2 hours a day take my stint as 'floor manager' which would mean I would be in control of the shop floor and the partners on it and I would have to decide where to put the resources into which tasks in the most efficient manor to get all the tasks completed by the end of the day.

I have acquired and strengthened many skills over the year and the biggest one being leadership. Leading a team of people on a day to day basis, with a variety of ages and experiences has been a big learning factor for me. I have also learnt a lot about people and what motivates them which is going to help me when it comes to human resource modules in my future studies.

I didn't work in a office as such but the branches I worked in were very welcoming and made me feel comfortable. Everyone was very understanding of the fact that I was only there for a year and wanted to maximise the time I had. They allowed me to take on role and do things that they wouldn't necessarily give to someone who had been there for less than a year or had as little experience as I did.

We had four days at Bracknell where we reflected on how our placements were going and looked on ways to further our time in employment. I was fortunate that in both branches they had had a industrial placement student in the past so were aware of the scheme and what was expected by the partnership and myself.

I was invited to many meetings and visitis to other branches with senior management. We also had unique access to senior members of the partnership in Q and A sessions in Bracknell which was interesting to hear about their experiences and what paths they took to get to the senior levels they were at now.

There is no guaranteed position at the end but if you receive a good review at the end of your year, you will skip the initial stages of the graduate scheme and join the process at a later stage.

The social scene was very branch specific - the first branch didn't really have one but the second one was far more social with quizzes, nights out and trips organised to name a few.

I lived at home so couldn't really comment on this.

Cardiff has a good nightlife and also with the presence of two universities in the city the nightlife is every night and ideal for a young person like myself

A few of the people I worked with pursued activities outside of work but they didn't really appeal to me. Having been schooled in Cardiff I was fortunate that I already had contacts in the activities outside of work that I wanted to pursue so was able to re connect with these and get involved in the activities outside of work.