Retail Operations Intern Review

I enjoyed it a lot as it was unlike anything I'd done before and gave me the opportunity to meet lots of people as well as see what it's like to work in such a well respected company.

I felt very valued by my clleugues. The project I was tasked was very well respected on the floor and even some of the most senior members of the floor were willing to give us some of their time and attention. My team was very welcoming and which made integrating into the office so much easier.

My supervisor was extremely helpful, he gave us so much of his time and checked in with us on a daily basis to see how far we'd got with the project. The first two weeks were very structured and he gave us a detailed plan of our day to day meetings and store visits and then we got to plan all our meetings and activities for the following 6 weeks ourselves, this really helped to ease us in.

It could be very dependant on the day but thankfully we were mostly keot quite busy. We went on a lot of store visits, listening sessions and an overnight stay. This made the weeks go so quickly as we were barely at our desk half of the time. Some days would be a lot slower and we'd have less to do but this was more the exception than the rule.

We were given quite a lot of responsibility as the project we were assigned was a very important one that will continue to be funded after we leave. This made it feel like we were really adding value to the organisation. However, as we were just working on the project everyday, it didn't feel like we were given that much responsibility as it was hard to feel like we were really contributing to the work people on our team were doing.

I can only imagine it will be extremely helpful when I go back to uni next year. In particular, I think my presentation skills will have dramatically improved. Throughout the eight weeks, we were constantly meeting with different stakeholders and presenting the work we had done so far to them. This has made me feel much more comfortable when presenting.

It was a very friendly floor and the people in our team were very welcoming. We got to meet with each of them individually in the first couple of weeks which helped to integrate us into the team as we understood what role everyone played. Most people I met with were friendly and it was quite a positive atmosphere.

Our internship was very well organised. As I said before, the first two weeks were very well planned and helped us to get a really good feel for the company, the team and the project we'd be doing. In addition, we were sent on several training days which will be extremely valuable in our careers and gave us a chance to meet up with all the other interns.

We were sent on a number of training days which I found were extremely interesting and gave us a chance to get out of the office and meet the other interns. Our first day was also at training day focused on learning about M&S and getting to know eachotheor which helped to ease us into into our first day in the office. Our supervisor also organised a training day on communication just for me and the other girl doing the same role.

Future prospects are very appealing. Its a very nice company to work for and everyone has been so friendly. I know they run a number of grad schemes and I imagine they would be equally as well organised as the internship. I have also noticed that there's a lot of room to move around the company which is something that appeals to me as I'm still not 100% sure of what exactly I'd like to do.

Yes, a lot of the intens were very keen to meet up quite regularly, The people organising the internship were very keen that all the interns make a WhatsApp group and go for drinks on the first day and I think this was very helpful as the group chat was used continually throuought the placement and it was good to meet up with others and see how they were getting on with their projects.

The cost of living was extremely high as it was in central London, accomadation and travel costs added up very quickly. The cost of socialising was also extremely high but that is to be expected when living in London and it was worth it for the chance to live in London for two months as I really enjoyed being there.

The nightlife was really good as it was central London so there were endless bars and clubs to go to.

I didn't notice very many opportunities to get involved in activities outside work personally. The team I was in would go for drinks every now and then but there wasn't any other activites organised that I can think of.