Retail Management Industrial Placement Review

I was given little direction and not kept in the loop with things happening in the branch. This made it hard for me to perform well in the role. Despite this, I got to experience working in 3 very different departments and I enjoyed some aspects of the role such as people development.

I felt valued and supported by most of my peers, however was given next to no support by upper management. This made me feel awkward attending management meetings because it felt as if they didn't really want me there. During my placement year a lot of change was happening to the branch and I felt more in the way than they were grateful to have me.

During the year I had three line managers. Two were completely unsupportive, one would constantly set me up for failure. My final line manager was supportive however the best advice she gave me was to hide things from senior managers which I didn't find to be healthy in the business.

I created projects for myself, but if I hadn't have done this I would have had very little to do. Staffing was so short in the branch that most days they wanted me to perform a sales assistant role, which meant I didn't have a very big opportunity to grow.

I would often find myself opportunities, such as managing a stock Take and the operations manager would say that was "too much responsibility" despite me being guided whilst doing it. Towards the end of my placement year I was given more responsibilities, it would have been nicer if this trust would have happened earlier on.

I learnt a lot about how I would behave in the situation should it happened again. I became a more resilient person and know now not to just let things happen and to be more assertive. Though, it is hard to do this when working for a business where most employees have worked there in excess of 20 years.

Morale was fairly low in the branch as a result of three waves of redundancies during my time there. Staffing was a contestant issue, quite simply the Rotas were done appallingly and the staff weren't in at the right time. We faced the same challenges every week and they didn't want to do anything about it.

Head office provided 4 development days and a structure for the year was sent to the branch. However, the branch managers didn't read this and just sent it to me. When I queried that my placement wasn't following this structure there was very little interest.

4 development days and on site training were provided.

The company has just axed its graduate scheme and is focusing more on apprenticeships which don't offer the same scope for development.

I was the only placement student, however I made lots of friends across the branch. The branch had an onsite bar that opened every Friday evening which was a good way to socialise with colleagues. There was an amazing Christmas party hosted at St James' Park as well.

Newcastle, fairly cheap.

Excellent

As mentioned before, quite a few social gatherings throughout the year. There were also leisure benefits that run all year that I chose not to take advantage of.