Buyers Admin Assistant Review

I really enjoyed the internship. I always had plenty to do alongside a personal project which has allowed me to create an independent piece of work that will be used by the team once I am gone. I learned a lot of new skills that I would not have known otherwise which will help me with my continuing university studies.

I was made to feel a part of the furniture team and invited along to meetings and events with them as if I were a permanant member. Everyone made sure that I felt really welcome and straight away from my first day my line manager had set me up a laptop so I felt like a real employee. I have done jobs and tasks for various members of the home department and not just the buying team each of which have always thanked me and been pleased with my contribution.

I found that the first week particularly I had a lot of support and my calendar was filled with meetings and catch ups to enhance my experience and knowledge. As the team are busy I feel as if at times I have been left doing the same job for a week at a time with little or no help or feedback, but this is the only negative of the whole experience.

I only had a few occasions where I was sat with nothing to do which is great. The BAA's quite often shared their work load with me, and if there was no work within the team I would often assist design and other areas. Thanks to my project, this meant that any downtime that I had could be spent on this.

I was given a fair amount of responsibility I think, some of the tasks that I did alongside the BAA's were to meet deadlines and I enjoyed the responsibility of these. Quite often I found myself doing jobs that I felt were not vital and more to fill time and to keep me busy, I graciously took these on but I feel as if they were unimportant and would not be missed had I not done them.

I found that certain areas that I worked in a lot, for example producing comp shops, I will have these skills into my final year of university and beyond into my career. I have also made contacts during my time here that will be helpful when looking for future employment, having mentors and for helping with my dissertation. The training days that were provided by M&S for the interns were at time not relevent, for example the developing our careers I found difficult as someone only just beginning mine, but i feel that the hands on experience that I recieved in the team was vital.

The home and particularly the furniture team were great. We regularly had after work drinks and events which I got involved in, as well as hiring Go Boats on the river outside as a fun team building day. In the office, I found that most people were upbeat and happy to help me. My only slight let down would be the flexible working, as an intern I felt like I didnt get to know people as well as if I were sat with them daily, and it is also more difficult to establish peoples job roles.

I think that the whole process lacked a bit of organisation, and particularly at the beginning messages were not fully given leading to confusion. It was only on Tuesday morning (after the induction day on monday) that I recieved a text from my manger telling me where to go, the organisers of the internship hadnt given any help. A friend was left waiting until 10am until she phoned HR, it later turned out that her 'manager' hadnt been informed that she had an intern.

I feel like the company taught me some areas of the business in full to the point where I am completely confident to perform the tasks alone, but then other areas such as PLM were not touched upon even though they are important to the BAA job role. I think this is because they didnt want to spend time teaching someone who is only here for a short period of time. I also feel as if for my first 4 weeks I was constantly learning whereas past this point I felt as if i was no longer and instead being left to 'practice' things that I had already beem taught.

I would like to come back to M&S for the buying graduate scheeme next year once I finish university, I am hoping that my experience will help me to secure it although it is very competitive.

I ate lunch every day with my fellow placement students, it was nice to feel a part of a community and not be the only person in the position which meant that we could all discuss how we were finding it. My colleages also had a good social scene and always invited me along which was great, to a variety of things from lunch to after work drinks to watching the world cup together.

Very expensive. My rent was £305 a week in Islington, 5 tube stations away from Paddington and the office. The subsidised canteen also closed down after my first week meaning that lunch became much more expensive and I was no longer finding myself eating full meals but snacking instead. Surrounding bar's and restaurants were pricy so not a regular spot. The tube was also costing £5.70 a day for zone 1 travel.

I did not go out in the direct area next to the office, but there are plenty of bars and restaurants so I can imagine it would be good.

We hired boats as a team and sometimes went for lunch or drinks.