Trainee Commercial Manager Review

by Marks & Spencer

This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.

Rating

3.9/5
  • The Role
    4.1
  • The Company
    3.3
  • The Culture
    4.3

    The Role

  • 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
  • When I look back, I have really enjoyed my time working for M&S. So far I have helped manage different departments in different stores, and was lucky enough to be moved around for each part of my placement, working in six stores in total with attachments to Foods, Clothing & Home, Hospitality and Commercial Operations, interspersed with brief stints in a Simply Food store as well as an Outlet. It was certainly a challenging programme though, moving around stores and attachments means every few months you're 'new' again and have another hill to climb to get to grips with a new department. It has been an amazing experience though and has exposed me to things I hadn't seen and made me try things I otherwise wouldn't have.

    4/5

  • 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
  • On this programme you come in as a Trainee Commercial Manager meaning that, usually, you will be part of a small Commercial team who look after broad departments (one for Clothing & Home and one for Foods & Operations for example) with a Store Manager above and a team of Section Managers working for them. Being attached to a Commercial Manager was both good and also challenging. The good aspects are they you get to see how they work, what they look for in their team and their department, as well as experience their management style. The challenging part is that Commercial Managers are rightly accountable for the performance of their department but are not accountable for your development and so this can mean that, especially while you are new to the role, they see you as a hindrance rather than a help. Once I got into each role and learnt the basics I was soon able to use the tools and information at my disposal to own my development and begin to influence my team and bring something new to the table and for this I feel I was valued by the teams I worked with.

    5/5

  • 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
  • On this programme you will have a grad 'link' who looks after the graduates, placement students and apprentices on your region. Their role is to organise your placement, moving you between stores or departments for example, as well as check in with you that you're developing and performing well as well as enjoying yourself. Within each attachment, you will be attached to a Commercial Manager who will act as your 'buddy' and who you'll be partnered with for each of your roles. You'll also receive a set of workbooks which form the framework for your learning and development, one general booklet for your scheme as well as one for each attachment you take part in. In terms of support and guidance from my grad link, this was fantastic, I felt like I could contact her whenever and if I wasn't enjoying myself or wanted to organise something different then I was able to. She visited me at each of my attachments to check on my progress and advocated for me where I wasn't getting the learning experiences I needed. The Commercial Managers I was attached to varied in how much support I received from them, from some giving me very little of their time to some working with me in real partnership. This was driven by them having very little or no notice that I was coming their way and no training on how to train me. The booklets are the only framework provided to structure your learning. The trouble with the booklets though is that they are quite out of date with some terminology that no longer exists and systems/roles/tasks that are no longer in use as well as missing out newer aspects of the job. This is ironed out with conversations with the person you're attached to but is frustrating.

    4/5

  • 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
  • Each day is really different in retail and so how busy the shop floor is fluctuates depending on the time of year and the location. Not all of your time is spent on the shop floor though, a significant amount is spent in meetings; reviewing performance, planning and preparing. This means that once you've got your teeth into something you can feel busy and productive. If you're not engaged with a project or task though this can mean that you end up feeling as though you don't have very much to do. This can happen because the person you're attached to is busy and so doesn't have time to think about projects or tasks to give you. This can be really frustrating because you feel like you want to help but you don't know how and don't want to get in the way. As you progress in each role though you will find projects and tasks that you'll take on as your own so you will fill your time with them easily (and by the end of each attachment you'll have a list of things you'll wish you'd had time to do because you ended up so busy).

    4/5

  • 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
  • As I progressed through my placement attachments I was given more and more responsibility. I took on projects around customer service improvement, implementation of seasonal briefs and layout plans as well as schemes of staff training and development. This was really enjoyable because it was generally self driven or drawn up with my manager because it was my area of strength. Something frustrating about the placement however is that you're always attached to someone who is ultimately responsible for their business area and so, apart from holiday/absence cover periods, you're never fully responsible for your area. It sometimes felt frustrating having to feed all your ideas through your manager. It is understandable that a placement student wouldn't be left in charge for a prolonged period and so taking on individual projects was good because you were fully in control.

    4/5

  • 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
  • I study Retail Management at university and so being exposed to the workings of a major national retailer has been really informative and has allowed me to put into practice and contextualise a lot of what I have learnt about. The experience I have received has been invaluable. I have seen so many aspects of the business, from the management of each business unit, to logistics, people management, process implementation, service management and visual merchandising.

    5/5

    The Company

  • 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
  • This is a hard one to answer having worked in six different stores and with changing management teams in each. The management teams at M&S are a dedicated and talented bunch of people, some experienced in their field but new to the business, and some who have had careers for life with the organisation. In general, members of staff are proud to work for the organisation and are driven to deliver, but there are, as in any organisation, people who drain your energy which is a challenge to deal with, especially when some of these people have worked for the business a very long time and aren't intent on leaving any time soon. M&S, as with all retailers but especially department stores, is tackling the challenge of staying relevant to their customers as shopping habits change. As a result of this, during my time with the business there was a significant number of redundancies made which understandably caused a serious drain on motivation. The dedication of the team that remains meant that the managers were still absolutely intent to deliver on sales and service but it did mean that the store atmosphere was hard and was not always a fun and exciting place to work in the time after the announcement.

    3/5

  • 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
  • My graduate link had set up a programme of moving between stores and experiencing different aspects of the business so in a broad sense the placement was well organised. Where the organisation fell down was within the attachments themselves. The workbooks which we used as a guide to what we needed to cover were out of date and repetitive and so were often not very useful. These were supposed to be part of a sign-off process but because parts of them were not relevant any more it was impossible to track whether you had learned enough to be signed off for each stage of the placement.

    3/5

  • 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
  • M&S absolutely invested in my training and development. I got to move between six stores as well as attend multiple courses, most fairly close to home at the regional academy but two which were national courses with all the other placement students and graduates on my intake, one of which was in London and one in Gateshead. For both these courses travel and accommodation were paid for by the business.

    5/5

  • 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
  • Subsidised Canteen

    Subsidised/Company Gym

    National Travel

    Company Parties/Events

    Staff Sales/Staff Shop

    Above 25 days holiday

    4/5

  • 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
  • I have not yet finished my placement year and so am unsure whether I will be offered a place to come back after university. I have certainly enjoyed my time on placement though and would love to come back although I am unsure how large the graduate intake will be due to the changing store portfolio.

    3/5

    The Culture

  • 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
  • I made some really good friends during my time on placement who I'm sure will be friends for life and have met colleagues who I'm confident I will stay in contact with into the future.

    4/5

  • 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
  • I moved home during my placement so the cost of living was understandably cheap. All managers at M&S are expected to be willing and able to travel up to one and half hours from their address to work and I was lucky that my home was within reach of lots of stores. When you go on your assessment centre you are asked to fill out a mobility statement where you declare three regions where you will be able to work. As far as I know, the business does not offer resettlement grants if you move somewhere new for work while you're on placement so I would recommend choosing the region closest to your home if you can.

    5/5

  • 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
  • 5/5

  • 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
  • M&S stores each have a charity of the year which the staff choose and each employee has a charity day which they can spend doing something special for the charity. I took part in this with a number of my colleagues which was fun. One store I worked in also held a team day where all the managers from the store went on a countryside adventure day as a team building exercise which was fun.

    4/5

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Details

Placement (10 Months+)

North West

July 2018


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