Commercial Trainee Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year and would definitely recommend it!

Everyone at J&J is super nice and make you feel valued.

Management and support was great, cannot fault it. I had an hour long 1:1 to catch up with my manager each week. Any time you need support you are never made to feel like a burden. Feedback and personal development is also well managed with quarterly reviews throughout the year.

I was definitely kept very busy which is great because I was never bored and was always productive. Being on seasonal brands the workload would sometimes be heavier at times when we would be preparing for the season. However whenever i did feel my workload wasn't manageable, my team were really supportive in helping me prioritise things and taking on some projects if I didn't have capacity.

I was responsible for many important projects such as budget management, market performance tracking and website optimisation. Responsibility to own large projects increased as I started to settle in and prove my ability to lead such projects. But soon into my placement I was leading big exciting projects such as Buzzfeed videos, competitions and influencer campaigns.

This placement definitely developed my project management skills, teamwork and leadership skills which I know will really help when I go back to Uni, in terms of group projects. Working on two medicine brands has definitely expanded my Biological knowledge and given me an insight into the industry. Performance tracking each week has largely developed my ability to analyse large sets of data and improve my excel knowledge which will be a great help going back to my Biology degree.

Everyone at J&J is so friendly and chatty so the atmosphere is a really nice environment to work in. It is a fairly quiet office in Maidenhead which I liked but maybe not suitable for others who may want a more buzzing, fast paced atmosphere e.g. in London.

Such a well organised placement from the initial start date to the training period and all throughout the year. When we started we had a big handover document to refer to and lots of training sessions organised by the placements we were taking over. In terms of projects I was eased in - helping the team with their projects initially and then given my own big projects to lead as i progressed.

I felt J&J were very invested in my and the employees personal development. We were encouraged to set goals and objectives and go back and assess these in our quarterly reviews. The company arranged for me to shadow one of our creative agencies to get more external creative experience as I flagged that I was interested in this.

I was encouraged to apply for the graduate job and I know that the managers put a lot of time into preparing the placements for their assessment centres. I personally didn't apply because during my placement I have really enjoyed the creative side more vs client side so want to try something different with a creative agency.

J&J employ lots of placements - I think there were 30 when I joined so it was great to know lots of people my own age. We went on a few local nights out and events like ascot which was nice.

I know Maidenhead rent is quite expensive but I stayed in Reading which is only a half hour drive away and rent was pretty cheap.

There are a few nice pubs around and Smokeys night club which we went to a couple of times but nightlife in Maidenhead isn't really a thing. Reading, being a student town is better for nightlife.

I did lots of volunteering days with the team. I'm not very sporty myself but did see a few emails around football teams/ sports events.