Sales and Operational Planning Review

Thoroughly enjoyed my placement year at Johnson & Johnson – due to the nature of my job I found that each day was different. Some days would be highly challenging to ensure that items were available for surgeries, whereas others were more relaxed and allowed me to be able to complete my day to day job.

I felt extremely valued by my colleagues and was fortunate enough to work with a team that offered fantastic support for my development. I don’t believe I was ever considered ‘just a placement student’ and was treated as an equal which helped allow me to settle into my role and increase my confidence.

My line manager offered constant support and guidance throughout my placement by ensuring that we had regular 1:1 meetings and weekly team meetings with those that I worked close with. By doing so we were able to ensure that I made the most out of my placement year and create any opportunities that we believed would benefit my development.

I was constantly busy on a daily basis – I had various responsibilities which were crucial to the effectiveness if UK supply chain. I was able to get involved with specific projects over my placement year, therefore I had to balance my day to day duties and project work. Due to this I have developed my prioritisation skills massively.

Over the course of the year I was given a large amount of responsibility, at the beginning of my placement I was overwhelmed with the amount of responsibility I had. After looking back I believe this was necessary for my development and I’m glad I was thrown in the deep end. Despite this I believe during the 2nd half of my placement I could have been given further responsibilities which would have increased my development.

I believe my skills have developed significantly – in particular my communication, time management and IT skills. Before starting placement I thought I had reasonable IT skills but after beginning my placement I found this was not the case and they needed to be improved significantly. I also believe that I’ve learnt multiple life skills that I’ll be able to transfer and apply in the future, especially when applying for graduate roles.

The office had a wide variety of atmosphere’s which would suit various personalities, some departments would get more involved than others. All departments were friendly and more than happy to help with any questions that I may have had. I found that the office had a great balance between being able to concentrate on your work when need be and also having a laugh and a joke every so often.

My manager had a great training plan set in place, we would continuously review this and adapt when needed. Over the course of the year I wanted to get a deeper insight into particular areas within the business which was easy to do so.

Johnson & Johnson invested in my training and personal development significantly, at the beginning of my placement I had multiple training sessions on my job role and how my overall contribution affected those further afield. I also was able to attend a training day on how to manage my work-life balance which will be highly beneficial for the future.

There’s plenty of future employment prospects within the organisation in various sectors, but unfortunately none within supply chain. I am hoping to go for one of the other graduate schemes as I’ve gained a particular interest in this area but I would hope in the future that a supply chain graduate scheme would be introduced.

I really enjoyed the social scene that I had during my placement, I spent a considerable amount of time socialising with members of my team which gave us the chance to get to know each other outside of work which I enjoyed. I was also fortunate to have gotten to know other placement students that are on my floor, spending time together both in and outside of work.

I found Leeds a pretty cheap city compared to other places that I've lived.

Leeds has a wide range of nightlife to suit a wide variety of people.

I was fortunate enough to volunteer in Malawi for a week with work - to of been given this opportunity as a placement student was amazing. An opportunity that I'll never forget.