Digital Operations Placement Review

I really enjoyed my placement at Boots in Digital Operations. When I applied I had to do an online test, and an assessment centre with a few others, including a group task and presentation. My role was in the promotions and events team which was really interesting, and always busy. It was a mixture of IT, marketing, and business. There were a lot of events on at the office and it was a great atmosphere.

I felt very valued and supported by my colleagues all the way through the year, by both managers and those working at my level. I was based in the promotions, events, and data area, which consisted of about 10 people. It was a lovely work environment, with everyone willing to help each other out and learn from each other. We also had a lot of communication with other teams and the wider Digital Operations department, and spent time together outside of work.

All managers provided a good amount of support and guidance. My line manager had regular weekly one to one meetings with me to discuss how I was getting on and what I thought I could develop further. The assistant managers all handled different areas, which was useful as there was always someone around to help with any problems. I also had managers who helped with longer term projects that helped the business, and so management is definitely supportive.

I was generally very busy. Even during a quiet period, there is always preparation to do for events like christmas or sales that are coming up. During busy periods, there were many tasks to do, including uploading offers to the Boots website, testing new features, and communicating with a range of departments both in Head Office and in stores. Being in operations means that correspondence with the warehouse, marketing, stores, etc. is important and so I spent a lot of time managing emails.

Even from the very beginning I was given a lot of responsibility. I was directly responsible for prices, making sure product listings were correct, ensuring offers worked and many other things. Promotions and events affect the prices of products, and how many/what kind of things customers buy, and so any inaccuracies or mistakes have a big impact on the business. There were a lot of duties I had to do independently and things to arrange, so plenty of responsibility.

The skills I developed were absolutely invaluable both for my career, finishing uni, and life in general. I experienced working independently, working in a small team, working in a huge team, and so I developed excellent team working skills from this. I also developed great commercial awareness and critical thinking skills, like having to think careful about the wording of promotions for legal requirements. I also greatly improved my skills on Excel and project management!

The atmosphere was really good. Before coronavirus it was very busy, I got to talk to a lot of people during the day and there are places for food like the cafe, starbucks, costa, a boots shop, and in the office there was free milk for tea or coffee. There were lots of teams working in an open plan area so it didn't feel secluded and made a nice environment. After coronavirus the desks were spread out but it was still good.

At the start of the placement I had several inductions and got to know people and the place. There were 5 other placement students who I spent a fair amount of time with. Most things are organised over email and now teams which works well. I was trained well and given plenty to do. You do a 1 month placement in a store, which wasn't super organised but still a great experience and a good chance to show responsibility.

Boots is a great company and clearly cares a lot about its employees. They offered lots of workshops and seminars, including ones on using particular softwares such as excel, teams, and outlook. This was useful because we use these programs a lot and what I learned will help me in other roles, so learning was good lots of opportunities. There were not really many opportunities for external training but I wouldn't expect that from just a placement.

The future employment prospects are good. They have a graduate scheme in lots of areas including digital, IT, marketing brands, marketing commercial, and procurance. Since Boots is such a large company they have a lot of ordinary roles too aside from the graduate scheme so if you really wanted to continue working there you could easily get a job. I would definitely work there again in the future and I will apply for the graduate scheme.

I was introduced virtually to the other students before I started, and during the first few weeks we did a lot of induction sessions together so I knew them really well. There were 5 of us and we saw each other fairly often. If you wanted to see each other regularly and spend time together it would be easy to do so. At the end of the year we did an 'End of Year Project' which involved working together on a presentation.

Nottingham is nice. With two universities there is plenty of accommodation that's affordable, and the city is geared up for students. It isn't very expensive, quite average, and has good transport links. There are plenty of places to socialise and meet people, from clubs and pubs to cafes, both in the city centre and further out. It's also a good place to live if you're not interested in a student lifestyle as there are quieter areas.

There are plenty of places to socialise and meet people, from clubs and pubs to cafes, both in the city centre and further out. It's also a good place to live if you're not interested in a student lifestyle as there are quieter areas.

We did plenty of activities together outside of work in my team. Around once every 2 months we would have an event, like ice skating together, which was a nice way to get to know people and spend time with friends outside of the office.