Work experience placement Review

I was based on the home design department, where I worked alongside a lovely, lovely team! Each day was different, from reviewing samples, helping to put together trend boards and even designing and painting motifs to use for beddings. I spent a lot of time going through colour trends and matching Pantone swatches, which was really insightful. I was given my own laptop which had full access to trend forecasting websites such as WGSN and pulled documents to save as research - I also was invited to join into the regular team meetings and was included in meetings with the buyers, to understand how the different teams work alongside one another. The opportunity to try other departments was also available during my time there.

It gave me a really good insight into how the design processes work within industry. It was also amazing to be able to look through all the colour trend books and resources which industry use. The home team I worked with were all so so helpful! They gave me lots of tips and advice for designing and were really friendly, happy to answer any questions I had :-)

Really eye opening to see how such a big company such as Matalan operates; there are many more roles which I was previously unaware of.

The home team were amazing and made me feel so welcome to the team! Really nice atmosphere to work in and I had my own space and laptop to work on.

Really enjoyed my time at Matalan and felt as though it helped me to understand industry in more depth. The only thing which I found negative was the location, as it was quite difficult to get to if you don't drive - I had to arrange transport to and from each day by a family member.

Yes

Definitely worth experiencing, I chose to focus mainly on the home department but the opportunity to work on other departments was available and encouraged.