Trainee Commercial Manager Review

Working at Marks and Spencer for my Placement year was the best year of my life. The Business Placement Scheme gave a detailed and varied overview of the in-store retail environment and my individual responsibilities grew over the 12 month programme.

Working as a Manager in a store with over 800 employees was initially daunting, however the Management Team of 15 were extremely friendly and welcoming upon my arrival. I felt valued from day one and worked hard to create a clear role within the team. My main concern was that being an undergraduate I would receive hostility from colleagues due to my young age, this was never the case and each department or store I worked in respected me and valued my input.

For the majority of my programme I worked in two departments, Homeware and Foods, in each of these I worked under a Commercial Manager. I benefited from working with two exceptional managers that set excellent examples of best practices and were highly supportive. In the first few months of the scheme I was given a good amount of guidance however as the year went on I was left alone more and more to manage myself and my own team. Even now I am back at University both Managers still keep in touch to continue acting as mentors and giving advice.

Days in store were always busy and required a great deal of flexibility, priorities were constantly changing and shifts ranged from 8am-5pm to 12 hour days or Through the Night moves. There were a number of daily expectations of all Managers that required a great deal of time management and getting involved in areas other than direct sales was encouraged. Throughout my year I not only took part in my day to day tasks but also took on responsibilities in the 'Service' and 'People' pillars. This meant I was held accountable along with other Managers of the performance of these areas and implemented business policies and new ideas to improve performance. This included setting up and running an Absence Tracker, holding disciplinary meetings and presenting new ideas to improve customer service to the Head of HR.

While I took time to familiarise myself with the business and role I intially had very little responsibilities but after a few weeks I took responsibility of the Christmas Gift Shop, the largest one M&S offers. In the weeks leading up to Christmas I was responsible for sales of £1.3 million and a team of 20 Sales Assistants. After this I then moved over to the Food Hall where day to day responsibilities included analyising sales figures, setting daily prioritise to the Section Manager team, attending meetings on service, costs and sales, maintaining shopfloor standards, walking round Head of Regions, Store Managers and Directors and implementing seasonal floor changes.

I developed a great deal of personal skills as I matured over the year and also received excellent quality of training on a number of workshops such as Effective Communication and Presenting. Areas that have greatly impacted upon my Final Year studies include time management, my personal drive to succeed and the way I communicate with others.

The general atmosphere in my base store was good, staff were motivated and the Managers in general were great leaders. There were some downsides, as the store was so large engagement was difficult so some staff did not feel valued. Also, space backstage was lacking therefore I shared a very small office with 2 PCs and 4 desks with 14 other Managers. This meant the environment was difficult to work in at times.

My Placement Scheme was created centrally by the HR Team in Head Office but managed by my HR Business Partner. She organised a number of attachments in different departments and stores so that every single week of my programme was set out in advance. She was also very accommodating of my personal preferences, catering the scheme so that I spent more time in the areas I enjoyed, I was also set aside some time to complete any University work.

The company and Regional team invested a huge amount of training and experiences into my development. I was given the opportunity to shadow the Regional Manager for the day, attend Graduate conferences with speeches from the Directors and attended a large amount of training workshops.

The Placement Programme at M&S should be seen as a yearlong interview, if you work hard and are believed capable, a job will be offered for after Graduation. I was given the opportunity to continue my employment with M&S by working part-time during my Final Year studies and then offered a position as a Graduate on the 'Placement Returner Scheme'. This scheme echoes the Graduate scheme but takes just 3 months rather than 12 months.

From a social perspective I started as part of a group of 4 Graduates and we all got along well so we would socialise together and are still close now. Due to the store being open 24hours getting together out of work as a Management Team was difficult however there were a number of parties for Christmas, Birthdays and Promotions. Over the year I attended a number of different events where other Placement students were present where we could share experiences, however sadly they were all located a long way away and there were no other BPP's on my Region.

I choose to complete my placement where I study at University in Surrey which is notoriously expensive so the cost of living was high. However, the placement scheme salary is competitive and it was never a stuggle to live!

Living close to University where a number of my friends, also on placement, were located meant that I still socialised regularly at weekends and on Student nights out.

The store and business offer a number of different opportunities to engage outside of work such as quizzes, theatre trips, day trips, parties, charity events and celebratory work lunches and I took advantage of these.