Waitrose Head Office Industrial Placement Review

I throughly enjoyed my internship with john lewis. I enjoyed going to work and was sad to leave after the 1 year.

All the staff in my department were really friendly and made me feel part of their team very quickly. Furthermore they were eager to help me or answer any questions i had during the placement.

There was a lot of support provided by management and if i ever asked for assistance there was always someone to help. I had a buddy throughout my year also which was really good.

Most of my days i was busy but i enjoy being busy! There is always something to do if you ask somebody if they need help and most days i had something scheduled in for part of the day, such as a meeting, to balance out my time on the shop floor.

You are treated as a manager through the placement and therefore get to do nearly everything a john lewis manager would do on a daily basis. I found that the more responsibility you ask for the more you get and therefore i asked to be involved in many opportunities. I had my own small section of the shop floor and was responsible for its sales figures and for coming up with any innovative solutions to problems in that area.

I feel more prepared for interviews and assessment centres, especially as I have developed my presentation and confidence skills greatly through lots of practice at john lewis. I think the fact that i have had a taste of working life as a manager and have had so much responsibility before i graduate will also benefit me when i apply for graduate jobs and set me aside from many of my peers.

the staff are all really friendly and upbeat and most really like working there! I found the atmosphere to be a very positive one to work in.

Also many days they have not organised something set for you to do and for the first week this was a bit daunting. This can be overcome though by organising things for yourself and getting to know the team for yourself and asking them what jobs they would like help on. After a few weeks of the placement i felt fine to organise my own activities many days.

John lewis as a company focus very heavily on personal development and there are opportunities for you to go on training courses and days. If i had been there for longer i fully believe they would have invested in my personal development.

i got recommended to the second day of the graduate assessment centre for the graduate scheme 2012. This is a great opportunity for me as it means i will get to bypass many of the application stages next year. Employment prospects within the organisation are therefore positive so far!

It was really good to have someone else to do the placement with as this increased my confidence and i had someone to talk to about the whole process throughout.

I lived at home while i was doing my internship so the cost was nothing! The cost of socialising in is about average, similar to most cities in the North/ Midlands.

The nightlife in is good! I would recommend it and there are quite a few john lewis nights out in if you want to go to them.

I also went on a night out with the staff which was fun! If you were there for longer there is the chance to get involved in sports teams and holidays etc.