Industrial Placement Student Review

I enjoyed some aspects of this placement more than others. Working with Area Managers was one of the most enjoyable roles, as well as working at head office in the warehouse. You will be working long hours doing difficult and tiring work, so you shouldn't expect this to be a walk in the park. There's a reason the salary is so high in comparison to other placements.

In store it was difficult as I wasn't really introduced to the staff. I sort of just turned up for work one day. Nobody really seemed to understand what my role was other than some of the management team which I found strange and it lead to some confusion in terms of my job role and responsibility.

Feedback at Aldi is limited, to say the least. No news is good news. You do not get commended on good work, which can be demotivating but you have to get used to it. That's simply the way the company is run. Any feedback you do get is straight to the point, which can seem very brutal at times so you need to have thick skin. Having said that, the area manager that I shadowed for the initial 2 weeks was excellent. He made me feel extremely welcome and taught me a lot. He gave me a lot of hands on experience and exposed me to as much as possible so that I understood his role as an area manager and was prepared for my store time which followed. He remained in contact with me throughout the entire placement and I often contacted him for advice or if I needed any help, something he was happy to support me with. During my store time the area manager whose store I worked in was also excellent. He was very supportive and would have sit down progress meetings with me to ensure I was happy and knew what was expected. He also helped me when I was struggling with certain aspects of the job and he kept me in line- for want of a better phrase. He also remained in contact with me throughout the placement helping me as and when I needed it. Store manager feedback was much more hands on and I was given feedback constantly. For example if I made a mistake I would be told about it then and there on the day, with higher levels of management it would sometimes be a week or so later, as in when they could make time, which is understandable.

I don't think you can give this a star rating, so i have left it as 5/10. You are constantly busy at Aldi, you have to be efficient, you have to be fast, its the only way. The days go very quick, you will never find yourself with nothing to do which is good as you are never standing around bored. Some tasks - especially in store - can be very repetitive and this can become boring over time.

I was given a moderate amount of responsibility during my placement, not as much as I had expected. During store time I pushed to progress onto management training as soon as possible but I was constantly told I wasn't ready. As such I spent 3 months working as a store assistant, which was highly demotivating and caused me to lose interest very quickly. I felt like I was being held back, I thought that it would have been commended that I was wanting to progress. After speaking to other placement students in other regions, I found that we had all been given varying levels of responsibility. Some had been running stores, some had said they didn't feel they were benefitting from so much store time so had been allowed to work with area managers more. Some regions were very flexible and allowed for the placement students to almost tailor their programme in a way that they felt benefitted them the most. I was told I needed to work faster, I asked to work delivery shifts, I came in on my days off to do shorter, 4-5 hour shifts to show my dedication but I was constantly knocked back. I was told originally that the idea of working in the different job roles was to understand the roles and responsibly with the view to being able to effectively manage those staff. It seemed unfair that I should be expected to be as fast as staff who had been doing the job for a number of years when I had been there only a few weeks.

The level of work you have to do is something that you can take with you back to university. It helps put things into perspective for final year. If you can work all the hours at Aldi then you should not struggle with work in final year. Job flexibility is another thing you can take forward. Being dropped in at the deep end and having to adjust to different working roles and situations is a very good skill that you will learn to develop on this placement.

Good on the whole at head office although departments seemed to keep themselves to themselves. Atmosphere differed in different stores but on the whole it was ok. I wouldn't ever describe the atmosphere as fun though. The best atmosphere was in the warehouse. My store atmosphere was also good.

Poor organisation. We had a 52 week plan which we did not stick to. We would be taken out of roles and put into other ones with sometimes only a few day's notice. When we were moving around different departments at head office, often there would be nothing planned for us and as such we would be given tasks which did not benefit our development or training, such as filing.

I felt like I was constantly reminded that I was there to impress Aldi, which I agree with, I am. However they were also there to impress me and I don't feel as though they did that. I would not like to work there after university. It's not the kind of working environment that appeals to me. There is a culture of "that's just the way we do things" and there seems no room to deviate or try and improve company practices which I find baffling. The computer systems are archaic and very basic with mainly paper based work which I feel hinders the progress of the firm. This is a very good placement and a very good graduate scheme but it is not one that appeals to me.

The social aspect of this job was not particularly good. In store time we were spread across the region no where near each other (our personal choice due to accommodation) and as we had different days off we would not be able to meet one another. We had 2 overnight stays in Manchester where we met all the other placement students across the country but that was all.

This is an irrelevant question. The cost of living differs from city to city and across different regions. We were originally told however that we would be given a company property that we could stay in during head office time, this was not however the case. Fuel costs were high during head office times and we were not allowed to claim any fuel allowance.

I lived in a major city so the nightlife was very good.

Other than a christmas party and the meeting in Manchester there was nothing. I was encouraged not to socialise with the staff outside of work.