Industrial Placement (12 Months) Review

My 12 months with Aldi was both an incredibly rewarding and challenging experience where I developed hugely in both a professional and personal manner.

Throughout the placement I experienced different levels of engagement from employees. Aldi has an extremely professional and work driven culture.

Aldi has a fantastic training structure for Industrial Placements. You are assigned an experienced Area Manager as a mentor and receive regular feedback from Senior Directors. To flourish with Aldi it is essential that you are self motivated and the expectation is that you drive your own learning and development.

Due to the high expectations set and personal drive required, if you are right for Aldi and take every opportunity as it comes, you will constantly be learning and developing.

Aldi provided unparalleled levels of responsibility and opportunities to excel. The expectation is extremely high.

In a professional setting the skills and training I received will be invaluable.

Aldi has a highly professional company that merits hard work and drive. The atmosphere in all environments (store and office) was focused and target driven. The culture of the store you work is completely dependant on the team you join and the impact you have.

The training programme was extensive and well structured, with all timings given before the placement started with little to no deviation. However, holiday is selected for you and whilst in store shift patterns change frequently, making it difficult to plan anything outside of work. Whilst at head office, occasionally departments would not be fully prepared for you too arrive, which in my experience led to extended working hours on a number of occasions. Flexibility is essential if you want to work for Aldi.

If you engage with the training and push your own growth the extent of personal training and development is fairly limitless. If you exceed an expectation, you will be given more responsibility.

A graduate opportunity with Aldi is extremely appealing and very much accessible if you perform well on your placement year.

I was placed over 4 hours travel from both my home town and University, additionally I was not placed anywhere near any other placement students. Whilst in store the nature of the hours worked made it very difficult for me to socialise at all and the company culture does not allow socialising outside of work with the in-store team, or at least this was the impression I was given. Any socialising I was able to do was through my own organisation and pre-planning.

I was unable to socialise in the area I was living without friends travelling to me, which was rarely a possibility. Rent was £600 a month+bills.

There were a number of nightclubs and bars, however I was unable to make any use of them.

There were a total of 4 team building events across my placement year. Socialising outside the professional environment with other employees was not encouraged during my placement year, however I have rated higher as Aldi is actively seeking to improve this.