Industrial Placement Student Review

Looking back at my year in Aldi I definitely did enjoy the year. The work in store is hard but that is what it enjoyable, you work with great teams and learn so much. Although transitioning into the role was hard going from student life into a full time job working over 50 hours a week, with a great deal of responsibility that friends on other placements wouldn't have. The role in store can be hard to balance work and life, you won't often get all the weekend off, and the hours can be anti-social. Once you move to head office which is about 7 months into the placement it is much different. You are working with the other placement students then so it feels much more social, making the placement more enjoyable, and you have weekends off.

Once I had settled into the role and I felt extremely valued as a member of the Aldi team within the stores. You are relied upon just the same as all the other assistant managers. They treat you just the same as the other management too, which made me feel much more comfortable and confident in the role, you impact the successful running of the store. Once in head office you are working directly for the directors of different departments, looking into ways to improve Aldi, and general investigations. I felt valued during this time as my work was helping/ backing up changes.

You have regular meetings scheduled with one of your Directors every quarter to give you formal feedback, you can also feedback how you are feeling, and show off the knowledge you have learnt. While you are in store your Store Manager will be there day to day to talk to, they will let you know if you are doing something wrong or not as well as it could be. However, positive feedback isn't given on a day to day that is given in your updates with your Area Manager or Director. You will see your Area Manager most days but it will depend on your Area Manager how often you sit down and update, but if you request an update they are more than happy to.

In both store and head office, you feel like you don't have enough hours in the day. At first this can be a struggle, but once you get up to speed with how things are done its much easier. In store, you are never bored and the ten hour day flies by. I would suggest organising your time each day to ensure that you get out of work on time and all jobs are done.

The responsibility was great, and probably my favourite part of the job, you really get behind the stores you work in and want them to be the best in the region, your competitive side comes out. You also want to bring out the best all the people you work with.

My time management has greatly improved since working at Aldi, and I believe I will have a much stronger work ethic towards uni now that I have had a full time job for a year.

In store the general atmosphere was upbeat and fast paced, the positivity was great. In head office the atmosphere was also very upbeat and positive, however the pace was slower.

The placement was well organised, everything was organised and planned and the plan was stuck to rather well. The only things that changed on the plan would be dates of meetings, and which store you are in after holidays. Overall the plan was stuck to.

The personal training was more of a natural development, you naturally developed into a leader over the store time. There was also a driving course.

I really enjoyed my time at Aldi, and I'm happy I have done my placement with Aldi. However, the graduate scheme does not appeal to me as the year has highlighted to me a number of things that I would want from a long term career which Aldi does not provide. However I would 100% recommend the placement and graduate scheme to family and friends.

In store you didn't work with the other placement students only at store openings. The social scene was there because we organised things to do ourselves once we was in head office.

I worked within the Neston Region, which is where I lived as a student so the cost of living and socialising was the same as when I was a student. However you do have to have a car for the job, which if you don't already have a car can be a large expense.

I didn't relocate for my job, so I knew about the night life before I came, the region covers Liverpool, Chester and Wales so you will have plenty of places to socialise.

I wasn't aware of any.