Industrial Placement Review

My year with Aldi was enjoyable from start to finish. The fast paced nature of the placement has meant my year with the company has absolutely flown by, and the variation between time spent working in store, out with an Area Manager, and at head office working on projects has kept the year varied and interesting throughout.

All of the staff in the two store's I worked in were welcoming, and I soon developed strong professional working relationships with them. I was able to integrate quickly and seamlessly into the management teams if both stores. Likewise the Area Manager team were very supportive and treated IP's as they would their other colleagues.

Even before I started my placement I had met with my Area Manager mentor, initiating the support I received from them all year. When working in store I updated with my mentor weekly at the very least. At various points throughout the year I received scheduled performance updates with my Director to deliver feedback on my progress.

Aldi's business model is based around efficiency and as such I was kept extremely busy throughout the placement. In store I would never find myself stood still without a task, and similarly at head office we worked towards tight deadlines and always had a sufficient amount of work. There was no time during the whole year where i felt surplus to requirements or found myself looking for something to do.

The level of responsibility given to me on this placement stands out above all other areas. Within weeks of starting the placement I had the keys to my first store performing the role of assistant manager. This often meant being the most senior member of staff present in the store, as well as assuming the role of store manager in their absence. When spending time out with my mentor, I would be expected to perform part of their role, such as interviewing new store applicants. At the end of the year I was given my mentors keys and allowed to assume the role of Area Manager alone, which meant being the sole person responsible for three stores. When working at head office, the projects myself and other IP's worked on were implemented at a regional level, affecting close to 100 stores.

I have gone from having no management experience at all to being confident in my ability to manage and lead large teams of individuals of various ages and backgrounds. As a result I am now a more effective communicator and more confident than when I entered the placement. The placement has instilled a work ethic in me which i imagine will make my final year of university feel considerably easier than my first two, and working to tight deadlines on projects will have improved my forward planning and time management no end. I have also honed my ability to deliver work after presenting projects to groups of directors, and now feel far more equipped to enter any corporate environment. I feel I have a good understand of the retail sector, along with much stronger analytical skills having spent much of the year concerning myself with regional strategy in such a sizeable company.

Aldi has a strong corporate culture at head office, which i imagine to be quite different to many other office environments. For me this was a big positive as i enjoyed the professional atmosphere and set level of expectation. I always walked into head office knowing I was there to be productive and work hard, much the same as walking into store. Anyone looking for a laid-back, relaxed office environment will be poorly suited to Aldi.

I was given a year long plan before my placement started, and my year rarely deviated from this plan. The structure involves a first half of working in store, followed by a second half or rotating around different departments and head office and completing project work. This gave me a foundation of first hand experience of stores, followed up by adding a holistic understand of how the company works at a regional level.

My training in store followed a structured training plan delivered by a dedicated trainer in store, as well as through various textbooks. My knowledge was consolidated with computer based training software and online tests. To learn the Area Manager side of the role I shadowed my mentor and had set checklists of task to observe and understand. My progress was regularly discussed during performance updates with my director who would also deliver feedback. I was also sent on a two day national induction at the start of the year, I was also sent on a first aid course, and two regional strategy meetings.

I have been offered a role on the graduate scheme to train as an Area Manager conditional to me achieving a 2:1

For the first part of the placement I was working in stores and saw little of my fellow IP's. It is inappropriate to socialise with your store colleagues due to the level of management you are training to become. However once I went to head office I worked with the other IPs and area managers daily, and we went out on numerous occasions.

I lived at home so my costs were limited to fuel, and I was able to use a company pool car when doing a lot of mileage. The salary offered more than negated any costs.

I went on nights out in Leicester in Birmingham with my colleagues.

There was an area manager football team, and various charity event were held throughout the year such as a poker night.