Undergraduate Manager Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year with PizzaExpress. It was challenging at times as I had never worked in the hospitality industry before and you are given a lot of responsibility from the offset, which, can be daunting but also extremely rewarding. Everyday is different, which is also an enjoyable aspect of the job.

At PizzaExpress, you get the opportunity to work with various teams of people, whether that be the other undergraduates, restaurant support, your training restaurant team or your destination restaurant team. Everyone at met and worked with at PizzaExpress was extremely friendly and helpful. Even although you are new to the business and some team members had been there for years, I immediately felt as though I had been there for years as everyone was so lovely.

You are provided with endless support throughout your placement year, from your restaurant manager to the restaurant support team who are in charge of the programme. You will also be given a PizzaExpress mentor, who is usually someone outside of your restaurant area, who you can turn to if you need help. The managment team at my particular restaurant where amazing. They provided me with a thorough insight into how the business is run and I felt I could always ask them if I was confused about what to do.

As I've previously said, everyday was different. Depending what city you are in, what type of restaurant you are in or what time of year it is can really determine how busy you will be. I'd say that due to the nature of the industry and the job you are doing, you are usually on your feet for most of the day. Especially if you are doing an evening shift, you tend to be very busy. However this is not always the case. If you are on the day shifts, you tend to be less rushed and can get on with office styled work.

You are given a lot of responsibility from the start of this placement, which I think is good. You undertake around 8-10 weeks of training and after that, you are in charge. Of course, there is a restaurant manager, but essentially as the assistant, you will be in charge of the shifts which your manager is not doing. This was daunting in the beginning but with all that responsibility you learn how to become more efficient and you can test your abilities.

I undertook this placement having no prior experience in the industry. I was fortunate to be selected despite the fact that I don't do a business or hospitality degree. The skills and experience I have gained are second to none. I have returned to university feeling more confident, more able and in a far better position for graduate employment compared to my peers. The skills learnt on this placement can be applied and used in many other jobs or careers and due to the responsibilities you have whilst on placement, I would argue that you gain fair greater skills than many other placements available.

Everyone in the restaurant has the same aim, which is to provide excellent service and great food. Therefore, as everyone is constantly working together in a less formal environment than an 'office' per say, we'd always have fun and crack jokes with one another. The job would become more boring if you werent smiling and laughing with your team

Overall, the placement is very well organised. There was a set training period, development days at restaurant support in London, as well as constant communication between us (undergraduates) and those who were in charge. We were provided with buckets of information regarding the restaurant processes and also had to undertake online training programmes to help us with our learning.

The main development and personal training I would say we received was that we were tasked with creating a business project. We had to collect all of our own data and research and create a presentation in which we presented to central operations at the end of our placement. The business helped me with my data collection and presentation skills as well as helping me structure a business presentation and give me feedback on my business ideas/ plans

At the end of your placement, you could potentially receive a job offer based on your overall performance. Rarely you are not offered a future position within the business and I believe a majority of the undergraduates are offered the chance to come back after university as a Restaurant Manager as opposed to an assistant. There are hopefully further opportunities available within the business in which we can apply for such as in Marketing, Finance etc

Yes! There is definately a great social scene amongst the other undergraduates. We'd get to meet up with each other in London when we'd have to travel down for the various development days, and we'd usually go out for meals, drinks etc with each other. As well as this, there was a great social vibe between myself and team. We did a christmas night out as well as paintballing and would also go to the pub every now and then after shift finished

I was fortunate to be allowed to undertake the placement in my home town therefore I lived back at home with my family. A majority of the undergraduates lived at home during there placement year. Therefore, I was enabled to save a lot of money as well as make money, which is great for students! The area in which I live is reasonably cheap as well so I didn't struggle on my year out

The nighlife where I live is okay, not as good as the city in which I go to university. However, due to the nature of the job, I didn't go on as many nights out as when I am at university. You tend to work evening shifts which limit your ability to go out but when we did go out, the nights out were fun. I would organise nights out with my team as team bonding as well

There were few opportunities for undergraduates to get involved in activities outside of work. Depending on your area and your area's performance usually determined whether you could go on activities outside of work. For example, if your area did particularly well in a particular quarter, then you'd be awarded a bonus to do an activity such a day at the races or a weekend trip away