Assistant Operations Manager GM Review

This placement year has been a really insightful and I have gained various skills and lots of knowledge, which is something you can't learn from lectures/textbooks. The year has been fantastic and not what I first thought it would be like. I have also been given endless amounts of opportunities and support from colleagues throughout the placement year.

From day 1 my colleagues made me feel very included, lots of them were happy to grab a coffee to meet eachother, learn about eachother and get an understanding of what they do. All my colleagues that I've worked with have valued my thoughts/suggestions around the office and in meetings. Waitrose actively encourage strong working relationships and this is one of the main things I learnt this year about needing effective relationships for great success.

I have a direct line manager as well as another manager in my team who both reguarly check in with me about how things are going, what they can do to help, pushing me out my comfort zone to try out new things, meet new people/teams and work in different areas of the Business to gain experience. They both are also very supportive about making mistakes as they happen all the time, which put me at ease as soon as I started as that was one of the things I was most worried about. No one likes to make a mistake.

My workload would vary quite reguarly depending on what's happening in the Buiness. My job is an operational role and I could walk into the office one day and not have done any of the work I planned to do because lots of things came up that needed resolving so I would prioritise jobs.

As soon as I started I was in a live role. I had a 1 week handover period with the current placement student and then when they left I was then in charge of lots of various things that would impact shops on a daily basis. From then my colleagues didn't see me as the placement student and treated me exactly as they would treat a permanent partner.

Waitrose have provided me with lots of sills that I can then take with me into my final year of University, but also into the work place afterwards. Being able to apply what I have been taught at college and Uni this year has significantly helped me to understand it all (guess it's like joining the dots). Waitrose also provide loads of training an entire website that is dedicated to partner progression and I have been able to take advantage of this throughout the year.

I feel I have been quite lucky in my office. Most of my colleagues are friendly asking about the week end and all the general talk. The team I work in is also a very fun team with managers who also support having a laugh and making it a relaxed environment.

Excellent. There were about 11 other placement students and Waitrose provided 3 training days across the year, which was great as we never all got together. In terms of my individual placement it was also very well set up with a detailed handover from the student before. I kept forgetting I was only there for a year and it just felt like a permanent job.

I'm not sure I could have worked in a company that wasn't as active in personal development than Waitrose. I would meet my line manager regularly and I was really bad at making a personal development plan, but he constantly reminded me. He would also push me to seek all opportunities and he would help me with anything I needed to enable my development.

Working for Waitrose when I graduate would be really good. They take great care of every Partner treating them as co-owners of the business rather than staff. The industry that Waitrose are in is extremly tough and volatile and this does become really difficult on each Partner, however I would happily work for Waitrose in the future.

Very good social between other placement students. I lived at home and would reguarly go to the 'placement house' after work/week ends. We all got on really well doing lots of activities like going to Ascot races, Alton Towers etc. Good social between colleagues in my department. We didn't go out often, but when we did it was always a great night.

Bracknell is quite an expensive area to rent, however it recently opened a new town centre with lots of resturants and pubs to socialise in. Cost of living also isn't too bad as all the general shops are here + the discount in Waitrose as you work for the company.

If you just want a resturant/pub then Bracknell is great for that. However, there is no clubs and the closest are either Reading or Camberly. Reading is a good night out with lots of choices of clubs and bars and with Reading University also being there most people out are students and it feels like being at Uni.

Lots! Waitrose has lots of opportunities with an extensive Partner benefit scheme offering loads to do and get involved in. They have over 50 societies that anyone can join, heavly discounted tickets to theme parks, the 02 etc. Also offer discounted holidays and day trips. Over the year I used some of the benefits, but there are so many!!!