Aldi Retail Placement (Industrial Placement) Review

My 9 months spent with Aldi was extremely rewarding and enjoyable. Despite the fact that it was a challenging experience, I thoroughly enjoyed being given such huge amounts of responsibilty and having the opportunity to develop many skills. I was exposed to all areas of the business which was particularly interesting and this insight into retail was invaluable. Although at times the Aldi placement was demanding, this was a fantastic placement and as a result I cannot speak highly enough of Aldi as an organisation.

Working in several different teams during the the placement required good teamwork skills and an ability to build strong relationships with colleagues. Due to the vast amount of time spent working together and the necessity to work well as a team to complete tasks (particularly in the day to day running of the store), there is a strong sense of solidarity and a lot of mutual respect throughout Aldi. There is a strong culture of respect within the company and this made working with employess from across the organisation, including store staff, Head Office employees and also drivers, very enjoyable. Furthermore, having the responsibility to work on real projects meant that I felt my contributions were valued by Aldi.

Aldi itself is a very target driven business and therefore targets and feedback were continual throughout. Adapting to the store environment and having to learn so much so quickly was sometimes tough and so constructive criticism from colleagues was vital to my training and development. I was also given a mentor who gave feedback and support throughout the placement.

In comparison to other placements, this placement involved working a lot of hours and could be extremely busy at times. This led to the development of strong time management and organisation skills, which will be necessary throughout life. Although the time pressures and targets set during the placement were demanding, this is a result of the huge amounts of responsibility given at such an early stage. Aldi training schemes are much shorter than other retail schemes so it is to be expected that in order to be trained to such a high standard in such a short space of time that a lot of hard work has to be done, and as an Aldi employee you will be pushed to achieve the best.

The level of responsiblity given by Aldi was huge. I was trained up to Assistant Manager within a few weeks, and so was regularly responsible for running of a store. This included financial responsibility, leadership of the team and also customer relations. During the time spent in Head Office I was responsible for several real business projects which impacted upon the whole region. Although the amount of responsibility given was initially daunting, due to the support given by employees across the organisation this was an extremely rewarding 9 months and an invaluable experience to take on real responsibilty in a real company.

Skills developed include teamwork, leadership, time management and communication skills. It also taught responsibility and accountability. Skills developed over the 9 months are skills for life and in my opinion I developed greatly as a person during the placement. The demands of the Aldi training scheme has developed a very strong work ethic which, not only will be very useful for my final year of university, has shown me how much I can achieve.

Aldi is a very professional environment and examples of this include the strong 'handshake culture' of Aldi, which shows respect for others and professionalism is embedded within the organisation. Due to the fact that everyone working for Aldi works extremely hard, there is a strong sense of teamwork and so positives such as meeting targets are enjoyed as a team, producing high levels of motivation. Everyone across the organisation was friendly, helpful and supportive, and this contributed massively to my overall enjoyment of the placement.

Although the placement scheme was relatively new in the region where I worked, there was a placement overview issued at the start which discussed my training schedule in terms of locations and timeframes. This was followed for the 9 months however still allowed for flexibility which was beneficial since I was able to input any suggestions about my training and also my project work was adapted to meet the needs of the region. Training seemed to be based on the Area Manager Graduate scheme and so was well organised and successful.

I was given a lot of responsibility in such a short space of time and so a lot of time was invested in my training from employees throughout the company, from store assitants to Directors to warehouse employees. The quality of training was excellent and there was a high level of support throughout.

Having spent 9 months on this placement I have developed a strong sense of loyalty toward Aldi as a company and I have a huge amount of respect for Aldi employees. Aldi has a very high status amongst graduates due to the levels of responsibilty given and the demands of the training scheme, and I am proud to have successfully completed the Industrial Placement. I am now working to complete my degree with a view to returning to Aldi after graduation.

Aldi requires a very focused attitude and a lot of commitment and so there is limited time for socialising during the time spent on placement. Although there was only one other placement student I worked alongside graduates on the Area Manager programme. I also attended the store Christmas party.

I lived at home for the majority of the placement. This was possible since Aldi was very accommodating in terms placing me in their regional stores closest to my home. During my time spent in Head Office, due to the distance from home, I was able to stay in a nearby hotel which was financed through expenses, which was majorly advantageous. The main cost was fuel, which the salary more than covered.

Living at home was beneficial in terms of spending time with friends and family. However, due to the demands of the training programme, the main focus has to be on Aldi and therefore the amount of time spent socialising and on other activites is massively reduced, particularly in comparison to university.

Aside of the Christmas party there were no other opportunities outside of work.