Buying and Merchandising Placement Review

I really enjoyed my year at TJX. The company puts a real emphasis on its culture and you can definitely feel that when you're there. Everyone is very friendly, there's no real sense of hierarchy and the office is incredibly laid back. I met some great people this year and made a lot of friends.

In merchandising I felt really valued by my colleagues. You're working together in a very tight team and you each have a vital role to play within that. You're treated no different to a graduate and you you're given a lot of responsibility to drive your business. Buying however is a bit trickier because you're not working in such a close team. I struggled to feel needed/significant at times because there is a lot of time when you're not that busy and there's a lot of stuff you can't do because you're not actually trained as a buyer.

You are given a great deal of support and guidance at TJX. You can go up to anyone, not just your supervisor (they're all very approachable!) and ask for help and they will make time for you.

Again this really differed between merchandising and buying. In merchandising you were busy everyday but not to an extent that it was too stressful or that you were staying late. In buying the days varied loads from week to week. Some weeks you'd be out with your buyer all the time, getting up at 6 and getting home at 10. Other weeks could be really quiet and you'd have very little to get on with. At these times it is up to you to find stuff to do.

In merchandising I was surprised at the amount of responsibility I was given. Like I said before, your role is the exact same as that of a graduate. You make decisions on which brands and in what quantities you want to ship that week and are encouraged to push back if you disagree with a decision. You can come up with specific shipping strategies to help drive your business, which is especially rewarding when you see profits coming from these. In buying you don't have the same responsibility because you're shadowing/assisting. My buyer would ask for my opinion on styles I liked and we'd make selections together but ultimately all responsibility lies with them.

I think the biggest skill I developed here was communication. The job forces you to go beyond your comfort zone and talk to everyone, whether that's simply to build personal relationships or to talk about your business.

The office is really laid back, which I really liked. You feel like you can talk to anyone, as everyone's super friendly. There's also usually some fun events like a pumpkin decorating competition at Halloween, easter egg hunts at Easter and we made wedding outfits out of our reports for the royal wedding.

The merchandising section was very well organised. We had 3 months of timetabled training and then once you're in your team you have almost a weekly routine with regular 1 to 1s. I felt like the buying section was less organised. Expectations of you are a lot less clear and you don't really have much structure.

You go through a solid 3 months of training before you even start your job properly which is really valuable. There's also workshops throughout the year which focus on your personal development - for example, emotional intelligence, giving/receiving feedback, personality types etc.

The placement scheme really encourages you to come back after graduating. If you choose to do this you come back as an allocation analyst in merchandising so you're already familiar with the role. You have to go through merchandising to get into buying at TJX so everyone who comes back starts as an analyst.

We formed a really close group, the placement students and grads that I started with. You spend the first 3 months in training together so you get to know each other really well. I think this is definitely one of the biggest perks of this company. And because a lot of the people at the company are generally quite young, it's a lot easier to make friends.

It's quite expensive, although cheaper than central London prices. The salary is definitely enough to enable you to socialise frequently though.

There is a nightlife in Watford but it's very basic. However, its only a 20 minute train ride into central London where you've got access to absolutely everything.

I'd say this is left up to you. Although because you make friends, I found that I then socialised a lot with these people outside of work.