Operations Manager Industrial Placement Review

Managing a team of 15-30 employees ensuring that tasks are completed timely and performed at a high standard. Creating new innovative ideas to help improve the operation. Communicating with other sites, stores and departments to try and mitigate any issues. Using problem solving skills to try and ensure the smoothness of the operation. Management skills to try and get the best performance out of the people you are working with.

Management, a massive benefit of working for gist is the amount of responsibility you are given at a level of industrial placement. You are in charge of running a certain aspect of the operation. Problem solving- in a busy operation things aren’t always going to go to plan- ie it’s three days before Christmas and it’s snowing outside, however people still need their roast turkey. However you have to come up with ideas and put them into practice to ensure that the operation is as smooth and successful as it can be.

Yes definitely you are given very similar responsibilities to a graduate on the operations scheme. During my time I was given the opportunity to lead a project that involved innovating and creating a new solution to an operation that was causing problems. I was given full responsibility to investigate this and then report back to senior management. You are given the opportunity to be involved in senior management meetings on a regular basis .

The support network that gist provide is great. I had a buddy system in place, where my buddy was a level 2 graduate, this enabled to me have a more causal guidance and support. As well as having a mentor who had been in the business for serval years was a senior manager and had lots of experience in the role that I was currently in. I also had a great support network on site with the teams that I was working with.

Gist is a very diverse company with employees from many different backgrounds / ethnicities and religions. The site often celebrated big events such as Ramadan, Christmas and pride month . Gist celebrate this diversity and it creates an understanding and appreciation for different cultures.

My placement year with gist was very enjoyable. I felt very supported throughout my time and felt most of the time I was in an environmental where I could thrive. It was challenging at times when things didn’t always go to plan but I’ve learnt how important resilience is in operations and have had the opportunity to put it into practice many times. As well as many other skills.

Yes

Make sure you research the company well and have a good understanding of what to expect. Operations can be very demanding you may be doing shift work which requires you to do 4 days on 4 days off with 12 hour days and work weekends. Make sure you have a positive attitude and a willingness to learn.