Assistant Product Developer [Waitrose] Review

I thoroughly enjoyed working for Waitrose. The John Lewis Partnership is a fantastic company to work for, offering many benefits and making employees feel valued.

In the beginning you do feel like just a student, however, by the end of my placement I felt very valued by my colleagues and was always being asked to help them complete tasks.

I had two managers throughout the year, both of which were very supportive and helped me to set some clear objectives.

At the beginning of the placement you find yourself with a lot more free time and more relaxed days, naturally due to the learning and development process. By the end of the placement my days were jam-packed but by this point I was developed so could handle this and manage my time effectively.

I was given quite a lot of responsibility during my placement including liasing with suppliers, inputting product information, creating reports and managing product photography shoots. I was also directly involved in developing over 50 products, where my opinions contributed towards all aspects of development.

Working full time in a large organisation has undoubtedly enabled me to practically apply theory learnt in lectures to real life. Having something to relate the course content to can make you more engaged with the subjects.

Everyone was very friendly in the office. There would be days where everyone was stressed with workloads but this was rare.

The placement did not really have a structure. I did not know what I was really going to be doing until I arrived on the first day. The area I worked in was changed after 9 months, which was not planned in advance. The placement seems to depend on the department and what was happening in the specific department at the time.

There were four development days held throughout the year. There were also training course available to use computer systems and excel, which you had to organise yourself.

I would love to work for Waitrose again. A new graduate scheme has just been introduced which is focused around leadership. Development within the business feels a little restricted as there is little movement in the company, employees stay in the business for a large number of years. On the positive side this is a good sign if so many employees do not want to leave.

A group of placement students arranged to live in the same house together. We got involved with other placement students at nearby companies such as Microsoft, HP and Panasonic.

Reading is a quite expensive area but not as expensive as London.

There are a few bars and clubs in Reading, as well as the university's student union. It is not far from London too.

There were lots opportunities to get involved in activities. There are many clubs you can join such as sailing, wine tasting and many many more. There were also charity events you could participate in and private company events held such as exclusive hire of Alton Towers. The John Lewis Partnership also offers £250 subsidy towards learning something new. I used mine to learn how to gain a scuba diving qualification.