Industrial Placement Student Review

My placement was split into 6 months in store time and 6 months in head office. During the first 6 months I was trained as an Assistant Store Manager and was allowed to run the store some weekends and felt that I was given a lot of responsibility which I thoroughly enjoyed. The 6 months of head office time varied as some of the time we were there to observe how that section of the business functioned. I enjoyed the placement overall but felt there could have been parts in the the last 6 months where I could have been more involved.

All the people I came across were friendly and always willing to help. During my store time I developed a strong bond with my management team and definitely felt that if I had a problem they would always jump in to help me when things got tough. Also during my time in head office people were always willing to explain things to you and if you required help on projects they were always there to assist you

My manager in store was very focused on my training and treated me as if I was there to stay rather than just a placement student. I always felt like I could ask for assistance. My area manager also made me feel confident in my abilities to complete the tasks to the best standard.

There were days that during store time where we were extremely busy and things felt beyond my control but in a way that is the Aldi culture - things being busy and completing lots of different tasks throughout the day. Despite being busy I never felt like I couldn't regain the control and get back on top of the situation. During head office time there were days were I was bored as in some of the departments they were unsure of what we were allowed to do and whether we could still be trained to do certain tasks. This meant there were times when I stood around and just observed which was a shock to the system after being so heavily involved during store time.

This all came down to how much you proved yourself during store time. I gave everything my best shot and was always willing to do anything and everything that came my way. My manager gave me a lot of responsibility. I was running the store on some weekends. I did tasks such as ordering for the store, banking at the end of the day (running the safe) and pretty much anything else you could think of. During head office time there were 2 sections of project work where we were given projects to complete and these ranged from auditing the stores to calculating costs of employees and writing reports that are presented to the board. Overall this placement offers a high level of responsibility if you are willing to work for it.

I have learnt a lot of time management skills especially from running the store. When there are so many tasks that need to be done by the time store closes you know not to waste time procrastinating. Also working with so many types of people you develop your communication and management skills because no two people are the same and require different approaches when managing them during your store covers. Especially since I was younger than a lot of the people I was expected to manage.

During the office time of the placement, there was a lot of focus on getting the task done as it was an open plan office so you had to be aware that other people were working around you at all times. The people I worked with made it a lot of fun but the focus was on the work.

Overall the placement was organised well and at the beginning there was a clear structure to it however my particular placement had some issues as the store I was assigned to was in the middle of a management changeover when I joined so my training was not in sync with the plan when I started and I very much got thrown in the deep end. This did not negatively impact my personal experience but it did not stick to the plan. Some of the lengths of time outside of head office could have been shortened. Too much time was factored in for certain tasks.

During my store training there was a lot of time invested as I was seen as an actual manager rather than a placement.

The job prospects are good as they are looking to employ future managers through this placement scheme. So if you show you are hard working and that you want it the chances of returning are high.

There were 4 of us in the Middleton region of the placement scheme but we all lived in different areas of the region. I did car share with one who lived close by and we kept in contact exchanging experiences during store time.

I stayed in the same area of my university however I moved out of my student accommodation because I didn't want to live with students whilst I was working so rent was my biggest expense.

The nightlife was fine as it was the same area as my university.

There is not much focus on activities outside of work. These you would have to organise yourself.