Retail Management Placement Student Review

Although I thoroughly enjoyed the majority of my placement, there were times I really struggled balancing a social life with the demands of Aldi.

From my store time through to head office, everyone was extremely helpful and wanted to further my experience in any way they could. This made me feel consistently valued and I was always treated as a valued member of the team.

I feel my Store Manager and Area Manager played a huge part in the overall success of my placement. Without their constant support and willingness to help, I would have found my placement much more difficult. Even the Directors were extremely involved in my placement which is unusual for such a large company; they were always willing to give me advice/guidance and help me in any way they could.

I was always busy throughout my placement, whether it was in Store, in Head Office or spending time in the Warehouse. This was great because it made the year fly by.

Aldi offers a great deal of responsibility and if the thought of this scares you, then this placement definitely isn't for you. I was given huge responsibility almost straight away; running a multi million pound store and in charge of a team of 20+ people was a huge responsibility when I had very little managerial/leadership experience beforehand.

I developed a great deal of skills throughout my placement that can be applied throughout my life and work in the future, however the placement itself was not that relevant to my degree; I major in Marketing and this was one area not covered on the placement. Despite this, I developed skills such as time-management and leadership which are all going to be hugely beneficial in my final year. I am also a lot more confident since starting my placement.

The offices are very friendly and people are always willing to help.

Overall the placement was very well organised. We received a 48 week plan before we started and whilst there was some flexibility in this, it was generally followed stage by stage. This was useful because it gave us personal time-based targets and also gave us our holidays etc in advance.

I had a training plan and targets to meet in my first 6 months which was really useful for both me and my management team to monitor my training. I also had regular feedback meetings with my Area Manager which played a huge role in my own development.

I have been offered a graduate job with the company conditional to achieving a 2:1 in my degree in 2014. I have even been offered the opportunity to defer this offer 12 months to go travelling and start in 2015 which is great.

Meals were organised at Christmas and at the end of our placement which offered a chance for us all to meet up and discuss our time spent at Aldi, but because we were all based in different areas across England and Wales, it was difficult to meet up socially. Also the long hours do not allow for much of a social life!

I was able to live at home during my placement so although commuting cost quite a bit, the cost of living was relatively cheap for me.

The nightlife in my hometown is not great but nearby cities are much better.

There were very little opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work. Although there are team sports days and football matches, the placement students weren't involved in any of these.