Department Assistant Manager Review

There were aspects that I enjoyed and others that I found very challenging. I found the man-management of the department's staff particularly challenging as, although my university degree is all about getting the most out of a business' staff, the methods and techniques that I'd learnt from my university textbooks didn't have the required effect when put into practice in real life. The staff didn't respond too well to my attempts to motivate them to strive for higher customer service. On the other hand, I really enjoyed getting to manage and have control over the Entertainment section as I was very interested in and quite knowledgeable about all the products.

I felt valued in the sense of being respected, because I was the assistant manager and the other workers were forced to listen to my opinions and repsond to my requests. However I didn't feel like my colleagues valued me as a person. They seemed reluctant to help me out if I was ever faced with a problem, which upset me and made me feel like, depsite my working position, they didn't hold me in very high esteem.

Although I was working under the Entertainment department's manager, I was the one who was highly involved with the department's proceedings and sales targets and results. The manager was placed mainly in the store's offices and was very visible on the shopfloor. Thus I was left to myself, really. I was thrown in at the deep end and had to figure out my own way of running the department effectively. Unfortunately I struggled initially with this.

I enjoyed the tasks I had to do but there was just too much to get through. I loved sorting through the new stock at the start of each week, but it took such a long time to barcode each product and then stack them in their rightful position on the shelves. You have to remember that CD's are released on a Monday, so that was near enough all Monday spent doing that. Then other forms of entertainment are released near enough everyday during the week. So there was never a day which didn't involve doing this. On top of that, I then had to manage the staff and sort their working hours out. I also had to deal with customer enquiries and hold meetings with the Store Manager. It was a hectic and busy placement.

I was practically in complete control of the Entertainment department. The only thing that suggested otherwise was my job title. After my initial struggles, I thrived on the responsiblity though. I couldn't imagine spending my placement in the HQ office doing admin work, the pressure and responsibility that I had in the store was exciting and a great confidence booster.

My placement perfectly tied in with my degree. Each day I was interacting and attempting to motivate my colleagues, aiming for them to want to strive to be better employees, which is what my university course is all about really. The experience of running a department proved to be incredibly rewarding and definitely enhanced my understanding and practice of human resource management.

My relationship with my colleagues was entirely professional so there wasn't too much fun to be had there, but I really enjoyed working with the entertainment products and being the first to see the CD artwork and DVD covers. Furthermore, each Monday I was allowed to choose a newly-released CD from the shelves to play in the department for the following week as a means of promoting that artist. I loved hearing the new music and deciding whether it was worth a purchase.

My placement was set up perfectly. ASDA really are a top company. I would definitely recommend them for their speed and service.

I was able to work in a role which perfectly complemented my degree, so in that sense they were very accomodating. Furthermore, they allowed me to have almost complete control over one of their most popular departments. So, in that sense, I would say they invested in me quite heavily as I'm sure they wouldn't have allowed just anybody to have such an important role.

Ever since graduating from university I have worked for the company. There loyalty to me was particularly surprising as I didn't achieve as highly as I'd expected in my degree, so I was very pleased with their commitment in offering me a permanent job. Though I guess I must have impressed them on my placement enough for them to take a chance on me regardless of my degree classification.

I made very good friends with another placement student who was working in a separate department. We organised to spend all our breaks at work together and regularly united to go on social events at the weekend.

Leeds, as a city, isn't the cheapest so socialising could become quite expensive. This wasn't too much of a problem for me as I was too tired during the week to socialise and worked one weekend very fortnight. Therefore I didn't have chance to do too many activities and limited myself to one social activity a fortnight.

When I could muster the energy to socialise I usually went into Leeds city centre, where the nighlife is incredible. There are so many bars and clubs that it's virtually impossible to have a bad night. If you're not enjoying the music or atmosphere someplace, you can find another club just a few minutes away usually.

There were lots of activites to join in with outside of work. There were ping pong tournaments and pool tournaments during the year and also our store had a male football team that played in the Sunday league which I played goalkeeper for a few times.