Retail Management Intern Review

I enjoyed the internship quite a lot: it provided a real insight into the company and the retail sector. My role was challenging at times, but that was what I expected and wanted it to be. Overall, I'd say I really enjoyed my time with the Partnership.

This was challenging for a few reasons. As the internship placed me into a management role, it was difficult to reassure experienced Partners who didn't know me that I was capable in the role. As many Partners trained for a long time to reach the level I was working at, I felt as though there were instances of Partners both not recognising my skills for that level and failing to accept that I was chosen to work to at that level.

I was given far more support and guidance than I first expected when starting the internship. My Line Manager, Karen, was exceptionally well-prepared to guide me: she had communicated with me directly on a number of occasions before the internship started and developed a timetable of work for me. She worked with me on drawing up a list of objectives and assisted me in completing them, and offered me support when discussing further steps in my career.

On many days I was rushed off my feet, in a good way. Having built extensive networks I found myself involved in a number of projects around the branch, providing input through meetings and idea-sharing sessions. My own project was ambitious, which led to me being extremely busy a lot of the time. I was also given a lot of responsibility on my own department, adding further to my day-to-day work-load.

To begin with, very little: this was because I needed to be trained and had to understand the way the business worked. By the end of week 2, though, I was running the department aided and by the end of week 3 running the department unaided. By the end of the internship I had covered numerous management colleagues around the branch, proving that I was given a great deal of responsibility on a regular basis.

Greatly. At university it's easy to get caught up in things that matter very little to your studies or career but seem important at the time. My internship has refocussed me on what I want to gain from my final year, the career I want to achieve and how I'm going to achieve it. It's improved my time management, the way I focus on tasks, my networking skills and given me greater confidence in my ability.

As the company is a Partnership, there's a very unique atmosphere there. Everybody who works for the company has a stake in the business, meaning that they each earn a bonus and are offered certain benefits that other companies don't offer. This makes for a very positive environment in which to work, transferring into the sales made on the shop floor. It also means that there are multiple democratic channels for the employees to have their voices heard, meaning they feel more respected and listened-to than most other businesses.

Really well, in my opinion. As I mentioned, Karen, my Line Manager, spent a lot of time building a timetable of events for me to complete, which involved a lot of liaising with different members of the business around the branch. The material that the Central Head Office provided was also very detailed: it gave me a clear time-scale as to where my progress should be at certain stages in the internship. There was never a day where I had nothing to do.

The personal development offered by the company is industry-leading. It was clear what was expected of me from the outset if I were to achieve the level I was aiming for; I worked with Karen to formulate a strategic set of objectives to work on; I had numerous opportunities to work on other departments to improve my all-round abilities. I had a mid-Internship review with my Line Manager in which we discussed my development and progress and identified areas for improvement. I also had a review at the end of the internship highlighting my development throughout the programme and offering me a position in the final assessment centre for the graduate scheme.

Very appealing. The company is extremely large and there are multiple opportunities for career progression. 90,000 people are employed by the Partnership in all kinds of divisions: sales, operations, marketing, finance etc. The graduate schemes offered are industry-leading and the employer is in the Top 10 of this website. There are very few companies with such great employment prospects.

There were no other placement students.

I lived at home during the internship (which was quite cheap. Thanks, Mum and Dad).

Not great, but it is my hometown so I'm used to it. I doubt any visitors would think of it as very good, though.

There didn't appear to be, but that may be because I was there for quite a short amount of time. I know that at Christmas they perform a panto, and often hold after-work drinks at the bar upstairs.