Industrial Placement Partner/Trainee Section Manager Review

It was definitely the best year of my life so far! To be immersed in a challenging and prestigious commercial environment really gave me direction about my future as well as the skills required for my present development.

I was treated like one of the management team whilst on Placement. They appreciated I was new and inexperienced but I received the same level of training and support, an equal chance to provide input and take on ownership of tasks, and pretty much the same amount in terms of responsibility. Furthermore, I was always treated as a human being and they were nothing but understanding and supportive, and very willing to offer advice and support and accept any which I gave them. It was a real Partnership.

I worked with various managers throughout (my Line Manager, and several task/project managers). Each one came with a different leadership style, which gave me great insight into how to lead. There was always somebody around if I had a question; and not understanding something was an opportunity to learn, never a sign of incompetence.

There was always something to be done. Occasionally, there were breathing points during quiet periods in a day, but that allowed me to complete any other jobs we couldn't devote time to whilst leading customer service. It was the perfect balance of the necessary repetition to learn the retail process, but no such thing as two days being the same. During the quiet five minutes it was nice to stop, smell the flowers and celebrate the achievements our team made, and that aspect of the day was actively encouraged at all levels.

By the end of the first week I was taking on a Duty Manager role across the ground floor of the Branch (with all the required training of course). This allowed me to lead a fantastic team in delivering the very best in customer service. I was also given projects to focus on, individually and as part of a group. Later in my placement, I had the honour of preparing my section of the store for a visit by the Chairman (Sir Charlie Mayfield), and our regional Director of Selling. Towards the end I worked within our Bracknell Head Office supporting our recruitment process, where I was allowed to be very independent and in a role liaising with external stakeholders. If I could have done one thing differently, I would have asked to take time to work in my Manager's role to get a better idea of the next "step up".

Firstly, I gained a much better direction of the route I want to take in the future, and that has allowed me to shape the route I am taking in my degree. Secondly, the training and development at John Lewis was very well structured around developing our skills in line with the expected behaviours of Partners, which gave me as a newcomer a structure to settle in to. I worked on a portfolio throughout the year which has shown me that all the little things I did led into very big personal developments, including but not limited to, my leadership, communication, retail commercial acumen and confidence. Since returning from placement I can look back with some perspective on where I was beforehand and have noticed numerous examples of where I am a much better student because I can cope so much better with an assignment or challenge.

The atmosphere was very friendly and supportive. It was relaxed, but at just the right level (it was still business like to allow for a clear focus on our goal). The office itself was usually quiet because we were focused on our customer service delivery on the shop floor.

Excellent! The Head Office team were really good at being there to talk to if we needed out-of-branch advice and we got to catch up several times throughout the year. They did an amazing job at briefing the stores on their role in the placement. The Branch team structured the tasks very well; there was structure but enough fluidity to allow us to find our own path, and the people were there who could help us grab the opportunities (like going to work in Head Office). If I could do one thing slightly differently, I would have created a special folder earlier on with the personal development structure, to allow for easy continued evaluation of my learning, rather than the "looking back" exercised I undertook part-way through.

I was as valued as their permanent Partners; I got to attend the management away day to bond with our team and input on the focus of our future development. We also had time devoted to exploring how we learn and build relationships, as well as extra internal courses on the new programmes and ideas the store were investing in. There was also flexible time to work away from the Branch so that I could visit other areas of the business (Head Office, Distribution, Contact Centre and Leisure Services) so that I could examine the wider business environment. John Lewis also offer a subsidy to allow us to go on a course of our choosing and learn something new.

Very appealing! I was lucky to secure a permanent weekend role within the Business on a permanent contract and there are always different roles becoming available on the jobs site, in so many different areas. As John Lewis are still growing and the Partnership also includes Waitrose, Partnership Services, Financial Services and Herbert Parkinson, there will be even more out there. Plus, there is so much variety it might feel like I'm having 2 or 3 careers instead of just one!

In our team it was more like an extended family, and we would go out for meals, bowling, and other events throughout the year. In hindsight I would have made more of an effort to visit the other placement students across the country so that we could have had a social event together.

Socialising was very affordable. I cannot comment specifically on living because I commuted in from outside the city, but that wasn't at all expensive either.

I wasn't one to take up all the nightlife, but it definitely looked very lively (with 2 universities in the city).

A lot within the team (as mentioned earlier). I was too far away to partake in some of the social clubs offered by John Lewis, and wasn't around my University campus enough to take up things over there, but this did not really concern me as what I did get was excellent!