Industrial Placement, Procurement Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year, probably the best year of my life so far! I felt I was stretched, developed some key skills along the way and was exposed to so much of the business.

I felt the people in Procurement were very friendly and extremely supportive. Whenever I needed help or guidance people were at hand to help me. I felt like I could fit into the team quite well and build some strong relationships. I think this is important as it makes you enjoy coming into the office and creates a lively environment to work in.

I had great support and guidance from my line manager, he helped me adjust to working in an office environment and has allowed me to develop by giving me two of my own projects, regularly guiding me through the process. He is always contactable for a chat if I need to ask any questions.

Within the first 2 months I was quite busy and took more of a supportive role within the team. As time went on I had to balance being support for the team as well as managing two of my own projects. So towards the end of my placement I did get very busy.

Again towards the start of the placement (1-3 months) not too much, I played more of a supportive role within the team which I thought was a good idea so I could get a good idea how the department worked. Then (3-6 months) I started to help members of the team analyse their supplier responses from tenders and assist in supplier interviews for a high value contract. Finally (6-12 months) I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to represent the John Lewis Partnership and meet over 25 suppliers and network with other suppliers in the industry. I was also then given two projects to manage myself, was part of the social and team day committee organising events, was a Google guide helping the department transition from an old email system, worked on a continuous improvement task with our communications business partner and then presented to a senior leadership team.

I think the skills I developed were directly relatable to my degree in Business Management, as I developed my stakeholder management skills, confidence, organisation skills, negotiation skills and most importantly networking skills. In management people skills are fundamental, I found my confidence and communication skills have improved which will not only help me in my final year of university, but also applying for jobs after I graduate.

Core days were usually bubbly and upbeat whilst everyone was in the office together. People in the department hot desked, however I preferred that, as it gave me a chance to get to know more people in the department. It was a good mixture of being able to have a chat but get your work done at the same time.

I think it was set up very well, the year was structured and we had regular development days every quarter.

In terms of investing time and effort into me, I think it was fantastic. As long as you have the confidence to drive your own progression and open your own doors for development, people will be more than happy to coach you and answer any questions you have. I had the opportunity to have a few 1:1's with my Director about personal development, I also had regular personal development 1:1's with my senior manager and learnt a lot from her experience, she put me in contact with others to have more exposure to the business and see firsthand how it operates. My direct line manager also invested a huge amount of time in me for my personal development, he guided me through the year and was always available for a chat if I needed it.

I think future graduate schemes in the John Lewis Partnership look great as they are a great company to work for.

Yes, we met up regularly as a placement cohort which was nice to find out what everyone else is doing and learn more about the business, Within my department we also had social events and team day events, which I really enjoyed!

The cost of living was manageable I was working in between London and Bracknell but I was living in Reading so in terms of location, It was brilliant to get to both locations. Socialising was a lot better and easier to organise when we were in London, Bracknell however was a bit harder because of the lack of options available. However we still did social events e.g bowling and food.

There was no nightlife in Bracknell as it's quite industrial, however London was great for nightlife.

Yes, I was part of the 11- aside football team and played at the Madjeski stadium at Reading football club, my manager held weekly fitness 'boot camps' where other people in the department also joined, and we could get involved in social events with people from the department.