Assistant buyer Review

It did not meet my expectations but I learnt so much about myself, the industry and purchasing it was a valuable experience and was enjoyable.

I worked for everyone in my team, everyone was very supportive and were grateful of my help.

I was assigned a mentor who was very unapproachable and never talked to me, my manager was lovely but did not directly manage my work so it was an issue as sometimes I had too much and some times not enough work to do because he wasn't giving me work directly.

At the start I was very bored as there was just not enough work for me, then when I took on some direct buying the work load shot up and I struggled to find that balance.

Allot of responsibility and this was the best part about it. I was treated like any other buyer the only difference was I usually worked on lower value sourcing and had to gain approval by 1 more person than my colleagues did.

I learnt allot about myself, the industry and purchasing. I intend on studying supply chain in my final year so feel allot of the things I have learnt that I may take for granted now will come in very handy then, such as knowing what terms like MOQ, breakpoint and retainer mean.

There was allot of jokes and banter in the office, perhapse as it was an all male environment.

The start of the placement with the 2 week handover was organised very well, but after the initial training you were left up to your own thing and I feel a structured training program and development criteria would have organised the placement better.

They trained me on computer skills and other training specifically for the undergrads and then through my department I attended training catering to all in my department but I felt more training could have been given and ended up joining the training committie to try to change this.

The company does not have a specific graduate scheme but from what I gather that means you stay at the same level as on placement but trave more and change between the departments. I believe that you receive less holiday and lower wages than others in the industry and are not helped towards chartership with CIPS. The scheme just isnt developed enough/at all.

There was allot of placement students and so something was always going on. During the first 2 weeks and last 2 weeks of your placement is a hand over period of partys and if living away from home you can live with fellow placement students that the company helps you to find.

It was ok, being close to London it was expensive in the surrounding area but Luton itself is very cheap to buy food and go out, rent is moderate.

A few clubs in Luton and lots of restaurants but most of the good nightlife is available close by in St Albans or London.

Most of the activities seemed to be geared towards physical activity but there was allot that everyone could get involved in such as the London to Brighton cycle challange and 3 peaks.