Stephanie Wood

Country of origin: United Kingdom

Placement: Aldi

When I first started looking at university courses it was essential for me to have an industrial placement as part of my degree scheme. I enjoy working and gaining practical experience so it was very important that my course had a placement year that allowed me to do this as part of my studies. I was fully aware of how much a placement year would improve my employability and enhance my prospects of gaining a graduate job and therefore I did not apply for any courses that didn't have a placement year included within it. What's more, I chose to take a placement year as I knew it would allow me to gain experience in different roles and provide with insight into what area of a business I wanted to pursue a future career in.

For me the first half of my placement was the most challenging, but it was also the most enjoyable and was the role where I felt that I developed the most. After 2 weeks of Store Assistant training I was able to 'learn the ropes' about what it meant to work in a fast-paced retail environment in store. Learning the basics such as till operations, stock replenishment, working deliveries and date control provided me with a foundation for my management training. As part of my Assistant Store Management training I took on greater levels of responsibility not only on the shop floor but within office administration too, helping towards the smooth operation of a store generating hundreds of thousands of pounds every week! This involved tasks such as ordering stock, safe handling, banking, customer service checks, inventory control checks, waste management, dealing with customer complaints and most importantly staff supervision and performance management! Not only was I ensuring that all the management duties were being completed, but I was constantly supervising and developing the team around me and providing vital feedback.

The second half of my placement was rather different - I was based in my regional Head Office where I was able to gain a broader understanding of the other departments such as Property, Finance & Administration, Logistics and Trading. In Head Office I completed multiple projects for each department which allowed me to put my experience within Store Operations into a regional operations context. These projects varied; from Spring/Summer uplift forecasting to improving the effectiveness of new store sites exhibitions. In the last 6 weeks of my placement all of the placement students came together to complete 9 substantial projects for the Store Operations department - the department where we had all initially started our placement experience (within store). After completing these final projects we then showcased our findings and best practice recommendations to the Store Operations Director in a series of presentations.

My placement was definitely not for the faint-hearted. It required lots of commitment, hard-work and dedication in order to contribute to such as fast-paced company. I think that I grew another layer of skin whilst working at Aldi but I can safely say that I have never developed myself so much in such a short space of time ever in my life. If you're prepared to work hard for your team and put the time and effort into developing yourself and the team of people around you then the rewards are overwhelming - not just financially but also personally.