Three weeks into my new role as a "Retail Projects Manager" - my fourth placement - and I am loving it! I've gone through the "meeting people, instantly forgetting names" stage, the "oh my god there's so much paper and filing to do" stage and the "what, I actually have to do this on my own argh!" stage, and I feel very satisfied with my progress. My job involves working very closely with our customers to regenerate independent convenience stores (ie not Co-Ops, Londises (Londi?) etc, but ones unaffiliated with any group). My role is to go in as a consultant, draw up plans as to what the ideal store would look like, gain the retailer's agreement and then manage the project to the end, overseeing contractors, ordering new fridges, the works. Quite a daunting sounding brief! I did my first store on my own yesterday - went round with a tape measure and a digital camera and drew a lovely plan. Today I'm transferring it onto my computer, which is fiddly but strangely satisfying. Hope I can read my scruffy writing! It feels great to be actually getting my own work done now, and I have had great feedback from my manager already, which was a very pleasant surprise! I also love the fact that I am working at home at the moment - it's so quiet and peaceful, I get so much more done, and the benefit is you can roll out of bed, make tea and write emails (and blogs in fact) in your pyjamas! I do Miss the guys in the office though, so I make sure I go in regularly to catch up with everyone, and I have meetings all the time. I change out of my pyjamas for those.
It's not just all been about work these past 3 weeks for me though - last weekend my fella and I went out to Poland to see Hannah, one of the other graduates from our year. She is in manufacturing, and has been on a placement at our Polish business Cadbury Wedel in Warsaw for ages. It was so lovely to see her, and reassuring to see how well they've been looking after her out there too. She's got a lovely flat right in the centre of the Old Town, has been taking Polish lessons (although I believe the language they use in the offices in English - could have been tough otherwise!) and seems to be having a ball. We even managed to fit in a tour of the Cadbury Wedel factory while we were out there, in between sightseeing and drinking plenty of vodka! I think she's been very brave - it can't be easy to go out to a strange country with a completely different language. She said it's been tough, but she is so glad she did it. Looking forward to her being back in the UK though so we can see a bit more of her!"
And yes I am still in my pyjamas 3 hours after starting work... but I'm about to go and get dressed!
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