Emma
Video transcript
My name's Emma Birks and I have just completed the John Lewis Summer Internship. I'm currently studying at the University of Leeds and I do Human Geography. As part of my studies I do a retail geography module and through that we've learnt about the retail industry in the UK as a whole. Part of that has been learning about John Lewis and the evolution of the Partnership model from the beginning, so knowing that has been a really good basis to the internship.
My friends and family are really proud of me for getting onto the internship because it was really competitive and then when I told them that I was actually getting paid I think some of them were a bit jealous that they hadn't got on it as well.
John Lewis has been really supportive throughout the whole of my internship. For the whole six weeks I had a buddy which was really great because any questions I had or anything to help me settle in, I always had them to go to.
I was actually shadowing the Section Managers on my first week which was really interesting, getting to see what a Section Manager does day-to-day. I had a team of Partners which I was responsible for managing on the shop floor and I also had an area which was in ready-made curtains, which was my area to manage. The sales are down on ready-made curtains so it was my responsibility to look at ways that we could increase them and that was through looking at figures but also through getting the team on board and getting them involved in my ideas.
At the end of my internship I did a presentation which was a project I'd been working on throughout the six weeks and that was to a group of managers, and from that I got the recommendation to go onto the last stage of the graduate assessment day which was really great because it makes all my work worthwhile.
The things I've learnt, such as my time management skills and the presentation skills that I've learnt are really going to help me and I'll be ahead of my coursemates when I go back to university.
In the short term I'm looking to get work experience and that's the reason that I did the John Lewis Summer Internship. In the long term I do see myself working in retail and having a career that way and hopefully being a retail manager.
I'd really recommend the internship to anyone who's considering taking it and anyone who's interested in retail, although I would warn them that it is challenging and it is hard work but you definitely get a lot out for what you put in.
