We spoke to BSc Business Management student Jennifer Malpass about her placement at Dee Set, a company that supports retailers and brands to drive growth, market share and return on investment.
What is your role at Dee Set?
I’m a central operations analyst. We allocate work for the company’s merchandisers and write reports on their performance.
A merchandiser is somebody who will go into a store and implement, replenish and demonstrate products for brands.
We have 2000 merchandisers across our company and we allocate work for them in different stores like Asda, Tesco, Morrison’s, Waitrose, Superdrug, Boots and similar companies.
What is your role at Dee Set?
It takes a lot of juggling but it’s really interesting. We have quite a lot of clients and once the merchandisers have been out in the field we get lots of information back, analyse it and write reports for management.
What have you learned from your placement experience that will help you when you enter the job market?
I’ve developed competencies in things like time management, communication and project management. I have also have gained good experience within a real job role, which will be useful at interviews and grad schemes.
Do you have advice about how to secure a placement?
You have to apply for quite a lot because there are so many students who are applying. Definitely apply as soon as possible. As soon as you know what you want to do, just keep applying to lots of organisations. Even if it’s not a company that are necessarily doing a placement, you could try and get a job on a fixed term contract for a year.
Has your placement changed your ideas as to what you want to do after you graduate?
Definitely. I might want to go into data analytics. Before I applied for a placement, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I thought that it was very important to get experience while studying, which is why I went for a placement.
If someone asked you if they should do a work placement, what would you say?
I’d advise them to go for it because experience is really, really important after you’ve finished university. A lot of employers want experience, they don’t just want someone with a degree. There are a lot of other applicants that you need to stand out from, so getting industry experience adds that.
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