My story: being a graduate trainee at Waitrose

Julia FitzRoy, 23, is a graduate trainee at Waitrose.

“Retail is such an amazing and exciting industry. It’s fast paced and very demanding; you are dealing with something that everyone needs, which is very satisfying. I also get to give people something they deserve: quality food.

“When I started the scheme I spent four months in Barbican doing my technical training: I had never put a tin of beans on a shelf before! I got to see all areas of the branch; I think it is very important to gain a solid understanding of how everything operates if you are going to be managing departments in the future. The technical training phase is proving invaluable as I progress through the training scheme.

“I then moved to the King’s Road, where I was placed in food service – working on the counters – which I had a go at running for five months. It was a steep learning curve as I began to understand and appreciate the pressures that section managers are under.

“Originally I studied history of art at the University of Edinburgh, which probably doesn’t sound like the obvious platform for a career in retail! After Edinburgh I didn’t know what I wanted to go into; I had done work experience in the art world and knew it wasn’t for me. However, my parents are organic chicken farmers in Devon and supply Waitrose with eggs. I was helping out one weekend when some Waitrose employees visited. Coming from a farming background, I was so impressed by how knowledgeable they were and how interested they were in my parents and their business.

“I looked at the Waitrose graduate scheme online and thought the company stood out in terms of career development and how much they invest in you as an individual. The fact that all employees are partners – sharing company profits – and have so much of a say in the way the company is run, via a democratic board, is brilliant.

After a bit more research I applied online and got invited to an assessment centre. It was there that it became clear to me how exciting a career in retail management could be, and I found myself realising where my passion really lies.

“The great thing is that Waitrose trains you in stages, so you have an understanding of each phase before moving on. At the next stage I will be shadowing a department manager and after that I will be allocated my own branch as department manager.

“For me, the biggest challenge was realising that I would be managing people far more experienced than me. It was quite a tricky thing to get my head around to start with, but it’s about asking the right questions and accepting that I am never going to know everything!

“I work odd hours – I work weekends of course, it’s retail – but I don’t work long hours. I genuinely love the job I do and not everyone can say that! You never know what might happen in the future but, for now, I just love being in store and getting involved.”