Johnnie

Non-Food Trading Manager, Stores

BSc. Business Studies, MBA, Staffordshire University
Joined Tesco, September 2005

The main thing that attracted me to Tesco was the chance to progress to a senior team role within a year and become a store manager in three to five years, running a multi-million pound store. I'd always wanted to work in retail and joining the number one supermarket chain was always going to bring excitement and challenges along the way.

The intensity of the programme has been surprising. From day one you're responsible for your own development. Twelve months have flown by and the amount of knowledge and retail experience you gain first hand is phenomenal. I'm just coming to the end of my placement as a non-food trading manager, responsible for the day-to-day running of the whole non-food department. When I say day-to-day it may sound relatively simple, but it's far from it! You have to drive your department's performance in terms of financial, operational, customer and people measures. And you're trained to look after the entire store as duty manager. The duty shifts give you a full flavour of what life's really like in a Tesco store. You're making decisions that impact the whole business – and you never lose sight of the fact that you're running a store that takes £1.5m a week.

The culture at Tesco is unique. I've never worked for a large company before, but the atmosphere in stores is great. There's a lot of support and development on the programme - and in store you get support from every angle. In the three stores I've worked in, everybody from general assistants to the store manager has taken an interest in my development. The support you get and the fun you have along the way makes all the hard work worthwhile.