Asude’s First Hand Report (Host country)

As the second step of the ITP, I moved to Germany. Although the country and the culture were familiar to me, at the end it was a totally new environment. What you have to do in such a circumstance is being flexible and react calmly to any kind of situation and challenge that could arise as you are a foreigner with new surroundings.

During your stay in another country you need to be aware of two things: 1) adapt yourself to the new culture and people by being open for changes and 2) learn and experience the real,- world by comparing it to your home country.  I continued my training program at the store in Germany. Within the first weeks the main challenge for me was the working hours (getting up at 04:30) as I was not used to it from my home country and beside that I could compare everything I experienced in Turkey and try to learn the new procedures, structures, policies and other relevant information from another perspective.

I began at a fresh department with my training which was fruits and vegetables department and I worked there as a regular employee not only as a trainee. This period of training helped me to understand and realize the physical work that lies beneath the “good look” of the shelves and departments. Additional to my physical work, I used every single data to analyze our core business: customer satisfaction and how to address their needs effectively. For this purpose and also to be more independent and able to use the freedom and initiative of taking own decisions I have organized a store event, was responsible for the remodeling of the shelves and warehouse optimization of the Cosmetics department. Beside these projects of my own, I had daily tasks like checking and comparing turnovers and margins of the stores at our region, also I was responsible like checking the gaps, missing price labels, warehouse, maintenance, departments and outside area of the store. As long as you are willing to sacrifice from your side in terms of time, physical power, learning capacity, you can only get more out of this program as you get a really deep training which concentrates on every aspect of the “real,-“ store life. At the end you will realize that you have become open-minded, have become a team player, use initiatives, commit your time to the store and especially have fun while working, which is an opportunity these days not everyone has.
With the help of my store manager the responsibilities I got during my store training – like being the deputy team leader for electro and fruits and vegetables departments for two weeks each - I was able to look at the store with a “helicopter view” after all. Because of not having the experience and the knowledge at the beginning I was only focusing on departments but after spending time at the store for 6 months and being able to connecting the points of the ongoing situations, I was able to have the store aspect in my mind.
As it was also the case in my home country, in Germany I also had the chance to be part of the category management side of the retail sector for two months. During that time, I was responsible at the pet food department for the insert and promotion preparations, listing and delisting of articles and also I experienced a meeting of the Category Managers and the Merchandisers. Beside the pet food department, I was also a part of the Own Brand team.

Here I got a deeper background of the importance of own brand products and the benefits of own brands for our customers and company. The insight how the strategy and thus the products are implemented was very valuable experience for me.

At this moment, I also have to mention the other side of the training program which is the off-the-job training. During these trainings you will get to know the other trainees from other countries and cultures, attend seminar weeks where you will get trainings about your profession and personal skills and also build up intercultural networks and definitely broaden your view to the sector and for real,-.

In conclusion, although this training program requires a lot of flexibility, patience and hard work, it will allow you at the end to be a world citizen with 1.5 years of retail experience. From this perspective, I can only say that I am grateful being a part of this program by having the chance getting my skills developed for my future international career.