Asude’s First Hand Report

As I was looking for a job in my home country, I saw the advertisement for the ITP and did not even hesitate one moment to apply for the position because it was really what I was looking for: International Career Opportunity.

The program gives you the chance to establish a network while you are learning continuously and you also can adapt what you have learnt immediately to your daily activities. It is also very energetic, fun and you get to know lots of people, so lots of different ideas and cultures. 

As the first step of my trainee program, I have spent seven months in my home country before I could move on to my host country.

Therefore, I have spent five months in one of the newest stores in Istanbul. I used my chance to get to know the retail sector from inside and not only as a customer, who I was before and only visited the stores to buy what I was looking for and leave. However, one thing that I felt immediately when I started to spend time at the store is that retail never stops and to serve the customers with the appropriate articles is primary work. To achieve this you have to be dynamic, flexible, open-minded and quick. These qualifications are also important for the trainees because in most of the cases you need to adapt yourself to new situations and changes.

During the time in the store, I went through all departments, spent time with the employees, team leaders, department managers and also the store manager. This helped me to understand the working styles of each department separately and also to combine and realize the connection between each of them.

After the time in the store, I moved on to my second step in my home country and began to work at the head office. This part was extremely important because there you can analyze the relationship between the stores and the category management. I again spent time in each category and also in departments which are related to the stores indirectly. I tried to understand why problems were arising and what you can do to solve them.

As a conclusion, for the first part of the program, I can mention again that you really get a deep focus on the store life and the head office. Although you are a silent observer at this point and involve yourself to daily business with questions and answers, you get lots of information and experiences that you can use in your host country when you have more responsibility on your own.