I worked as a Supervisor for high street retailer River Island. In this role I had taken on a number of responsibilities including dealing with customer complaints/concerns, ensuring the floor team perform their role to a high standard and maintaining a high level of performance across all operations in the shop, as well as continuing to perform the role of sales assistant and its responsibilities. As part of the management team I was entrusted with both opening and closing the shop. In this role I have gained great experience in motivating staff and have also learned a great deal about dealing with numerous responsibilities at the one time. I have learned a great deal about coping with stress in the workplace while working the busiest retail period of the year as a manager. I’ve also learned to adapt efficiently to changes and to manage all aspects of the sales floor in a calm way so as to achieve the shops goals and standards.

I worked as a sales assistant for high street retailer River Island. My main responsibilities include providing a high standard of customer service in order to create sales and to provide advice to customers. I must also ensure the stop floor appearance maintains a high standard. Along with the aforementioned, I have had numerous other responsibilities placed upon me. I have been trusted with a till authorization code that allows me to perform several operations on the till that others may not. I can also authorize a colleague to perform these operations. This is a function only managers and a very select few employees have been trusted with. I am often made acting manager of the floor while the manager is on break. This means I perform the tasks of the floor manager for a short period of time. This includes ensuring everyone is performing their respective tasks to an acceptable standard. It also involves making any decisions in regards to products returns or discounts etc. I have assisted the manager in designing floor displays and layouts.I was given the responsibility to both design and set up a sale layout. This task involved changing the floor set up and laying out a new set up for a sale. With the assistance of two colleagues, we successfully set design under time constraints. This task would usually be carried out by a manager and thought me a great deal about organisation and communication as I had to prepare everything and communicate my end goal to my colleagues. I have been trusted with training new staff members. This task mostly involves talking the new employee through our procedures and rules as well as doing demonstrations of ACE customer service and the application of the company's prevention and retention statements to combat stock loss.This job has thought me a great deal on customer service, selling, organisation, working under pressure or time constraints. It also gave me experience in leading teams and communication.

I worked as a bartender in a local pub for over a year. I became proficient in all aspects of the job including serving drinks, working till, clearing tables and the general upkeep of the establishment. I was quickly entrusted with being left alone to maintain the running of the bar for short periods of time. I learned a great deal in this job about customer service and I believe the responsibility thrust upon me helped me mature greatly both as a person and in a working environment.

I worked as a shop assistant for several months. My main responsibilities were stacking shelves and helping customers. In my time here I learned a great deal about following instructions and working in a timely and efficient manner in order to complete all tasks.