Anastasija Kirejeva

At the end of my internship I can say for sure that a Year in Employment is a must do for every student! Studying for a degree is a great way to boost your knowledge in your area of interest and to learn to think in a certain way. However to be successful in the current job market you need a stronger base than just a completed degree. The skills and experience YES provides you with, are a way to overcome the difficulties of the job market and enter it confidently.

I have previously worked for the company and this helped me secure my place on the YES scheme with Boots. I got the opportunity to get a deep insight into the retail industry while receiving strong support from my manager.  I have learnt about Payroll, People Admin, the Salary Allocation Model, the interviewing process of the company, and I was acquainted with all the targets of the team and was advised on ways to achieve them.

My responsibilities included supervising the weekend team, performing opening and closing procedures, end of the week cash accounting, safe and counting balances. I was also performing the weekly cut off and investigating any discrepancies appearing. Another weekly duty of mine was collecting documents for the audit parcel – that included the financial documents we dealt with through the week, such as the till count report, safe balance etc. I was responsible for the date checking operations – I had a team of two others helping me. I had to allocate the time very efficiently for us to cope with the workload and for all the date checking procedures to be done on time. I was treated as a valuable part of the team and was able to develop new skills as well as build on those I already had. I have improved my time allocation skills and learned to cope with a high workload – thus boosting my skills to work under pressure.

I also received the opportunity to take an extra course provided by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) to get a Certificate in Business Accounting.  This has allowed me to consider another career path, as well as improving my employability.