The global pandemic has brought with it redundancies across the market. Some roles are more at risk than others. Businesses are streamlining operations, homing in on key projects and activities which add the most value and doubling-down on customer experience. Lockdown has changed how customers shop, and retailers need to adapt. I argue that a breadth of knowledge is even more important than before. For those starting out after university, a rotational graduate scheme is a good way to gain this.

In this article, I aim to review my experiences on the Dunelm Leadership Graduate Scheme, share my proudest moments, and discuss what I would do differently next time.  Along the way, I hope to share a few notes of advice to anyone embarking on or continuing with a scheme of their own. I will close with some advice given to me as move into a permanent role.

Grad Rotation 1: Store Experience. September – October 2018

After a whistle stop tour of Dunelm’s Support Centre, Contact Centre, Distribution Centre and a selection of stores, my first rotation took me into our Thurmaston Store for 6 weeks.  Having never worked in a retail store before; it was all new to me. I learnt fast, getting first-hand experience of what and how our colleagues served customers at the till, roamed as customer hosts, worked delivery in the warehouse, and served tea and jacket potatoes in the Pausa coffee shop. All of this has proven to be useful contextual knowledge when working in support functions.

More important however, were the relationships I quickly built with our store colleagues. I think it’s really important to get to know your team; it makes work more human, more enjoyable, and more effective. We talked about our families, our motivations, our aspirations, and our hobbies. I listened to what they enjoyed about their jobs and to what frustrated them. I asked hundreds of questions every week and was grateful for how openly they shared their thoughts and knowledge. 

• Suck People’s Brains Out. Everyone you meet knows something that you don’t. Becoming a sponge for information is critical when you move roles. You are free from conventions and able to challenge the norm far easier. Make the most of this time to ask questions, then ask follow up questions, then go away and write down what you have learnt, then return and repeat.

Grad Rotation 2: Web Re-platforming. November – December 2018

A few months down the line when we (the 2018 graduates) met with the exec team, I was asked what the most challenging part of my first office rotation was. Surprisingly, I didn’t think it was the work, nor was it learning introductory HTML, CSS and JavaScript; it was the change of environment. Sitting down all day was a stark contrast to covering several miles across the shop floor, and it took time to adapt.

This rotation invited me to have a small part in the preparation and building of our new web platform for Dunelm.com. We discussed product hierarchy and site page structure, which, on reflection were questions that we were neither very scientific (read: why was one opinion better than another when they both lacked data?) nor were they questions that we were well placed to answer. During this time, I focused heavily on learning how each of the different teams contributed to both day-to-day operations and to the web replatform project.

In a similar vein to my store experience, I asked questions and listened to dozens of colleagues. It quickly became apparent that the wider digital team was a more complicated ecosystem than the Thurmaston store. Trading teams each covered a handful of departments, Marketing and Digital Marketing teams worked across a range of channels, UX ran experiments, Site Operations cleaned master data and reported fixes, Tech Tribes worked to an ‘Agile’ methodology, and Digital Designers had styled every button, link and image on the site. And all of these teams worked together, somehow.

• Take a holistic approach, no problem exists in isolation. Understand not just what each team contributes but how their work is interlinked with other teams. Think through scenarios. If team X did this differently, how would that impact teams Y and Z? Someone shared an analogy that this is like constructing a jigsaw puzzle. I think it is more like constructing a jigsaw puzzle where some of the pieces are missing and the picture on the box changes over time.

Grad Rotation 3: Digital Marketing (SEO & PPC). January – October 2019

Returning after Christmas, I moved quickly into the SEO Team (SE – What?). I cite this as my first ‘proper’ office rotation and I enjoyed the team atmosphere. Our SEO team was small: Jamie, Arun and myself and since the search engine algorithms are dynamic, there were always changes which we could make. I read lots of SEO news, articles and theory online and within a couple of months had gained a good understanding of the field – many of the learnings fed into this site!

One disadvantage for me on rotation in SEO was that because we had the fundamentals covered, there was little low-hanging fruit for me to practice as a beginner. This site was a product of wanting to practice the basics.

5 months in, I transferred to Laura’s PPC Team, which was described to me as the other side of the same coin. Both channels share common principles of page quality, and the bidding of PPC added another consideration to learn about. I was learning Python at the time, and the data-rich land of Google Ads and Google Analytics provided a wealth of resource for me to practice upon.

How do you make a marketing team with multiple channels synthesize as one? This was a common challenge raised at team days when it felt like we were working in silo. SEO, arguably the bedrock of site performance may only hear about social campaign activity after it was live on site, and were left to patch it over. To engage with other teams and share how SEO could help them, Arun and I planned and delivered a couple of ‘Introduction to SEO’ presentations which were well received, but only contributed in part to a long-term solution.

• Think broader than your current rotation. This is something I would want to do better if I could return and do it again. In technical roles, there is enough content to fully occupy your time, plus more! Don’t bury your head in the sand. Look up and look around. At a wider level, who do you or your team work with? Branch out and understand what they do. It is easy to do this to some degree – I believe that I could have taken more advantage of this during this rotation. Spend a week working as a trader, as a UX researcher, working on Instagram campaigns. It may feel erratic, but your grad scheme is the perfect time for this.

Grad Rotation 4: Made To Measure Material Algorithms. February – July 2019

I smile brightly whenever colleagues ask if I can support with a maths question. Coming from university, where maths questions involved n dimensional space, vector fields and imaginary numbers, I quickly learnt to rein in my expectation of maths questions in a retail setting. Arithmetic, statistics, combinatorics and sometimes matrix algebra are more frequently the order of the day and my emphasis has shifted towards pinning down the right techniques and explaining the background mathematics to others.

How much material (fabric and lining) do we need to make a curtain? This maths question is loaded with cries for further information: Understanding the context and mapping out the process limitations was a big part of answering this. After a few months of part time work, Amy and I shared a set of algorithms for calculating the material needed for any of our Made to Measure (M2M) products, which can reduce the amount of fabric used by 15%, cutting down on waste and cost in the process.

• Acknowledge problems and suggest solutions.

Managing and handing over this project was my proudest moment on the grad scheme.

Grad Rotation 5: Data & Insight. November 2019 – July 2020

After a 10 month stint in Digital Marketing, I was excited to join James’s newly formed Insight & Analytics Team. This rotation would promise the opportunity to work on a diverse set of questions and offer the chance to practice the skills I was learning in my data analyst apprenticeship.

Answering questions which the business has never explored, this role had a strong research feel to it. We were still setting up our ways of working; many of the problems I tackled were briefed from the exec team – store space analytics was firmly on the agenda 6 months ago. I enjoyed the ownership I felt when working in this team; I found this very motivating.  

• Knowledge share, become a producer. My colleagues have learnt to associate teamwork with problem solving at our whiteboard: a practice I have carried forward from university. Whiteboard aside, this rotation reminded me of the importance of sharing knowledge, that the best way to learn is to teach.

Where Next: Senior Insight Analyst – Supply Chain. August 2020 –

I have accepted a new role at Dunelm as a Senior Insight Analyst focusing on Supply Chain Operations. This new remit encompasses more responsibility in an area of business focus: Covid-19 has accelerated the increase in online shopping. Improving our analytics function in this area will provide the tools and thinking to improve our financial and operational grip. There is a lot to be done and I am excited for my next challenge.

In addition to the above principles learnt from my grad scheme, I have been speaking to others about how to effectively transition into a permanent role. CEO’s are commonly quoted to have 100 days to set the vision and make an impact in their new post. I’d like to close with one piece of advice that it more relevant to a permanent role than to a graduate scheme.

• Seek Crystal Clarity. With regards to goals. How will we know that I’m doing a good job in 3, 6 and 12 months? Accept that the answers may change over time, but it is helpful to set direction.

Until Next Time,

Scott