Jess Fielder

I was initially attracted to The Co-operative Group’s graduate programme because of the real diversity of experiences that it offered. It wasn’t until I came to my first interview, and heard everyone speak so passionately about the Group, that I fully understood why it’s so different. As I moved through the recruitment process, the combination of the Group’s social conscience and business opportunities made it stand out above other graduate recruiters.

After submitting my application, I had an initial interview in Manchester, with two colleagues in HR, followed by online psychometric tests and then the assessment centre a little while later. I prepared predominantly by learning as much as I could about the Group.

Whilst on the programme there were lots of opportunities to get involved in great initiatives, such as a project with Manchester University and the Prisoners’ Art competition. These were real highlights of the scheme for me.

My third project was in the Group Marketing team and I really enjoyed both the work and the atmosphere in the department. I applied for a role in the team when it came up. I don’t think that I realised how much I’d learnt until I moved off the programme into a job. I was able to apply everything that I'd learnt and at that point it was rewarding to see how much broader my knowledge of the Group was through having worked in so many different areas of the organisation.

Even though I have moved into a permanent role I still keep in touch with all the other graduates who were on the programme at the same time as me. We still get the opportunity to work on CSR projects together through the graduate programme. It’s great to see how well everyone’s doing and to get their insight into things that are happening in other parts of the organisation.