AweSUMS Career Tracker: Owen Bailey

Since graduating, I have continued to live in Sheffield whilst starting my professional career for Aldi. I started my Graduate Programme with Aldi in October 2018 and have not looked back since!

Following my Industrial Placement, I completed the scheme in less than 7 months and took my first area in June 2019. I now have stores in Sheffield & Rotherham and am responsible for over 100 employees. On a daily basis, I manage key performance indicators, recruitment needs and several ongoing projects that have been rolled out on a regional level.

In a short space of time, I have taken on many responsibilities that enabled me to build strong rapport with my colleagues. I pushed myself to take on further projects at work, which has developed my problem solving skills.

Over the past couple of years, I have had many highlights. I pushed forward a high performing Assistant Store Manager through succession planning and she was later promoted to Store Manager. She is now a very successful Store Manager within Aldi and has thanked me for her continued coaching and support in the process. Another highlight was a charity event that I ran for one of my stores in Sheffield to help raise money for Sheffield MIND. In store, we ran a raffle and tombola that raised over £1,000 for the charity and was a fantastic day for everyone involved.

Most of the challenges I have had throughout my time at Aldi related to people and during my time at SUMS, I used my HR modules that I completed through my three years at University to help overcome these challenges. All of my group work projects at university came in handy because they helped build my leadership and communication skills.

The Covid-19 crisis was a huge challenge for everyone as it was something no one had experienced before. This gave me opportunity to build on my personal development as I could reflect on any decisions that I made and the impact it would have on the stakeholders of the business.

All of my group work projects at university came in handy because they helped build my leadership and communication skills.

Owen Bailey

BA Business Management with Employment Experience (2018)

As I move forward in my career, I want to continue to build on the foundations I have made in the early parts of my career. Within my area, there are still items that need improving which I must focus on for the rest of the year. In the future, I would like to manage some new stores in a different part of the country to give me a new challenge. I would also like to take on further National projects to continue to build my reputation within the company.

Alumnus Owen Bailey graduated from Sheffield University Management School (SUMS) with a BA in Business Management in 2018. Owen also won a place on The Dean’s List, a prestigious award celebrating our graduates’ academic achievements as well as their extraordinary contributions to improving the world around them.