Abstract
On the occasion of my first year with the La Rochelle Graduate School of Management, I undertook my work placement in a company called Container Link, in Poole, in the south-east of England. This experience, lasting three months, gave me the opportunity to live through a total immersion in an English-speaking country in order to improve my professional English. Moreover, this work placement turned out to be a human and cultural experience. In the first part, I will present details about the company Container Link, its structure and its environment, and my mission within the office in Poole. In the second part, I will describe, in concrete terms, my work experience, and the social customs in England. Finally, I will explain the benefits of this work experience, the acquired competences and the valorization on my CV.
Extract
[...] There are over 60,000 pubs in the UK (53,000 in England and Wales in Scotland and 1,600 in Northern Ireland). One of the oldest pubs, Fighting Cocks in St. Albans, Herts, is located in a building that dates back to the eleventh century. Pubs are popular social meeting places. Pubs are an important part of British life. People talk, eat, drink, meet their friends and relax there. Pubs often have two bars, one usually quieter than the other, many have a garden where people can sit in the summer. [...]
[...] Analysis The management of the trailers I have noticed that CONTAINER LINK sometimes looks for empty trailers to carry out the transport. MESGUEN, the main company, sometimes possesses an empty trailer. With a better communication between the two companies, they could become to an agreement to use this trailer. The customer's business relation CONTAINER LINK should develop its brand image on behalf of its customers to show that CONTAINER LINK is the best freight company. For example, a brochure of CONTAINER LINK could be sent to the customers. This document permits them to introduce CONTAINER LINK company. [...]
[...] I was very lucky to live during three months in a family, so I could observe another social custom. The English called people by many different "affectionate" names according to their sex, age and location. For example mate, guy, son, madam, miss, dear, dearie, love, chick, chuck, me duck? The English eat continental style, with the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right. The English are very disciplined. They like to form orderly queues and wait patiently for their turn: boarding a bus, queue in front of the cash machine, at the post office? [...]
[...] At the beginning it was very difficult to be acclimatized, then after two or three weeks I took the rhythm of the English life and everything followed from there: schedules of the meals and other traditions. This work placement enabled me to develop my commercial competences. I had to look for freight coming from the United Kingdom and for this reason I could negotiate the prices so that CONTAINER LINK obtained a sufficient margin. Competition is very hard to obtain goods to be exported from England, as I previously specified in this report, and it is necessary to convince the companies to choose us. [...]
[...] Some of our main dishes have strange names like Bubble & Squeak, Spotted Dick and Toad-in-the-Hole. What may appear strange is that not all the puddings are sweet puddings, some are eaten during the starter or main course like Yorkshire Pudding and Black Pudding. The staple foods of England are meat, fish, potatoes, flour, butter and eggs. Many of our dishes are based on these foods. Time British people place considerable value on punctuality. People make a great effort to arrive on time for an appointment. [...]
