Ciara Danaher, Junior Project Manager, Lidl

So what does a career in management involve?

It’s a lot to do with project management, don’t let the word ‘junior’ deceive you, in retail you are given a lot of responsibility and entire projects to work on. So you will need to coordinate with people around you, whether senior or junior to your position. No matter what the project, if you’re given responsibility you are in charge, whether you are a junior or senior project manager.

What skills do you need for project management?

The ability to be a leader and to actively take the lead in situations is really, really important. A project is only really successful when you take ownership of it and can identify where any improvements can be made. It’s very important to have the confidence to take that lead. From a college point of view, it’s very useful to get involved with groups and societies and make a contribution.

Has your psychology degree helped?

Understanding of attitudes and behaviours is one of the most important things which I have taken from my degree into the workplace. When I apply this to the recruitment projects I work on, I can identify the competencies and behaviours that are necessary for any role. When I’m recruiting graduates, I know what I’m looking for in a person and I can apply my psychology to that process. We also work in terms of behavioural training as part of our staff development training, so my degree has been hugely beneficial to my role in a way that I never really expected.