In Marketing we listen to, and really understand, our customers and their needs. We use this information to drive the business forward and to innovate in a customer focused way.

It could be that on your graduate rotation through the discipline you’ll be an Assistant Marketing Manager, helping to implement new promotional plans or advertising campaigns. Towards the end of the programme you might rejoin us as a Marketing Manager, with responsibility for promotional planning and strategy creating high profile plans and working cross-functionally and with senior management to gain buy-in through the business.

Ever wondered how that pink iPod gets from the manufacturer to the store in the quantities we need, when we need it? This is the role of our commercial supply team.

On your graduate rotation here, you’ll learn about everything from stock control to merchandising, discovering the key importance of building inter-departmental relationships, as well as exploring the different types of supplier relationship.

If this is your sponsored area, your final rotation will be to make a difference by leading teams and communicating strategies and plans to senior levels.

Trading is the engine-room of the business. It’s all about understanding what people want to buy, negotiating the right price to give good value to the customer and the company - and then working with other departments on how to market the product effectively.

Join the team on your rotation as a Buying Assistant and your priority will be to learn the complex processes involved in delivering two catalogues a year, plus many other publications. From the beginning of your graduate scheme placement here, you’ll be working closely with the Buyers in your area – and in time you’ll start to have a valuable input into things like promotions, range selection and pricing policy.

Return to us in the future for a career in purchasing and you could soon have overall responsibility for the sales and profits for a specific range, including sourcing new products and marketing them. So as well as running your own close-knit team back at head office, you might be visiting factories as far afield as Hong Kong and Indonesia.

Already one of the UK’s most popular e-commerce retail websites, www.argos.co.uk is in effect the biggest Argos store by far. Integrating with stores via our check and reserve service, it upholds our commitment to provide customers with new levels of choice, value and convenience. It not only offers an alternative way to shop but also captures new customers with different shopping patterns.

There can be few retail environments that offer such a great opportunity to learn about the online arena from both a commercial and marketing perspective for a graduate – fewer still that will also give you a valuable insight into the ever-changing technical innovations that are helping to drive the business.

Right from the start of your graduate scheme placement, your input will be valued, as you get involved in anything from competitor analysis to identifying potential online promotions and briefing the marketing team.

Regardless of where you see yourself ending up in the company, this is the discipline
that everyone on our graduate scheme has to know backwards. Come to understand our customers better and you will begin to understand how Retail Operations works – and how the whole company fits around it.

On your rotation here, you might help the store management team to provide the best customer service at the key business periods of Christmas peak trading and catalogue launch, learn to manage customer flow on the sales floor, work as a Customer Service Manager, shadow the roles of Store Manager, Stock Manager and Sales Support Manager – and get the wider picture alongside an Area Manager. All the time you’ll be picking up leadership tricks that can’t be taught. Every day you’ll face new challenges and develop your knowledge of the company.

Here’s a growing area of the business that really punches above its weight: stimulating sales, building customer loyalty and creating a key point of differentiation between our offers and those of our competitors.

In a nutshell, the division takes the retail brand values (of choice, value and convenience) and applies them to financial products: providing great value financial services for both Argos and Homebase. The impact on the business can be dramatic.

Financial Services provides graduates on the Choosy scheme with many challenges and learning opportunities, including retail credit, insurance and lending ventures.

Join our group commercial team and you’ll be driving best practice, commercial synergies and profitability across both Argos and Homebase and creating a world-class supply base.

In supporting the sharing of expertise, the team is at the cutting-edge: facilitating change across Argos and making a substantial financial impact.

You’ll gain exposure to the whole business – learning to think and operate at a more strategic and commercial level.

We encourage individuals to challenge the status quo, come up with new solutions and sell their ideas. We’ll look to you to help add value, direct importing logistics, sourcing, quality assurance, product development and procurement.