Mark

Construction

Job title: Site Evaluation Manager, Property team
Joined: September 2005
Degree: BA (Hons) Geography, Plymouth University and MSc Urban Regeneration, Sheffield Hallam University

Before I left uni I knew I wanted to become a Chartered Surveyor. ASDA was offering great progression opportunities in this area and I also knew people who worked there. They told me it was a really great place to be - friendly and relaxed with a good work-life balance.

Since I've joined It's been a challenge as I've covered a lot that I didn't learn as part of my degree - like retail geography which involves analysing shopping habits and getting to grips with retail psychology.

All of this helps us identify where the best potential ASDA sites would be. There's so much experience in the team though, and we use their knowledge and our experiences of other stores to help us. I've learnt so much from listening to others and absorbing what's around me.

A development surveyor usually gives us a lead and we take that information, look at current and potential competitors in the area, where the customer and employee base might come from and what the road networks are like. Then we use this to work out what market share a new ASDA store would gain in the area. From this we can predict the average sales figures and get a steer on whether a site is worth developing or not. Once we think it is worth developing we take our proposal to WAL*MART and justify our reasoning as it goes through the approval process.

The thing I love about ASDA is that the work is interesting and I'm with a great bunch of people. I'm not sure which area I'll eventually end up in but I'd like to be a senior manager eventually.