Shah’s 1 Year Vlog

Shah’s 1 Year Vlog


Group 48 Trainee Shahrukh Farrakh has been on the MDS graduate scheme for just over 1 year. Since starting his new secondment, he has now been able to experience 3 very different, challenging roles. Here’s what Shah had to say about his learnings, the challenging elements of the scheme and his proudest moments.

The Halfway Point

Now that I’ve completed two secondments, I feel very confident, and my knowledge of the fresh food and produce industry has grown massively.

Working for one of the biggest supermarkets in the UK taught me all about contracts and how to manage a portfolio of products, suppliers, regions and catchment areas.

I have now just completed my 2nd secondment, which taught me how to manage projects. A lot of these projects involved lean management, continuous improvement, data analysis and data monitoring.

Moving on

I start my new secondment in two days, and it’s all about the management of people as a line supervisor for one of the biggest banana and pineapple distributors in the world.

Now that I’m at my 1-year stage at MDS, I believe my proudest moment was adapting from a very corporate secondment to a farm and factory environment. The culture shock was very different from company to company. However, despite this challenge, I sought coaching from MDS and got advice from my fellow Trainees. I also overcame this by carrying out additional research on being more proactive and adapting my learning styles.

The Future

I am still looking forward to improving my knowledge of the fresh food and produce industry and developing my skills. One skill that I would like to improve is my man-management skills as I haven’t had the opportunity to manage many people in my career so far.

Managing 20-30 people seems quite daunting, however, I know I’m up for the challenge, and I will always take a proactive and positive approach to these secondments.

Some of the skills I feel that I have strengthened are my data analysis skills, my confidence in approaching people and my ability to work as part of a high performing, cross-functional team to communicate to senior staff members to strengthen relationships.

I am looking forward to what my next two secondments have in store, and I cannot wait to update everyone.

You can check out Shah’s 6 month vlog HERE.