Marketing Assistant Review

I really enjoyed my placement with Unilever. I was based in the Leatherhead office which had a great environment and there was so much to do within the office as well. The main reason I enjoyed my placement is down to the people at Unilever. Everyone I met and worked with from the other interns to senior employees make you feel so welcome and there is a real focus on helping others to develop which is so useful especially when you're on a placement scheme.

I did feel valued by colleagues and part of this was due to working within a small team at Unilever. Therefore, I was given quite a lot of responsibility with the required support as well. I think my manager did a great job in making me feel welcome and as a valued team member.

On the placement scheme, there are regular reviews to check progress so there was ample opportunity to ask for extra support if necessary. For me, I felt my manager offered support and guidance through understanding what tasks I was not as confident in tackling and this was so useful for me. We also had weekly catch ups where my manager would always make sure I was comfortable with the work I was doing and this was a good opportunity for me to ask for more support if I felt I needed it.

After the first couple of weeks which is mainly filled with inductions, settling in and getting to know your colleagues, it does get quite busy. The placement involves a lot of responsibility which is great because you genuinely feel challenged and you're learning a lot on a daily basis.

I was given quite a lot of responsibility during my placement, from managing team budgets, launching new products to leading the social channels for the brand. It is a lot more responsibility than I was anticipating but looking back on my placement, it was so valuable to have this as it helped me to develop so much more as an individual.

I am already noticing a huge difference in myself being back at University. A lot of the concepts we discuss in seminars I can relate them back to my placement and have examples of them ready in my head through experiencing them. I've also noticed a huge improvement in my time management and organisational skills which is great for final year.

I was based in the Leatherhead office which had a great environment. The office had a free gym, salon, staff shop as well as fun brand events quite often which made it an exciting place to work. It had a really great atmosphere and completely exceeded my expectations of what an office would be like

The placement was well organised with a review system put in place to monitor the progress of each intern as well as a description of the final review process as well. They provided plenty of information before the placement as well ensuring everyone was well set up to start.

There were plenty of opportunities when it came to training and development. Unilever have a system where they organise these training and development events, and all employees can sign up whenever they want. I took part in quite a few of these to help me with my job as well as to develop in areas that I was interested in.

At the end of the placement, each intern is assessed based on feedback and ratings from the year. If they perform within a certain mark, they are offered a place on the Unilever future leaders programme. There is a solid process to identify people who have exceeded/met their targets which are set at the start of the placement and they are offered a place on the scheme as a result of this.

There was a great social scene amongst other interns despite there being a lot of interns. There was a good amount of time to get to know each other in the induction stage so we were really able to know each other well. As a result of this, we had a great social scene :)

Reasonably priced depending on where you were living. For example, it was more expensive to live in Clapham than it was to live in Epsom which are both popular areas with interns. However, most of us were sharing accommodation which really helped. Socialising was quite expensive as it was normally in London but it really depended on where we were going and how big the group was.

Not really a nightlife in Leatherhead but there was great train links so it was easy to have a night out which little effort. Normally, we would get the train to Clapham and go out there. There is a shuttle bus service which really helped in making it easier to commute to and from the station as well.

Yes, there were loads of opportunities to get involved outside of work. The gym held classes which a lot of us would go to together as a team. We also went out for team drinks/meals often which was really nice; a chance to get to know everyone outside of work and just have fun as well.