commercial intern Review

it took a while for me to find my strengths and areas i enjoyed. after 6 months i was able to tailor the work more towards areas that i enjoyed and what interested me

As an intern at L'Oreal, the work you do is necessary and so naturally if you can do it well your team value you.

It is luck who your manager is, i was lucky that my manager changed half way through to someone really supportive and encouraging. My previous manager and some of my friend's managers were not so great.

the more effort you put in, the more you work. I very rarely felt i had little to do. i would work late in the office probably 1 or 2 times a week, but it was my choice to do so and my manager discouraged it.

I was in a very small division which meant that i was involved in a lot more in decisions that would normally be more senior. I was also given smaller accounts to manage and develop business strategies for. i have also presented my ideas and strategies to retailers and senior members of the division.

i have really developed my people management skills and communication.

Every floor or area you worked in was different. some were loud and energetic, some were so so quiet. my area was somewhere in the middle.

compared to some of my friends at other companies, it seems well organised. there was a clear hand over week, we get training scheduled for us throughout the year etc.

there was an ok amount of training, i definetly feel i had enough to do my job well. there was also more available if you seeked it. i do think some marketing people would have benefited from more training.

there is huge opportunity for progression in L'Oreal, as there are so many divisions and brands and they tend to recruit internally. if you want to do marketing or commercial i really think the employment prospects are fantastic. i am not sure what i want to do and it seems if you are not keen on those areas the prospects are not so great.

because there are so many interns, the social scene is really great. my friends in other devisions had more of a social then mine did and often had work drinks and events with their teams. Hammersmith is not the most exciting area thats the only downside, so drinks after work are quite dead.

Hammersmith is just as expensive as everywhere else in London. I lived down the road though so travel is cheap.

west london nightlife is so dead, but tubes are good into town from where i lived in shepherds bus, so not that bad.

i think there were some like charity things and sports teams also.