Customer Account Executive Review

by Unilever

Best Student Employer

This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.

Rating

3.6/5
  • The Role
    4.3
  • The Company
    3.7
  • The Culture
    2.5

    The Role

  • 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
  • I enjoyed my placement very much! I extremely enjoyed my role. I received the real responsibility early on and I had a great multitude of opportunities to learn and make an impact. I also loved the atmosphere in the office. All of my colleagues were very helpful and supported me in my own incentives. Finally, in addition to our role on the placement every Industrial Placement employee has got a +1, which in my case allowed me to work on one of the social media channels. The +1 was a great source of very different learning and a great fun!

    5/5

  • 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
  • I felt valued to a big extent by my colleagues. My line manager was very understanding when he provided me the feedback, and he recognized me in front of a team when I did make an impact. In addition, I received many positive feedback comments from my colleagues, from very official messages such as 'That piece of work is very insightful, well done' to more laidback feedbacks like 'You're on Fire!' when I dealt with a task very quickly.

    4/5

  • 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
  • My manager provided me with a great amount of support during the placement. We met on a weekly basis, discussing my recent pieces of work I did, where we discussed what I did well and what I should still work on. In cases where he was outside of an office, he was sending me e-mails with his feedback and we had telephone conversations. Same can be said about the guidance. My manager guided me on how I should deal with the tasks I was asked to complete and in addition, he supported me with his advice on incentives I decided to pursue myself.

    4/5

  • 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
  • The amount of workload I was to deal with was discussed between me and my manager, with our goal being having a workload that would not require me to work more or less than 35-40 hours a week. As the amount of work I had to deal with was contingent on the current circumstances, sometimes I had to spend slightly more time in the office, but I was never required to stay for the significant amount of time after work. Finally, in situations where I did not have much workload to do, there was always work for me to do, and I always had an opportunity to take on more workload.

    5/5

  • 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
  • I was given a big amount of responsibility in my role. The amount of responsibility I was given was dependent on how confident I was and how well I was doing tasks that I was asked to, consequently it took time before I had opportunities to do responsible work. I had opportunities to meet with clients and I had opportunities to send customers portfolio recommendations that have been applied, what was really satisfying. With all of that in mind, I have to highlight that because of the size of the business sometimes it may be hard to get more responsibility as the things are too for interns to deal with.

    4/5

  • 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
  • I still cannot believe how much I have learned during the placement! Before the placement, I did not realize how many inadequacies I have had and how I could have overcome them. On my placement, all of those inadequacies were quickly spotted by my line manager, who built my responsibilities in a way that could allow me to deal with them one by one. In addition, we worked on my compliance with the Unilever Standards of Leadership, that I can say now I truly possess what makes me confident about finding confident about the job after graduation. Finally, there is a big flexibility in how we are dealing with challenges, with different software available for us, that we can choose based on our likings. I had the opportunity to use several data science platforms, what was extremely interesting and developmental.

    5/5

    The Company

  • 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
  • The atmosphere in the office was great. My team goes on lunches every day together, where all of us discuss things not work-related. We have regularly different integration meetings, where we had opportunities to do very fun activities, that included going to Escape Rooms and playing rounders. Finally, at company events, there are usually laidback dress themes, with teams dressing up as Cowboys or Tents (Yes, that is not a mistake, one of the sales team in the past dressed as Tents!).

    5/5

  • 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
  • My placement was organized in a very good manner. We had a whole year programme, where we had dates of our feedback sessions and final presentations released on the very first day. We were told from the very beginning what we were to be assessed against and what how would the process was to be assessed. In addition, we were set 4 targets that we have to achieve by the end of the placement.

    4/5

  • 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
  • The company invests very much in me. I have attended big amount of official pieces of training, I had data scientist specialists available for consultation for me and I had sessions with many employees, including the directors, where they provided me advice and guidance. On the downside, some of the most exciting training were not accessible to Industrial Placements, what was slightly frustrating.

    3/5

  • 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
  • Flexi Time

    Subsidised/Company Gym

    National Travel

    Financial Bonus

    Staff Sales/Staff Shop

    Working from home

    5/5

  • 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
  • All of the industrial placements are assessed against standards of leadership that are the expected qualities Unilever employee should possess. The more employee embodies the standards of leadership, the bigger are his chances of receiving the employment after the placement. It is possible to receive the entry onto the graduate scheme after the placement, however, the amount of graduate schemes is limited to what may be frustrating at times.

    3/5

    The Culture

  • 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
  • There was a scene amongst fellow placement students, however, I cannot say it was developed by the company. At the beginning of the placement, we had an induction, where we had an opportunity to meet other placement students, but there weren't many more sessions organized after that. From my personal experience, most of the contact and social experience in the company is happening within the team, as I had very limited contact with other placement students after induction.

    2/5

  • 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
  • The office where I had my placement is located in Leatherhead, a small town in Surrey, consequently with a very limited offering of socializing. As a consequence, most of the socializing takes place in London, what in addition to very high costs of all the services, requires buying train tickets.

    2/5

  • 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
  • 3/5

  • 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
  • There were many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work. We regularly socialized on Friday with the team around London and organized team events such as team picnics. In addition to that, there are many regular activities employees take part in such as football and netball. In addition to that, within the office there is a choir and yoga sessions.

    4/5

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Details

Placement (10 Months+)

South East

June 2018


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