Commercial Trainee Review

The job itself really varies depending on whether you are on the OTC or beauty side of the business. On beauty you'll be more exposed to social media and PR, whereas OTC is more strategic. Both are enjoyable, it just depends on your preference. At j&j you're exposed to senior members of the company and are given lots of responsibility. Plenty of day trips out of the office were a highlight for me

Due to the level of responsibility that you are given, your team will recognise you for your efforts through shout outs or bonuses, which is great. You are trusted with big projects and large media spend so it is not surprising that you will be valued. There could be improvements so that it is consistent across the department but overall, is fine.

This situation is very specific to me where my senior manager was not very good and did not offer me any support, however the rest of my team were fantastic and I loved working with them. The rest of the placements had really great managers and I believe that my situation is rare.

It really varied depending on time of year and brand. On my brand, summer and Christmas were really important so they were major areas for me. However in quieter periods, I was quite bored. This meant that I reached out to other teams to see where I could support and gain experience

Due to management changes, I was given responsibility for 2 major brands across 3 markets. Without much support from my manager I had to take it upon myself to be really organised and plan the activities for the brand. At times I did have to make it clear that my workload was too much.

I've learnt so much over the course of my placement year at Johnson & Johnson. From small tasks such as filing emails so that you're organised, to help plan millions of pounds worth of media. My relationship management skills improved so much and I made so many great connections that I will keep in touch with.

Depending on the building that you were in, the atmosphere changed. If you are in the local building (rather than global or regional), the atmosphere is very fun and chatty, with regular fun meetings put in place to boost morale. However, due to international employees, the other buildings are very quiet.

Johnson & Johnson have really listened to previous years feedback and made improvements to their onboarding and structure. Improvements could be made in terms of handing over in the systems as they are quite slow or errors have been made but this isn't due to any individuals fault.

Johnson & Johnson are renowned for their training and the amount that is given to placements. Training isn't just in the first couple weeks, it is on going with external partners like Facebook and Snapchat coming to give us updates on whats to come. We also have breakfast and lunch sessions to learn something new.

The starting salary at Johnson & Johnson is very good in comparison to other FMCG companies for graduate levels. There is also other perks such as company car, credit card, mobile phone and bonus. If you apply for the grad scheme you skip the first round and go straight to interview.

Due to Maidenhead being quiet and a lot of the other placements living at home or in Reading, it was difficult to plan things. People still went out and had fun, but it wasn't as often as people at other companies due to the location and that people had their cars.

Maidenhead is quite expensive and the closer you get to London, the more expensive it gets. It's not outrageously expensive, however it's not "cheap". You could still afford to have a few nights out and go for dinner if you didn't spend too much. A standard dinner out would probably be around £20 and a double and mixer around £9.

There are minimal clubs in Maidenhead, however there are plenty of bars and pubs. The highlight for my year was the pub that did karaoke every night of the week because it was cheap too and fun. As long as you aren't expecting a fancy establishment it is great fun!

At Johnson & Johnson there was the opportunity to play touch rugby, football, netball and other sports. if you wanted to play sport there was lots of choice. If sport wasn't your thing then there wasn't much else on offer, but that doesn't mean that if you suggested something it couldn't happen