R&D summer placement student Review

The placement gave a real sense of what to expect from a full time job, and was very varied, allowing me to try many different areas of work. I learnt many things outside of my degree which contributed to my decision that I would like to work at Unilever in future.

Everyone at Unilever was extremely friendly and always willing to offer help or time to discuss unfamiliar ideas. Every person I had contact with took the time to share knowledge or just sit with a cup of tea and discuss my placement and anything I wanted to get out of it, and work out how they could help with that.

Overall, support was great and there was always someone around to provide supervision or advice where needed. As this was a summer placement, there were times where my direct manager was on holiday, and this required a little more self-driven time to find solutions to tasks or discussions with others working on the project.

On the whole, there was generally lots of work for me to do and this was well planned and thought out. On occasion, there were periods of low work, for example when my manager was on holiday or when I was waiting for overseas colleagues to get back to me with the necessary information to complete a task. There were always other projects going on, especially in the Pilot Plant and people working there were more than happy to show me what they were doing or get me involved if they needed an extra pair of hands.

I had a good balance of responsibility and someone to ask questions to or ask direction from as required. There were periods where I was trusted to complete work without constant supervision, and then I would present this to my manager or the rest of my team. There was also the right level of support so I didn't feel alone in doing this.

The soft skills developed (such as working in a team and communicating with people in different roles from me) will be of great help throughout the rest of my studies. The more technical skills (such as operating plant machinery and obtaining a food hygiene qualification) will be less relevant to my degree but will be helpful for future jobs.

The office is extremely friendly and there is always someone who is happy to have a chat, whether work related or not. There is regularly cakes to celebrate someone's birthday or a person retiring, joining or having a baby! In the labs, there was always music or the radio playing.

The overall organisation level was average. The communication between HR and R&D was not seamless and training was sparse at first, with lots of training taking place in the second half of the placement, which was in some cases too late to action. Large amounts of my training was self organised.

Future job prospects are very appealing as the graduate scheme is highly esteemed and recognised by all as a fast track to management positions. This does also require hard work, which was evident when speaking to people who have completed the graduate scheme. Working hard in the placement can lead to a fast track to the assessment centre for the graduate scheme.

There was a very big social scene, with people always willing to go out in evenings or weekends, even just for a pub quiz or brunch at the weekend. There are a large group of apprentices, who are university aged and are sociable and very inclusive. If you want to organise anything, there will always be people who are keen to go!

Coming from living in London for university, moving to Bedford was extremely cheap for both rent and going out. There are also plenty of supermarkets around, including the budget ones (such as Lidl and Aldi) which makes the cost of living very affordable, especially compared to the salary. There are also a few nicer pubs/bars to go for a nicer drink!

There were loads of things to get involved with outside of work. These ranged from netball, rugby and football to the fishing and golf clubs. There is also a gym onsite and a choir which gets together weekly. There is also a circuit session run at lunch times, which sometimes features a swim in the river, and there's always a group up for playing tennis or going for a run!