Summer Placement Student Review

I have had a fantastic time working in the Global Design centre for ice cream which is based at Colworth site in Bedfordshire. Throughout my placement, I have worked across 5 different teams which has been a great way to get broad experience in different areas. I have felt really welcome and included in all the teams I have worked for as well as being given real responsibility which has helped to make the placement worthwhile.

Everyone at Unilever has been supportive from day one. I have always been included in team meetings and feedback sessions where the atmosphere is very meritocratic and I feel my comments and ideas have been valued as much as a full-time employee's. I have been given appropriately sized pieces of work that I have been able to complete that have delivered real value to the teams that I have worked with.

My line manager has been fantastically supportive but has also given me lots of freedom to build my own role and responsibilities after putting me in contact with colleagues who I could usefully help. As a summer placement student, you are expected to be quite independent and proactive in seeking out work that you can contribute to. However, my line manager was always happy to give direction if I was unsure.

It really varied depending on what was going on that week. As I was working across 5 different teams, I often had really busy weeks where I was working 8-5 each day but when colleagues are on holiday, the workload tends to slow down a little bit. I always found that there were extra tasks I could do to stay busy on quieter weeks such as a literature research project that my line manager gave me at the start of the placement to do when I wasn't working on my main projects.

I was very lucky to be given some really important tasks to complete. I supervised the ordering and building of a proof of concept system and presenting of this PoC and its capabilities to senior stakeholders including the EVP of ice cream and the President of Foods and Refreshments. I have also carried out several different experimental programmes where I have been given the freedom to design the protocol, carry out the experiment and write up the report. It has been satisfying to see that some of my protocols have been adopted as the new standard.

Over the course of my placement, I have become much better at presenting my experimental results in a concise, learnings-driven way which is a valuable skill in any industry or even academia. I have also had several opportunities to present verbally to large groups of people which has given me confidence in my public speaking skills. In addition, the soft skills around working in an office are equally important to develop and I have enjoyed working with lots of different people and seeing different styles.

The general atmosphere in the office was incredibly friendly and supportive. Everyone I met always had time for a chat and would try to help you, whatever you were looking for. There was a large community of summer interns at Colworth this summer which was really nice for meeting like-minded people.

The application scheme was very long for this summer internship. I submitted my application in October, did a video interview (pre-recorded questions) in November and then waited until March to do my assessment centre. It would be better if assessment centres could have been earlier so that I could have sorted my summer plans earlier as I had to find a house to rent etc. Once I was accepted onto the scheme, the organisation has been very good. I was contacted by my onboarding buddy and the central HR team about the induction day plenty of time in advance (although be aware, the induction days are the Thursday and Friday before the actual start date). My line manager was in contact the week before my placement to give me a bit of an overview of what I'd be doing but this was mainly sorted out in my first week.

I was lucky enough to do a lean workshop during my time at Colworth which was a fantastic way to see how Unilever is trying to adapt its ways of working to a more agile and start-up-like method. I have also attended some of the training sessions for Food and Refreshment during the learning week which have been excellent as a way to get some insights into the business strategy and other functions such as marketing and CMI.

The UFLPs that I have talked to during my placement have strongly recommended the scheme because of the rotating placements that allow the UFLP to get experience across functions and categories of the business. However, even if I didn't get onto the UFLP scheme, Unilever has a really welcoming and flexible culture which is attractive to graduates. There is also lots of opportunities to work abroad and to change jobs within the company.

Colworth had over 20 summer interns this year so it was really nice to be able to eat lunch with a group of other students and support each other during our placements. Colworth has a club house on site with sports facilities so there are lots of additional activities to get involved in. I was also invited to team meals and breakfasts which is a really nice way to socialise informally with colleagues.

Bedford is quite an expensive town to rent in especially for short-term lets. I paid ~£140 a week for a room in a house share near the station. There are plenty of supermarkets including a Lidl so food isn't too expensive. Travel from Bedford isn't that easy if you're trying to go up North and it can be very expensive by train but if you're trying to get to London the trains only take ~35 minutes and an off-peak return within a month is ~£20.

There is a really big spoons in the town centre and a few bars that do karaoke nights but the nightlife isn't great in Bedford.

There are numerous sports clubs at Colworth including a netball team, football team and running club. There is also a gym on site.