CD/Sales Summer Intern - Shopper Marketing Executive Review

I have greatly enjoyed my time with Unilever. I was put in the Shopper Marketing team for 3 months and got to work on Promotional point of sale across a variety of brands and in various retailers. I was challenged throughout and given stretching goals and really enjoyed the company culture too.

My colleagues treated me like any other colleague and I was given real work and goals to be accountable for. By mid-way through my internship, colleagues trusted me and came to me for advice on areas I worked in. I was also lucky enough to win an award for my contribution whilst I was here which shows Unilever's culture of showing appreciation for their employees.

My line manager worked really closely with me throughout my three months and was always there to support/guide me if needed. We built a great relationship and she understood when I was able to be left to work alone/be responsible for my own work. This meant that I was able to have responsibility and accountability but always felt like I had support from both my line manager and other senior managers too.

My job naturally had a really busy workload which I enjoyed massively. There were rarely days where I had little work to do and if I did, I would always have lots of admin to catch up on. Unilever also provide interns with a +1 development goal so you have both your performance goals and an external goal to work on - so you're always busy.

I had plenty of responsibility in my internship which is why I enjoyed it so much. As I was responsible for my performance goals, it gave me the push to go above and beyond in my targets and constantly work to achieve as much as possible in 3 months. My line manager's trust and confidence in me to do my work made my internship great.

The business acumen I have gained in my 3 month internship has been invaluable. I have had the chance to work with a variety of Brand Managers, Account Managers and with other functions like Supply Chain. Due to my busy work load, I have also improved my organisation, prioritisation and communication skills massively.

Very relaxed which I liked. Colleagues are happy for you to go over to their desk for a chat when you need to ask a question or get some help. We also had a great team away day in Brighton where we did fun activities like mini-golf, cocktail making and a beach clean. Alongside this, we also had frequent team lunches. The team are all lovely and very friendly, I really enjoyed working in my team and the office in general.

We had a very well organised 2 day induction before we started which was great to get know all the other interns before you start - it meant that you already had friends to sit with at lunch once you started in the office. My only build on the general recruitment/set-up is making the lead time quicker. For example, having assessment centres earlier and getting job confirmations and contracts sent out earlier. We didn't get our confirmed office location till about a month before our first day - which can make finding a house to live in quite stressful as its last minute.

The company are excellent at offering training and giving you time to attend it. We had lots of different sessions set up for us e.g. excel skills sessions, negotiation training and finance training. However, there are also additional skills sessions you can opt into yourself e.g. Digital Marketing training. The company and employees are also great at supporting interns. I organised a lot of networking meetings and every colleague I spoke to was happy to help and talk me through their role and any questions I had.

The Unilever Future Leaders Programme is very appealing and every graduate I spoke to at Unilever was really enjoying their scheme. You get challenged and put under high pressure for 3 years but Unilever are working to make you a future leader in their company - so it's a great opportunity. After my performance calibration, I was fortunate enough to be fast-tracked to the Discovery Centre for the CD UFLP which I am really looking forward to.

The interns and industrial placements were really social and as its London based, there were always social events on every weekend. We always sat together at lunch and there was frequently drinks organised after work and other fun events like water parks, mini-golf and dinners organised too! Everyone was really nice and encouraged everyone to attend.

I lived in Epsom and worked in the Leatherhead office so cost of living was relatively cheap for the South as I wasn't living in central London. However, a lot of the social events were organised in central London so naturally it's more expensive. Although, I would definitely recommend living in Wimbledon or Epsom as it's cheaper and you can always get a train/tube into central really easily.

There isn't much nightlife in Leatherhead, but the social events were all organised in Central London so obviously it was a lot better! There is always loads to do and a variety of bars and clubs to go to. It is a bit more expensive but for 3 months it was worth it.

Unilever are great at this. When I joined there was a unisex, all ability netball league going on for all CD teams. There is a match once a week and it's really fun and you get some exercise in. They are now about to launch a Rounders league too - so there's always stuff going on.