Assistant Brand Manager Wall's Ice cream Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my year placement spent with Unilever. It was constantly rewarding and taught me many things about both FMCG marketing as well as myself. I was given great responsibilty in my role and was stretched and challenged which led to personal and professional developement. It was a great year and I would recommend it to anyone in a similar position to myself.

I felt valued as part of a team from the moment I joined. They taught me plenty about the role and were always happy to help me if I need advice, direction or guidance. It took time to get up to speed with the role, but once I knew the ropes, I felt like a valuable member to my team and contributed in many areas.

From the first day of my placement I was given an abundance of support and guidance from my manager, my wider team and also cross functional colleagues. The support I had in the first few weeks were vital to giving me a foundation that I could build on for the remainder of my placement year.

Each day in my role at Unilever was different, and it meant there was never a dull moment! I had projects that I could constantly be working on and also other situations that would arise on a day which would need to be solved and dealt with. Each day was busy!

The repsoniblity given to me during my placement year was massive, they treated me as a graduate from the word go. This led to massive devleopement in a short space of time, both personally in confidence and also professionally in skills such as stakeholder management and project leadership. There was always an oppotunity to have responsibility.

The skills that I have learnt during my placement year at Unilever will undoutably help me in my studies at University and beyond. I learnt valuable skills such as time managment, prioritisation, leadership and many more technical skills. These skills be utilised most days for the rest of my career!

The culture at Unilever LHD is very friendly, approachable and innovative. Everyone is (usually) walking around with a smile on their face and will happily help you if you need it. There are many different benefits of the Unilever office, such as the staff gym, canteen and tea & coffee areas (as well as the ping pong table!)

The Unilever work placement is incredibly well set, thanks to the number of years that the scheme has been set up. From your first day until your last you are supported, trained and guided through the year with regualr check ups, training sessions and generally well organised work reviews. It was great, especially with the handling of COVID-19.

Unilever have invested massively in all of their employees, from offering a variety of personal and proffessional training schemes that you can partake in. They treat you as a person, and respect your personal commitments as well as your career ambitions. They take considerable efforts to ensure you make the most of your time with them.

The prospect of working for Unilever in the future are very appealing, given the industy and the experience that I have had on my work placement. There seem to be many challenging and exiciting roles within the business and the UFLP is a great example of the prospects within Unilever

There is a great number of placement student, apprentices and colleagues at Unilever whom provide a great social scene in and outside of work. I have definitely made friends for life at Unilever. The social scene does differ on your role and position but generally speaking it was brilliant to be a part of.

I worked in our Leatherhead office and lived in Wimbledon. The cost of living (inc. rent, travel etc) was approximatley 60% of my income. However, there are other places where you can live which are nearer to the office and therefore reduce your travel and rent cost as you would be further from London.

Leatherhead provides very little in terms of a nightlife, most of the nightlife was provided by where we lived i.e. London and we as a team would make our way there to socialise and have a night out! If you work in the London office this was much easier to achieve!

There were plenty of oppotunities to get involved with sporting activities at work, such as a football 5-a-side and a netball and rounders tournament. They require initiative to set up but when they are set up they are always successful and great fun for everyone involved. I took part in the football which was a great way of making more friends at work.