Assistant Brand Manager- Tea UK Review

I really enjoyed my marketing placement year at Unilever and would recommend to anyone who is passionate about working in a FMCG company, specifically with an interest in areas such as Beauty and Personal Care, Food ad Refreshments, Snacking and Home Care. The level of responsibility and support I reciveed in this role was beyond what I could have imagined and I formed a really good bond, not only with my team, but the other placement students on the scheme. There is alot of responsibility given within this role, so I would recommend applying if you class yourself as being a driven individual, who likes to learn new skills from the outset.

I felt very valued within this role and really felt that my actions and objectives were contributing to the overall success we achieved as a team. The brand team that I was placed within and my line manager especially, were incredibly supportive of me and enncouraged me to ask as many questions as I needed to to get the job done.

There was alot of support offered by my line manager who I sat down for weekly check ins with to decide on my priorities for the enxt week. This gave both myself and her visability over what I was doing and what support might be needed along the way.

I was often very busy with project team meetings, brand meetings, sales updates and individual assignments which I had been given to achieve my quarterly targets that has been allocated by my manager.

You are given a high level of responsibility and Unilever do expect you to perform and fufill the tasks you have been given to a good standard and on time. I was allocated my own projects to lead on within a few weeks of starting my placement at Unilever. You were never left having to fend for yourself though as there was always support around you to help you out if you needed support/ assistance.

The skills I learnt within this role will defintely benefit me with my degree and for the rest of my life. I came into this role hoping to gain a wider insight into marketing within the FMCG industry. I did not expect to come out of my placement being able to say that I have been a project lead on landing skus within the market. Some of the key skills I have learnt include both time and stakeholder management, the importance of communication and prioritisation, structuring both presentations and meetings and managing relationships with key individuals.

Really nice. Everyone was highly supportive of each other and my team were lovely to work with. We'd have weekly team check ins, lunches and monthly whole category catch ups to see where everyone was up too and give shout outs to those who have truly excelled in the last quarter.

It was very well set up from the outset with an introduction day and the first couple of weeks spent with our team, introducing us to all the systems, projects, individuals we would be working with moving forward. As alot of placement students had relocated for the role, we were introduced from the offset to other placement students who we could look to live with or develop friendships with. This really helped!

We were trained on systems we needed from the beginning and had access to a system called degreed which allowed us to access further training modules whenever we liked to improve our skills across many different areas. One element that also stood out to me was the 'Purpose workshops' that Unilever made complusory for every employee to attend. These workshops allowed us to express what really drives us and what is our own true purpose, encouraging us to apply this mentality and drive to everything that we did for the business.

I would defintely work for Unilever again if I was to be offered a role. It is an organisation which aims to benefit not only those consumers we are serving prodcts too whilst reducing their overall environmental impact, but supports their employees too. Although the culture can at times be highly pressured with an emphasis on achieving targets both allocated to you and those set out by finance and the brand, everyone is incredibly supportive.

Defintely. I was one of 40 placement students placed within London with around 20 working within my office. Since the start of placment, we were encouraged to have lunched together, talk/ chat together and we all even had bi weekly activities such as mini golf nights, waterpark visits, drinks after work which really helped me settle into southern life as I had relocated.

Although Unilevers pay is very competitive, living down south can also be quite expensive. As I had relocated, just over half of my weekly wage went on rent and bills. I still managed to have money to fufill acitivites that I would do on a weekly basis, but this wouldn't be without me budgeting. I would recommend living at home if you are applying to this placement and are in a good travel distance to either of the offices. If you ave to relocate, do so, but don't look to live in central london. I would recommend areas such as Wimbledon, Clapham, Merton, Epsom to look at as rent alot cheaper and these areas are on the train links and are a drivable distance from the office (30mins).

I worked in the Leatherhead office so we often travelled into central london if we wanted to go out. This would usually take abot 45 mins on the train from the Leatherhead office and there was a direct train that went every 20 mins from Leatherhead to London Victoria Train Station.

Yes, I joined the companys netball team when I started. Playing for the 'F&R' team and we played weekly matched against the 'Tesco Sales team', 'Finance' or 'Beauty and Personal Care team' to name a few! There's opportunities to get involved in the sales dodgeball league, join gym classes put on everyday at the office or just catch up with colleagues after a long day.