Marketing Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement at Unilever. I was given time to settle in and understand the brand that I was working on and given lots of repsonsibility throughout the year. I worked on a huge variety of projects which gave me a great insight into different areas of marketing, from communications to away-from-home, experiential marketing, to innovations and sustainabilty. Also a great company culture to be a part of.

Everyone in the team was really warm and welcoming and always wanted to hear what I thought on the projects which defeinitley helped me to feel valued. It's difficult being the new one and having less expereince but I felt involved despite this. There was lots of collaboration with different people on the brand too.

I had a 121 meeting with my line manager each week, team meeting each week and 121 meeting each month with a more senior manager so there was always lots of chances to ask questions. My manager was super clear with tasks and never micro-managed, but was always there if I needed any help. He helped me develop certain ways of working that i can take forward into my next role. Everyone is super busy but also it's easy to pop over to their desk with any questions.

It varied throughout the year. I was less busy at the beginning of my placement and would have days with not so much to do. I got busier after the first few months. There were some days where I was super busy and I would log back onto my laptop when I got home to make sure I was on top of everything for the next day. But this was balanced out with periods that weren't so busy. Some days i would have back to back meetings and other days i would be completely free to get on with any work i had. It really varies and no day was the same.

I was given a good amount of responsibility, for instance i would be leading certain projects and just supporting in others. There was never too much pressure though as I knew if something went really wrong, my line manager would be able to assist. It was generally a good balance between projects, but there's some places i would have wanted more responsibility but this wasn't always possible.

The skills and experience i have gained will be so valuable when i go back to studying. I have not only learnt a lot about marketing but general skills that will be useful in my job after graduating. There is also an online training platform called Degreed where you can develop particular skills or learn about somehting different. The placement has given me a great base in the start of my career.

The office is very casual - no need to dress smart - and people are really friendly. The office is very open plan so you can always go and speak to people face-to-face rather than having to always communicate over email. People are very busy and work hard but people are always there to help and have an informal chat. It's not always serious and there's definitely a nice team atmosphere - people are very supportive and really care.

Before starting, there was a facebook group to help meet other interns, and we had an informal meet up beforehand. The induction days were at a hotel and it was great to meet different people before starting. It made it much easier going into the office on the first day as i already knew lots of faces. We were also each given a buddy to answer any questions which was nice but mine didn't always reply to emails.

There wasn't as much compulsory training as i thought there would be, it was much more learning on the job. But there was lots of optional online learning that you could take part in. There was also lots of workshops and learning webinars to get invovled in, relating to purpose, understanding consumers, and different marketing skills. My manager was good at giving me constructive feedback as well which was helpful.

Very. For my year, our line managers choose whether we got fast tracked to the final stage of the assessment centre for the UFLP (grad scheme) which is 3 years and highly competitive. If not successful for this, then there is the opportunity to go directly into a job with the company after university depending on what is available.

Yes definitely! There were about 40 industrial placement students across the country, most of which in the London or Leatherhead office. We had meet ups before the placement started and over summer we would have regular socials with the summer interns too. I was based in Leahtherhead but could easily work in the London office if it was fine with my line manager, if i had social plans in London with the other interns after work. There's also a gym in the office so often bumped into interns there, and there would always be an intern table at lunch. Also it was great having the group chat to ask any questions at the beginning!

We generally went out in Clapham/Wimbledon so it wasn't that cheap but still easy to do. We also went for the odd social in cetnral london, but not too much. Lots of people tended to live between Epsom and Clapham as this is more exciting than living in Leatherhead where there isn't much going on.

There's no nightlife in Leatherhead where the office is, so it was difficult to go for drinks after work. But there's also an office in London which is opposite blackfriars station so there's plenty of nightlife there. I hads various nights out throughout the year, some in wimbledon where it's cheaper and some in central london. There's pubs in Leatherhead where some people would go for work drinks, but we'd generally meet on weekends instead.

There were a fair amount of opportunities, such as different sport events, like netball or football, where teams compete on one day each week after work. It was very casual though and a good way to socialise with other interns. We also have team away days, there were clean up days, volunteering opportunities, dove day, there's always something going on! I was also invovled in a scheme which invovled running careers days for students and going to univeristy careers fairs.