Customer Account Exec Review

The working environment at Unilever has been incredible. I have never experienced working in a big compnay before but everyone was so welcoming and supportive. I was working in sales and really enjoyed having responsibility over a bit of the business. However, I didn't feel that sales was for me in the long term. When speaking to my manager, she was able to get me some experience in marketing too. I have learnt so much and had a great year.

Working in a team in sales really helped me settle in and feel a part of the business quickly. We often sat as a team and discussed business problems and solutions. Being able to discuss with others and collaborate was something I really enjoyed. There were also lots of team socials which helped me feel more part of the team and valued.

I had a rare experience at Unilever, I had 3 line managers over the course of the year. Normally you only have 1. Whilst this was lots of change it was made easy by how supportive each manager was. They were always available for me to have a catch up with them and reiterated that there is no such thing as a silly question.

Some days were busier than others. I always had stuff to get on with. As I changed roles during the start of lockdown, when we began to work from home, it took me a while to get into the swing of working from home and learning a new role. Once i got to grips with both of these factors I was kept very busy!

The responsbility has to be the highlight of my placement year. Being given responsbility really helped me develop my skills and learn on the job. It was great to feel that you were trusted. Whilst I was given real responsibility I never felt 'on my own', I always felt comfrotable to ask anyone a question.

The skills I have developed this year will be invaluable for my furture career. I study a humanties degree so did not know anything about business but now i feel confident to apply for jobs post uni. The skills I have developed (i.e. time management and communiaction) will aslo aid me in my final year at uni.

I loved the atmosphere in the office. I was nervous about enetring the office as I had never been in a big professional office before but the atmosphere was friendly which made me feel at ease. Everyone is happy to help and there was a good balance between hard work and fun.

My work plan for my placement year was set up my my line manager. As my line managers changed throughout my placemnet year it was harder to have the same work plan the whole way through. I would have apprecaited some more centralised teaching throughout the placement to give it more structure so I could track my progress easier.

I feel I really developed my soft and hard skills. I had a mid year review and a full year review. I was also encouraged to ask for feedback throughout my placement year. Getting feedback and having frequent catch ups with my manager helped me to see where I could invest more time to develop certain skills.

It woudl be great to work at Unilever again. However, getting fast tracked to the grad scheme is highly competitive. It's a great company which really values it's people and it's company purpose (to make sustaianable living commonplace). This makes it a great environment to work in and somewere I would love to work again!

We had afew socials organsied for us at the start. After that we then organised socials amongst ourselves. Wokring in a big company means that there are lots of interns. It is great to be able to socialise with people at a similar stage of life to you and share our exeperiemces.

I lived in London and commuted into Leatherhead everyday. This made my placement year really expensive. However, it is great getting paid on my placement year as I know some placements do not pay. Living in London is always going to be expensive but I love London and wouldn't have wanted to live anywhere else.

Being in London meant there was lots of Nighlife options but it was expensive! I prefer going out in my uni city as it is much cheaper. However, there are ways of doing it cheaper; finding happy hours, preeing, having friends over, getting night buses rather than taxis and not getting food after a night out!

There were always volunterting opprtuinites and social activites to look forwrad to. This really ensured there was never a dull moment. I volunteered as a self esteem workshop leader at a school and become a purpose workshop facilitator. I was also able to help plan our team away day where we stayed overnight somewhere.