Requirements Planner- Unilever International Review

Learning a new role is challenging, but very exciting. This placement gave me real experience and responsibility, whilst working towards wider business goals. I interacted with a huge network of people, and enjoyed the process thoroughly. This year was a welcome break from university and helped enhance my practical skills in a work environment.

My colleagues continually made me an integrated member of the team, and I was treated with the same value and respect as members of twice my age and experience. Even workng with an extended network of cross-functional employees, I never felt my views overlooked or belitlled and was continually helped to improve and learn.

My manager gave me an appropriate level of support at all times. This was shown during regular team/ one-on-one meetings where advice and guidance was offered. At the same time my manager would not micro manage my day-to-day, which gave me a real sense of achievenement and responsibility. If, however, I were to find myself with an issue, I knew that they would make themselves available to help me even if they were very busy themselves.

On the whole, I would never feel pressured to work longer than my intended, contracted hours. This required me to plan and manage my time well, which was something that I learned over the course of the placement. This meant that the vast majority of the time, I was well stretched but would still be able to maintain a good work-life balance.

My day-to-day responsibilities were well matched to me as my skill level improved through the course of my placement experience. By the time I left on palcement, I was given real responsibility to manage a diverse product portfolio through some of the most challenging times the business has ever seen.

Real work experience is far more applicable/ practical than any content learned on a degree course. The placement has helped give context and wider understanding to everything learned so far on my course, and will provide an insightful combination of learnings to take into my final year of university and beyond.

Relaxed. People in the office are friendly and approachable. There are large amounts of useful working/ meeting spaces, as long as larger meetings are booked in good time. Online working was adopted very easily during COVID, due to a committed work from home policy which had always been a part of the office atmosphere/experience.

The placement team managed the cohort well, making themselves readily available from onboarding all the way through to offboarding. The placement scheme at Unilever is highly regarded and it is obvious why. All other placement students which I interacted with enjoyed their roles, and felt they had a real sense of responsibility in the workplace.

My manager and other colleagues invested plenty of time in teaching me my role and responsibilities. In addition, there were regular podcasts, information briefs, workshop days and other ways in which you could learn whilst on placement. I would say there could be some improvement in initial written/formal training on my own role, but this might just be a personal preference as to how I learn best.

Future employment within the organisation is likely, however I would not say that this is unlikely to come in the form of the grad scheme which remains heavily competitive. Instead, it is likely that the skills learned on placement set you up well for a direct entry job into Unilever. If you are applying to the UFLP (grad scheme), I would not say there is a particular benefit in having done the Unilever placement over any other company beforehand.

There was a good social scene amongst our cohort, however, this was primarily organised by ourselves as opposed to Unilever organised events. Aside from an induction event, there were no other events organised by the company which were aimed at bringing all fellow placement students together. That being said, this did not limit the social atmosphere, as we simply organised external events ourselves.

I was lucky enough to live at home whilst on placement.

I was based in Leatherhead office which isn't big for nightlife. However, the majority of placement students based in my office lived in Wimbledon or Clapham, which are both excellent. Being on the commuter belt to London also has it's advantages, with some work trips/ social trips organised into the city centre.

Yes, if you looked for them! Unilever has a huge employee base of motivated workers. Lots of people (including myself) have interests outside of their day-to-day role which they were keen to explore. There are plenty of Unilever groups and initiatives which you can get involved in in this respect!