Summer Placement Student Review

I thoroughly enjoyed the virtual experience with Unilever. I think it was a very well-planned two days with lots of breaks and interactive activities. I was able to gain a good overview of what each function at Unilever does. My favourite part of the virtual experience was the Purpose Session, which was a 1.5 + session dedicated to helping all of us find our 'purpose', thus helping us thrive in the work that we do. I would definitely recommend this experience to others, I gained a great deal and am grateful to have been given the opportunity to attend.

I felt very valued during this experience. The Future Careers Team clearly explained how we could ask questions using the application - Microsoft Teams. They made enough time in each activity for questions. All opinions were truly valued and this enabled us all to enjoy the activities together and create great quality work - especially during the 'Sustainable Business Challenge.' The 'fun' evening session made me feel valued as it was provided to ensure we could gain a positive social element out of the virtual experience.

We received a great amount of guidance and support during the virtual experience. The leaders of the session (from the Future Careers Team at Unilever) clearly indicated that we could use the chat function and 'raise your hand' function in the application if we had any queries. All of my questions were answered quickly and fully so I felt very supported throughout the entire experience. They also provided many breaks so we could all relax from task to task.

I am grateful for the skills we developed during this experience. I think it was helpful to have this as a virtual experience as I'm sure that in the future, we will need to navigate through Microsoft Teams again. I also enjoyed the CV help session. I think it was invaluable to have members of Unilever's HR team to talk to us about how to improve our employability and our CV. These are definitely skills that I can use.

This virtual experience was extremely well-structured. I liked that we were sent a programme of the two days in advance so we knew what to expect. We were also sent the appropriate pre-work to do which meant that I felt fully prepared for the experience. We kept to schedule throughout the entire experience which was nice as it meant that we could all ask enough questions and that they had thought the whole process through really well.

The general atmosphere during these two days was fantastic. Sam & Ellen really kept up the energy, which I appreciate is hard to do over a teams call. They made everybody relax by provided ice-breakers to do at the beginning of each session. They also were fantastic leaders during the purpose sessions. This is important as it's hard to open-up about yourself in an uncomfortable environment. The evening session sounded like great fun and everybody is very nice!

They gave us a great taster of what we could expect to receive in terms of training and development at Unilever. The purpose session was fantastic. We were told that usually employees are lucky to get a purpose session so soon in their career, so we felt privileged to be able to gain insight into such a fantastic workshop. The CV skills and employability was also great as we gained many transferable skills - I felt like they did invest in us.

The virtual experience helped me a lot in terms of gaining an insight into what it would be like working for Unilever. The fact that we got two senior leaders to speak during the sessions was a bonus as they were able to shed some light on what it is like to work for Unilever. They both worked for the company for over 11 years so they were able to share many personal experiences working for the company.

It really helped as we got to hear from many different Unilever employees. We heard from different roles and teams across the company and they shared their opinions on the company culture. Also the fact that we were able to take part in workshops like the finding your purpose workshop, meant that we would see for ourselves what the company culture was really like. I found it very welcoming and positive and it's definitely a company I want to work for.

This was very valuable in terms of being able to find my future career path as we were able to gain insight into many different sections of the company's businesses. We heard an overview of sections like HR, CD, Finance and Technology which meant we got a taster into each of these working environments. I feel as though this is valuable as it helps us to conisder what it would be like working there in the future.

there were no expenses to be reimbursed

Yes, we were given the opportunity to hear from many different employees from the company.

Yes we had a social event in the first evening.

No , we didn't cover that.

Yes I would definitely recommend this experience to a friend.