Summer Placement Student Review

My role was within the Enterprise Architecture team who work with future technology for the business. I was tasked with creating a repository of sources used when researching future technology, helping with re-inventing the monthly report and I wrote a research piece that will be published in the business. Most of my work was individual so I had to plan out my own days but I also had meetings throughout the week with the team and my line manager.

I think being at a company for a such a short amount of times means that you learn a lot but very quickly. I feel that I mainly learnt and gained experience in understanding my working style and also just getting the opportunity to work in a 9-5 office job for an extended period of time. I've grown in confidence in setting up/conducting meetings with managers as well as having to present my work and information to large groups of people. It's helped to put into context some of the skills you learn at university and shown me how they are applied in a job.

Yes I was. All of the projects that I was given were mine to handle from the beginning to end. It was my responsibility to make sure that I was delivering everything on time to a high standard. It was also my responsibility to update my line manager on my project updates as well as my workload status. I had to take initiative a couple of times to ask for more things to do as well as go out and find them myself.

I received a lot of guidance during my placement. My line manager was always on hand to answer any of my questions and checking in to make sure I was ok. As he is based in Barcelona, I was also given a second manager based in Liverpool who was amazing. She organised coffee meetings on Teams to check in regularly as my placement was all remote and was always offering advice and guidance. The team I was in as well were all really willing to give me some of their time to ask questions and set up meetings with, never making me feel that I was inconveniencing them at all.

The company culture is really friendly. Everyone is happy to answer questions or set aside time to speak to you even when they're busy. Everybody seems to be involved in a lot of different initiatives from volunteering, to offering their time to help out with other areas of the business if they have the skill set to match (flex opportunities). My entire placement was remote so I can't really comment on any of the extra-curricular activities, social events etc.

I enjoyed the placement, it was a great experience and I've learnt a lot from it to take forward. The work wasn't overly challenging but provided me with lots of opportunities to talk to new people and try new things. The team I was in were great, super friendly and welcoming. I never felt like it was a hindrance at all to have a placement student with them and they included me from the start. I wish I would have had the opportunity to go into the office, but the office I was based at didn't open. This made it a lot harder to meet other placement students and other people outside of the team.

Yes

Be interested and curious into what is going on and how the company works, don't be afraid to ask questions. Do your research into the different functions before you apply to one so that you have a better understanding of what they all do. Unilever are focused on sustainability so I would have a look at what they're doing in this space as well before any interviews or assessment centres. Its a really great place to ask as many questions as you can and talk to people who do lots of different jobs so use that as much as you can.