Digital and Sustainability Engineer Review

by Unilever

Best Student Employer

Rating

3.6/5
  • Skills
    3.8
  • Responsibilities
    4.0
  • Support & Guidance
    3.0
  • Culture
    3.5
  • Your Impressions
    3.7

    Overview

  • 1. Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis.
  • CMMS: administrative and technical support, PM visualisation, PM/asset hierarchy management. Predictive maintenance: vibration data analysis, deployment piloting on a packing line, sensor diagnosis. Digital transformation: data validation for auto-causal losses and OEE across multiple packing lines, Data analysis via Kusto/PowerBI, operator line software training and support, SQL upskilling. Sustainability: energy saving projects (condensate recovery, factory-level energy visualisation, machine-level energy visualisation pilot). Air quality: monitoring and data analysis of particulate matter concentrations, sensor deployment.


    Skills

  • 2. Have you learnt any new skills, or developed your existing skills?
  • Skills learned: -Business acumen (bring skills learned from other aspects of my life to facilitate experimentation) -Project management (different from Uni as you have to learn to manage people and work!) -Purpose (this one is very important in Unilever, I have learned a lot from workshops offered about my nature being pragmatic, wanting to experience new things and take risks - this inspires my actions to drive positive change in the people around me) Skills developed: -Personal mastery (set high standards, constantly be open to change and try to empathise with others, i.e., XYZ technology could ease operators to do ABC) -Agility (continually developing my skills, i.e. learning SQL/Python) -Talent catalyst (created an inclusive climate through events hosted in-person and online via the Empower Network to promote diversity)


  • How would you rate the training provided during your experience?
  • 2/5

  • How would you rate your development of industry-specific skills during the experience?
  • 4/5

  • How would you rate your development of personal / soft skills during the experience?
  • 4/5

  • Please rate how these skills have helped you in your career development
  • 5/5

    Responsibilities

  • 3. Were you given much responsibility during your placement / internship?
  • Yes - I expected, as a placement student, to be given menial/admin tasks exclusively. My manager fortunately gave me a breadth of different projects to maximise my exposure to engineering at Unilever, which was greatly appreciated. I wish that I could have gotten more stuck into projects with more complexity/length to them (especially in digital) but could understand why this may not have been best for someone just starting out their career!


  • Please rate how meaningful the work you were doing was
  • 4/5

    Support & Guidance

  • 4. How much support and guidance did you receive during your placement / internship?
  • This is my biggest point to improve on for future students. My manager was exceptionally busy and often wasn't able to support when I had questions. I also had no handover and very limited training when starting projects, which halted progress. Our 1-2-1 sessions were often cut short due to my manager having other meetings, and felt rushed.


  • How would you rate the support and guidance from your line manager?
  • 2/5

  • How would you rate the support and guidance from the wider team?
  • 4/5

    Culture

  • 5. What was the company culture and general atmosphere like?
  • Culture was generally good, although I felt clear divides between factories and the office. Factories would often prioritise quality and efficiency over piloting new technologies, which would make progress slow. Atmosphere was a lot faster-paced in supply chain/factories compared to other functions.


  • How would you rate the inclusiveness of the culture?
  • 4/5

  • How would you rate the social opportunities?
  • 2/5

  • How would you rate the diversity initiatives?
  • 3/5

  • How would you rate the charity, sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives?
  • 5/5

    Your Impressions

  • 6. To what extent did you enjoy your placement / internship?
  • I enjoyed it for the most part. The good: - Varied and (mostly) interesting work - Culture was inclusive and respectful - Pace of work was good - Was inspiring to be supported/surrounded by experts To improve: - More support and contact with my manager, i.e. to progress projects which I was often not getting traction from others on - A cross-functional flex project - More time to develop my skills (Python/SQL) - More exposure to other Unilever's sites/the wider business Overall score: 7/10


  • Please rate your level of enjoyment on your placement / internship
  • 4/5

  • Please rate how your experience met your expectations
  • 3/5

  • Please rate the future employment prospects at Unilever
  • 4/5

  • 7. Would you recommend Unilever to a friend?
  • Yes


  • 8. What advice would you give to others applying to Unilever
  • Align yourself with Unilever's purpose and standards of leadership. Do your research: why Unilever over competitor XYZ? Why function A over B?


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Details

Placement (10 Months+)

Chemical Engineering

North West

May 2022


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