Commercial Placement Student Review

Working in the Digital team to drive digital capabilities. Focusing on content creation for an online retailer's product page, optimising the hero product image, creating branded secondary images as well as titles and product descriptions. I work with external design agencies, as well as internal designers and copywriter. This role is within the Sales function, but specifically in eCommerce. Content is created for retailers such as Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys, Ocado etc. The team is diverse and very intelligent within both the snacks industry and the digital world.

The main learnings I can take from my 14 month placement are involving efficiency. You can have personal efficiencies, which are skills such as time management of your schedule, understanding when a meeting is necessary, prioritising tasks and knowing how much time to spend on it. Workplace efficiency is assessing your day to day ways of working. Reinvent processes if it can save labour, resources, money or time. By doing this, it will allow more passion to be put into projects that benefit your experience and the company.

I was personally given much more responsibility than I first thought was expected from a placement year student. It is great to get involved in so many different projects, and as a First Gen student you are given even more opportunities, such as the cross functional student project and student committee. You can always talk to your managers about your workload and usually they are happy to take on or allocate anything that you think won't get done or is too much.

I have had weekly 1 2 1 meetings with my manager, where we can talk about any of my projects, ask questions or ask for work. You will also have at least one team meeting with your small team, as well as sessions with the wider Digital team. Everyone is very accesssible to answer questions and give support. We have a good learning platform where you can do extra trainings on new topics. The culture is friendly.

The company culture and general atmosphere has been super welcoming. I have mostly worked from home this year due to covid and travel costs, and the team are really good at staying connected with each others personal lives. They seem like work mates rather than just a distant colleague! PepsiCo has many Employee Resource Groups, like university societies that you can get involved in. New starters are always introduced and made to feel welcome straight away.

I have really enjoyed my placement and have been offered to stay an extra 2 months to the end of summer. It is known to be a great company to work for and its great to see your work go live, with massive UK brands. It is good pay compared to some other companies, and gives you great opportunities to network with people from all functions, experiences. Also good if you want to progress when you graduate.

Yes

Everybody says networking is a great tool and it is true. At first, just get to understand your own job role and how it affects your team. Then understand their roles and how it affects the wider team and PepsiCo as a company. After networking with those you work closest to, reach out to other teams who's work interests you, they are always happy to chat. You are helping them network too! The more people you know, the better you understand the company as a whole.