Category Procurement Assistant - Skincare Review

As Category Procurement Assistant for Skincare EU at Unilever, I work primarily on innovation/renovation or savings projects in a cross functional setting. I work with R&D, buyers, marketing, supply chain and more to ensure that our projects launch in the market successfully. Some activities include checking where which suppliers we source raw materials from and determining whether they are vegan, discussing new label designs to ensure they are cost-optimised, calculating savings for formulation/packaging change ideas and ensuring adequate quotations are received and contracts are in place for all materials ahead of factory production. It is a very social role and I have made friends with a diverse range of colleagues across the world as a result. I have additionally had the opportunity to travel abroad for work, visit our Port Sunlight factory and spend time in R&D.

A key transferrable skill I have developed is being able to communicate effectively with colleagues of various cultures and seniority levels, ensuring my messages are clear and helpful. Procurement often has to manage the expectations of marketing and suppliers, so I have gained experience in gently sharing less-than-positive news and managing conflict by remaining neutral. I have developed my mathematical and excel skills as I frequently interpret data and make cost calculations. Critically, I have developed a strong understanding of how a global FMCG business operates in general, as working in cross-functional teams has shown me how each individual contributes towards making a product.

Yes - once I felt confident enough, my manager allowed me to become the sole procurement representative for a large innovation/renovation project. I still asked her for help when needed, but the autonomy helped me to understand my role deeply as I was plunged into the deep end. Now coming to the end of my placement, my colleagues often reach out to me with their requests and my manager is not involved, so I play a significant role in the Skincare business. Even if your manager doesn't offer you too much responsibility, Unilever is very keen on development so you can shadow other colleagues to gain experience in other areas.

I had weekly 1o1s with my manager, and could reach out to my University if I needed. My manager would help to answer any operational questions I had, as well as quarterly checkpoints where we discussed my progress and future career ambitions. The future careers team also did this as they always encouraged us to think about the more distant future rather than simply the placement year. If I felt I needed some support on a specific topic, I would let my manager know and we could have a dedicated meeting about it. However, one downside of my placement is that my manager is based in a different country which often impeded communication

Unilever has an excellent culture - it feels exactly the same as I expected it would through reading Unilever's company website. The firm is so committed to employee wellbeing & growth and sustainability and people are often very happy to help you even if you have never met before. Port Sunlight office specifically has less of a strong culture as most employees work from home, so if you are based here I would encourage you to make friends with R&D and employees in other UK and international offices, rather than limiting yourself. This helped me feel part of the large MNC that is Unilever as Port Sunlight can be fairly quiet

I have had a great placement. The main downsides were the fact that my manager is based in another country, and I didn't have an extremely heavy workload for a large proportion of the year, but I overcame these by getting to know as many local colleagues as I could and asking to shadow others to expand my experience. When busy, I really enjoy my job and am convinced I would like to return to the FMCG industry in operations/supply chain after university. I am grateful that this experience has allowed me to be more certain in my post-university ventures.

Yes

The recruitment process is very competitive so take care when writing your application. Ensure you have researched the company in great detail and are genuinely interested in working here, rather than simply applying because Unilever looks good on a CV. It is obvious who has applied for genuine reasons and it will show through your commitment to the job and your eagerness to learn outside of your immediate role. As Unilever is such a large company, there is so much to learn at the beginning, but once you spend a year here, you will realise the invaluable industry knowledge the experience has given you.