Commerical Intern Review

Having a large number of interns all joining together made the internship more fun as you have lots of people in the same boat as you and can make friends easily.

Because of how busy everyone is here; the staff are really stretched and work long hours - so everything you do to help is appreciaited!

My manager was really helpful whenever I had a problem or didn't understand something. There was high pressure to learn quickly and if you find something hard to grasp at first people don't have much patience for that.

You are given your own project and are expected to manage your own time, sometimes there is loads to do as other people want your help, other times when you are working on your own project in your own time you are less busy.

You work on real-time projects which contribute to the business.

One of the most valuble experiences L'Oreal gives you as an intern is the chance to see what work is like in a big company and understand what it means to work in a large office.

The atmosphere was lively, because the staff are generally really young. There is also a slightly competitive atmosphere because as an intern from the start you know you are competing to be considered on the grad scheme - which isn't that nice a feeling. Most of the staff events involve drinking and nights out - fine if that's your personality, difficult if it isn't.

Because of the huge intake of interns this year the start of my placement was a bit rocky - although HR did everything they could to remedy this! Once I was set up things were really smooth, there are milestones that you reach with your start, mid and end of internship reviews and also you are encourage to have weekly catch ups with your manager so that you know you are on track and have enough to do - which is really really helpful,

HR runs really good sessions during the placement to help you understand the functions of all the other departments that you aren't working in during your internship - these were one of my favourite parts of the internship. I would have liked (maybe even needed!) some IT training at the start of the placement in regards to using excel and some of the software you rely on day to day. You get feedback on your progress whenever you ask for it so it's really easy to know how you are doing and where you need to improve.

It is really competitive to get from the internship onto the grad scheme, and unforntunaly they only offer graduate positions in a limited number of departments. However, you are told to make it aware to HR that you are interested in other positions so they don't say there's no chance!

The social scene was almost purely focused on nights out drinking - which I am not a fan of - so I didn't really get a chance to get involved that much.

London is really expensive.

I don't know anything about clubs - but there are loads and loads of great restaurants and bars.

At first it seemed like there would be loads of sports and other activities at the weekend, as there is a dedicated intern committee who organises this - but none of the sport materialised.