Visual merchandising Intern Review

I have genuinely enjoyed my time at L'Oreal, as a job it has been engaging and ever changing every day. I am constantly challenged and provided with opportunity to make my mark on my work, whilst this may seem a little daunting, it has provided me with some amazing experiences and great talking points for future job applications or a foundation for a career within L'Oreal. I am never watching the clock and enjoy coming into work every day, I will be sad to leave. There have obviously been there up and downs where we have gone through quieter and busier periods with varying stress levels - however, this is a minority and something I imagine you experience in any role.

Through out the year I have became a valued member of the team, my colleagues genuinely request my professional opinion in matters in which I specialise and I have been included in all team meetings and decisions. I still do some 'intern' tasks such as posting out and taking items to store, however I have never had to photocopy or make coffees for people! I have my own role within the team that is not just providing support and admin to the others.

Personally I have had a great relationship/experience with my line manager and department director. This has been due to the high level of guidance my line manager has given me in my role, giving me the opportunity and experience to step up and take on new responsibilities when I have shown to be capable and assertive. I have been supported in taking on new projects not covered by interns and in turn have ensured I met this high expectation. If you show the willingness to learn and take on responsibility you will be supported in this.

Whilst my levels of work have varied through out the year, I would say they have gone from moderately busy (day still goes quickly) to crazily busy, where I am literally rushing throughout the day and running out of time. This is something I have been able to manage more effectively myself as I have grown in my role and also a balancing lesson to learn with your manager, but also the nature of a fast-paced organisation like L'Oreal.

I believe I have been given a lot of responsibility within my role, a few examples of this would be managing a large budget and ensuring costs are controlled, designing and setting up merchandising items in key retailers such as Selfridges and Harrods, managing the lightbox visuals in every make up counter throughout the UK and ROI and many more key tasks that held a large amount of responsibility.

I believe that the skills I have learnt are extremely transferrable and will set me up extremely well for further jobs and study. In particular my email and telephone communication has improved significantly and I have built on many skills such as supplier relationship management, personal time management, dealing with complexity and creative problem solving. These are vital skills for any role in the future and will assist me greatly.

The office could be quite quiet on occasions where many people are working smart (from home) on a Friday. However in general people are very social and there is a coffee culture within L'Oreal and at the coffee bar. People are often talking and choosing to communicate verbally rather than sending an email which keeps things lively. The office has lots of younger people and exciting staff events to choose from which also makes things fun!

The overall placement was well organised as we had several lunch and learns available to us and intern socials regularly organised. There could have been more contact and mentoring with HR throughout the process, however help was there if you went and requested it yourself. The leaving and starting socials are also really good.

I would say the company invests in you to a reasonable extent through mandatory and optional E-learnings available online, there were also several 'lunch and learns' as mentioned above. Lunch and learns could range from HR providing a work shop on time management, to Excel skills to management staff coming to talk to interns about their experiences at L'Oreal with a really helpful Q&A session at the end. The lunch and learns proved most beneficial to myself personally.

Personally I find the future employment prospects extremely appealing and would love to work for the company again in the future and in light of this have applied to the graduate scheme - although currently am still waiting to hear back! The graduate scheme involves a very stringent application process where you must really prove yourself to get in. There is lots of opportunity to grow and progress and succeed at L'Oreal so it is an extremely appealing place to work.

The social scene as a whole is good with the monthly bar 255 (canteen turns into free bar/party on the Thursday of pay day) however this only happened a couple of times whilst I was an intern. There were intern socials almost every week if you wanted to attend, however I only went to a few. I made really good friends with the other interns on my floor and did social events we organised ourselves, I also had social events with my team.

I rented and lived down the road from the office so I saved money by walking into work and not commuting, as a whole West London is quite expensive so my rent was very high. West London is also quite expensive in terms of eating, drinking and shopping, however we often made and took lunch with us to save on costs. The canteen has a coffee shop that is highly subsidised also, however it is annoying and expensive to be buying these every day (as there are no kettles/kitchens).

The nightlife in London as a whole is amazing and there are so many options for night life if you want to, there is always a good bar to go to and get a drink at. The nightlife in hammersmith its self isn't so great, however there are still a few nice pubs for after work drinks. Heading down the road to Kensington or Fulham provides you with nicer options, or better still into Soho central London.

There were football and netball teams to get involved with sports wise and a social secretary who organised intern socials, there was also an 'intern foodies' club where interns went for dinners as a group trying out restaurants in London. I personally did not really attend the above, except for some intern socials, but there were options for those who wanted to.