Commercial Intern Review

A fantastic year with the company, couldn't have wished for a better placement! Great company to work for. A placement with L'Oreal gives you a credible insight into your function and a chance to develop a genuine understanding of your chosen career path. In my experience the role evolves a lot over your 12 months allowing you to pick up your role and take on more duties throughout your time with the company.

Always felt very valued and appreciated within the team. My achievements as an individual and also my contribution to team success have always been recognised and valued.

Regular catch ups and meetings with team. Picked up a huge amount from those around me, always happy to put time aside to help better my understanding of the business and learn from their experience. There is a real emphasis on networking and building relationships within the business, rather than just by those in your direct team. Accordingly people are always very accommodating when you reach out to try and learn more across the business and gain greater exposure.

Always very busy once I had settled in to my role. While challenging at times a strong team network was a big help and ensured that if ever feeling a little snowed under I got whatever support I needed in my role. My duties spanned across many areas, but so long as you have the ability to effectively manage deadlines and prioritise you will be just fine! HR were also very good in giving training sessions early in the placement around how to manage your time and deadlines efficiently.

Great amount of genuine responsibility. From early in my role I had a lot of exposure directly to account and customer access. I was trusted with many elements of account management. Within a few months I had already been given the opportunity to run customer meetings and make my own presentations and proposals to retailers.

I think the key learnings I will take back to university will be in the areas of time management and managing priorities. Like many in these areas the first two years of uni did not equip me particularly well for the world of work, but the experience and support I have received on this will be invaluable on returning to university.

Really great atmosphere and team spirit in the office. Obviously the majority of your time is spent in your immediate account/brand team, but the business knows how to really come together to celebrate and appreciate achievements across the board. Try to get involved from the start and really dive into the culture of the organisation.

There was a lot of change going on in the organisation when we initially joined which made the first couple of months a little turbulent. L'Oreal is an incredibly dynamic workplace (that's what an FMCG is all about!), so you will soon get into the swing of things and get to grips with the business. The placement scheme is well established and so gets lots of support from permanent staff and HR also put on a range of events for you to meet individuals throughout the business to get a greater understanding and idea on your own development.

We had quite a few events early on in the placement, though not as many in the second half of our time with the business. Even though things are obviously more and more busy the longer you are in your role, it would be good if there were more events particularly after mid year review to help you build on the feedback you already have and move towards being in a strong position for the grad scheme.

Unfortunately I didn’t make it onto the management trainee scheme, but the business does take on many of the interns as grads following their final year at uni. I have however extended my placement an extra couple of months which will be great to allow me to further see through a couple of projects I am working on.

Intern Committee organised a ton of events throughout the year. Sports Socials, Running Club, Nights Out, Restaurant Club etc. These events ran throughout the year and regular trips to the pub on Fridays always give a chance to catch up and get to know more about your fellow interns and what they are up to throughout the business.

Unfortunately a very expensive area, though to be expected in London. The social’s organised by the committee were always great as they negotiated good rates for us and freebies at events, so make the most of the events organised by the committee! Try to plan clearly what you want to do otherwise you will frequently get to the last week or so of the month and find yourself unable to do anything!

Hammersmith is a great area to live and work in and with Shepherds Bush and Kensington within just 15 minutes walk you will never be short of things to do. Just a case of managing your budget carefully to try and make every spare penny count! Lots of pubs, bars and restaurants on the doorstep.

If you're new to the city like I was, make the most of it - until you're living here it really is hard to appreciate or grasp what a great city London is. Whatever you want to try, any new experience London will have it. As expensive as London is there are a huge amount of events and opportunities in for free. Just put yourself out there and make the most of your time in the city!