Retail Intern Review

L'Oreal is a great place to work in terms of gaining exposure to a large corporation. To a large extent I enjoyed my placement. I was always busy doing lots of different tasks, meeting people across the business and learning from others. On the other hand, I was not given as much responsibility to undertake business critical projects that tested and challenged my ability. As there are so many interns in L'Oreal, the placements can be too structured and there is little opportunity to move outside of your role.

The work that I did for my team was in some ways, critical for them however in most part, not entirely respected. While the volume of my work was great, it was many levels below the work that my colleagues did. Having said this, I continually received positive feedback for the work that I did complete, which was extremely motivating.

I had a weekly catch up with my manager where we had opportunity to discuss my placement. However, in order to receive actual support and guidance, I would have to ask for it and be extremely specific as to what I wanted out of my time there. At times, I would complete work that my manager was not aware of and therefore received no support or feedback.

There were very few days where I not have not considered myself busy. In my role there was a mixture of routinely tasks on a daily and weekly basis and on top of that I would receive plenty of ad hoc work. Often, the workload became too much but some of the time, having consistent amounts of high workload is a positive thing because you learn more for your own personal progression.

I was given a few projects that were mine to own. These where the areas where I was challenged the most and learnt the most as a result. However, my role differed from my team entirely, being a largely supporting asset. I gained little exposure into the higher level job roles within my team.

Being in such a large corporation was useful in terms of gaining experience in a professional environment. I learned interpersonal skills, was encouraged to network around the business, and learned to become extremely organised. However, the actual work that my role entailed had little to do with my degree in Business Administration.

Everyone is extremely enthusiastic about what they do. Teams tend to stick together, however within those teams people are very close. Very rarely did I feel like I could not go up to someone to ask for help. On the other hand, L'Oreal is an extremely fast-paced, intense working environment and often my colleagues would become stressed, thus creating a pressurised environment to work in.

The L'Oreal placement scheme is extremely well structured and organised. You each have several points of contact with HR who guide you through the stages of your internship. The only time that I felt a lack of support was the Graduate Scheme application process. I had very little guidance on how to go about tailoring my placement to qualify for the application process in terms of work content and colleague recommendations.

Due to the fast paced working environment, there was very little time for my colleagues to invest in training me. The majority of my work was handed over by the previous intern. For the majority of the placement, I did not feel like in was being invested in and trained to have a longer career within the company, but rather trained to be a supporting role for the time that I was there.

The nature of my role was not designed to be competitive within the Graduate Scheme application process. I was not provided with enough opportunity to expose my capabilities and thus this removed any prospects for a further career within the organisation.

There are many interns within L'Oreal and many external events organised where you can socialise with fellow placement students. There is a nominated Social Sec who is in charge of organising the social events. These tend to occur once every month or so and plenty of people attend. In between these, there are many in formal get togethers towards the end of the week in the Hammersmith Area.There are also L'Oreal sports teams to join, should you wish.

I lived in the Fulham area which is close to the office however quite expensive. Rent is between £800-£900 a month. There are many interns that live at home, which is of course the cheapest but there are also less expensive areas to live nearby such as Chiswick. In terms of socialising, London is generally quite expensive, wherever you go. Hammersmith is not considered any more or less expensive than other areas of London.

There are many places to go out in London. Hammersmith itself is mainly restaurants and pubs however you are not far away from West London or Central London where there is unlimited choices of nightlife.

There are various sports teams however that is the extent of it. I personally did not get involved in L'Oreal run activities however in the area there are plenty of gyms, sports clubs, dance studios to name a few. Depending on your work hours (contracted 9-5pm) you may have the time to become involved in activities outside of work. I personally joined a gym just opposite the office and was able to go there approximately 3 times a week,