Visual Merchandising Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement at L'Oréal. At L'Oréal you are not treated as an intern and are given a lot of responsibility - in my whole internship I never had a day where I was told to do photocopying or make cups of tea... If you want a placement that will push you and develop you as a person then this is the one for you. I loved the company's ethos and am very sad that my internship is coming to an end.

As said before, at L'Oréal you are not treated like any old intern, you become fully stuck into the role/company and your colleagues are there to help guide you through that. They view you as a super capable person and really value any ideas you bring to the table. You're given real responsibility and they wouldn't do this unless they valued you.

During my time at L'Oréal I had two line managers (due to one leaving the role) and both were incredibly supportive. They helped me develop myself massively and I learnt so much from them. One of the main ways to learn anything is through making mistakes and not once was I "punished" for making a mistake, instead I was supported in finding the solution to fix it.

I was never ever bored at L'Oréal but it could get a little too busy at times. However, that being said, I would much prefer to be busy and a little stressed at times than bored! L'Oréal is a fast paced company and you need to be prepared to get fully stuck in from day one. With the support from colleagues, this didn't feel like a huge challenge.

As said before, you are given A LOT of responsibility at L'Oréal! One of the things I found most satisfying on my internship was seeing how my work actually affected so many people. I was responsible for 170 stores and making sure products launches run smoothly in each of them and I loved it.

100% I have learnt skills for life at L'Oréal from email etiquette, attention to detail and all round work ethic. I feel when I go back into my final year at university, these skills will help me massively (especially in completing my dissertation) as well as upon graduation and entering the working world again.

As with every office/workplace, there are fun days and there are more dull days however, I would say overall the L'Oréal office was much more a place of fun and where you enjoyed working. Even taking into account things such as what you could wear to work was a more relaxed approach which personally, I felt was a big plus. The office also regularly puts on events and staff sales of products which were very fun to attend!

As L'Oréal is such a huge company, with around 100 interns in total, the intern network was very well set up by HR. L'Oréal are used to having lots of interns and values them all and therefore, they are super organised in their set up (including their system of appraisals etc.).

L'Oréal offers many training courses for free which help develop yourself further for skills both internal and external to the company. One of the most interesting ones I attended was "creating a personal development plan" which as someone just starting their career, was incredibly helpful. L'Oréal definitely invest in their interns and graduates.

I am hoping to return to L'Oréal once I complete my degree but I am currently in the process of applying for the Management Trainee program and so this is the only reason I haven't rated this 10 stars! The future employment prospects are very appealing and I am very much hoping I will return. Their Management Trainee program sees you complete 3 rotations of 6 months across the company and so you get to experience different brands/teams.

The social scene in "Glamoursmith" was good, with enough events being put on regularly by the intern committee. I didn't attend as many of these events as I would have liked as I live outside London and so had to worry about getting home however, if I had lived nearer I feel I would have gone to more.

L'Oréal is based in Hammersmith, West London and so of course prices were higher than that of other cities in the country. However, that being said, there were still cheap options for socialising such as more student like bars and free events at the Tate. I cannot comment on cost of living as I lived at home during my internship.

Typically you would go into central London for nightlife however, this was super easy to do as Hammersmith offers 4 different tube lines. There are many pubs around Hammersmith with some being favoured by L'Oréal employees for after work drinks. Any big social events tended to be more in central London.

Due to the intern committee and network, there were often regular sport activities to get involved in. Alongside this there were also charity events that interns could enter such as the Prince's Trust Million Makers competition. I'd say the main activities were sports based and I would have gotten involved in these more if I didn't have to commute home.