Marketing Review

L'Oreal is a fantastic company to work for. It is a dynamic workplace where no day is alike. That's what makes work so exciting, invigorating and fun and never ever boring. Your role is not about doing ah hoc jobs for the rest of the team it is about using the responsibility they have given you to make a contribution to the team. At L'Oreal, they do not treat you like an intern but as a senior member of staff with big responsibilities. Although sometimes challenging it becomes super exciting as you own key projects and manage sub brands. My favourite aspect about L'Oreal is being able to share your opinion/ideas and having it put into play if liked by senior management

L'Oreal has over 30 brands in the whole company. It is like one over arching family tree where each branch is a L'Oreal brand with a smaller family. My team were so welcoming- I would recommend asking for help whenever you need no matter how silly the question because everyone will always be willing to help. The team balances work with also social dues frequently which helps to get to know your colleagues. My team valued me as a respected employee. They do not look down on you because you are an intern, you are given challenging tasks and are given as much responsibility as product manager. You get the opportunity to present and own projects from start to end.

Support from my management was varied among the year. Having had three different mangers in my year I had to change my working styles to suit each my different managers needs. People in L'Oreal move brands a lot so it can be difficult to have a consistent manager who can build a relationship with. It is really down to luck who you get as your manager. I have experienced little guidance, support, direction from my managers even though the freedom and liberation is great, support would have helped. I also had 2 months without a line manager so had to report of Head of Marketing where due to their busy schedule it was very difficult to get guidance.

I was very busy on a daily basis working until 7pm on average. Mainly due to the absence of a manager, I had more work so had to stay later. I was set a lot of work and have been very stressed throughout my year. However I like being kept busy and I can guarantee you will never be bored at L'Oreal.

An enormous amount of responsibility and a lot of trust is placed on your daily activities. That is one of the best thing about L'Oreal as it is super exciting no matter how challenging. You may be told that your project will be owning Christmas. This will involve coming up an idea for gifting and the whole concept from start to finish. Towards the second six months a lot more responsibility is given to you than the first six months. They know how you work and will only give you projects if they feel you are capable. However I think it is quite a stressful workplace in my brand.

I think the skills I have learned have been numerous. They will be extremely useful in whatever stream I decide to move into. I think they will be more useful in a job than at University. I haven't used many skills learnt at Uni on this placement so i don't think marketing skills learnt this year will help me at university in my final year. However I believe my work ethic has grown, I am much more organised and structured and am better at chasing up people which will be helpful throughout my whole life including university.

General atmosphere is really fun and sociable. The people are fantastic and do like to socialise as well out of work Sometimes it can be too loud to concentrate on work. Sometimes the workplace was stressful as some people get more stressed than others naturally. You make friends for life here and networking is a key part of a career at L'Oreal.

The internship was very organised by HR by clear deadlines and emails discussing next steps and when to fill in reviews. However HR didn't check up on you to see how you were getting on or if there were any problems. The assessment day was very organised providing you with an agenda before you arrived. You were given the telephone interview date in advance and help and advice was given at every stage of the process

The company put on external training's to help with your development. However I did not see these until the latter part of the placement. Team training was quite minimal and I think there could have been a lot more team building activities, team work exercises and ways of working exercises. When there were training to invest in you, sometimes they would get cancelled because of meetings or deadlines which could get frustrating.

Future prospects are appealing within the organisation. However they say it is really challenging and they never encourage you to apply for the grad scheme or want you to apply because they are attracted by your talent. However a future career looks great at L'Oreal as there are lots of perks such as conference, staff shop, bonus in some roles.

There was an intern committee which put on bi monthly socials which were good. There was also a couple of socials with the new grads. There was an intern Christmas party, and there are various clubs such as reading club, running club and netball club. I live with 3 other L'Oreal industrial placement students and HR help you find a place together.

Very expensive! I would barely get by just on my wage without a student loan or allowance. You can move 5 mins down the road and the rent can be double as you pay for the post code in London! The food, drinks, going out is very expensive but you can get by by saving and cutting costs on some luxuries.

Amazing night life as it is the capital of London. Something for everyone whatever type of night out you like and whatever music taste you may have. It is super exciting as there are so many different places to go, it is just expensive so you have to scout cheap clubs and restaurants or of you want this you must save the week before!

I didn't have time to do this out side of work. I didn't see any advertisements for any other activities outside of work but I think if you searched there would be running clubs, drama clubs etc.