Supply Chain Intern Review

Enjoy is not the correct word. It was like running a marathon. Painful for the duration. Better on reflection. I am pleased that I did my placement and do feel that I was given the opportunity to be a valuable member of the division and learn lots about the business.

I was given respect equal to any full time member of staff.

I was given a lot of opportunities by my manager and was regularly given feedback as and when situations occurred as well as weekly catch ups. Specifically within my team there was a really good attitude towards solving what went wrong and stopping it from happening again rather than blame culture – this was especially helpful when you were still learning! Blame culture was still a problem and my managers were invaluable in fighting my corner when individuals tried to use this tactic. I had a lot of trust that I could go to any of the management levels above me (within my division) if I was having trouble.

Probably too busy, which came as a result of being given a lot of responsibility. I often didn’t have time to take a lunch break and a lot of my team stayed until 7-8pm at night most nights. High workload is pervasive which as an intern does give you an opportunity to get a lot of experience but can often mean that your quality of work is lowered. The perfectionist will find this a stressful environment.

I was given a full time operational role within the company and this involved a lot of direct impact on the turnover of the business.

The job wasn’t relevant to my degree but it has given me a perspective of the business element, which in turn has informed me of the kind of pressures that manufacturing facilities would face from commercial headquarters to meet the demands of the business.

Not as judgemental/makeup obsessed as I had feared (though obviously you always get individuals). Everyone was really welcoming and I understand this must be difficult as there are a lot of interns and we must all ask the same questions every year! They also did make a big effort to try and incorporate fun things like bake-off competitions, prosecco for everyone to celebrate certain business achievements and free products at some of our quarterly updates

My placement originally was not defined and set in stone and this really allowed me to take the role and turn it into my own. So originally not, but this was actually a big benefit as it meant I was able to have far more responsibility than the intern that I took over from and even define roles within the wider team. Much of the administration work that I was originally responsible for has now been passed over to the teams where it fit better, meaning that I was able to add more value to my role.

In all honesty I never really felt like I had time for personal training or development. My job role has been too intense and so although I feel like I have gained a lot of on-the-job experience, some of the more formal training & understanding has suffered.

There is a really clear understanding of where the next roles lie within the company and it is obvious that they are willing to promote individuals for talent & hard work and you can get far.

Many of the interns lived together and there was a social committee who organised events. The Christmas Party was amazing and you could get involved as much/little as you want

Cost of living is prohibitively expensive. It's the price you pay to be in London surrounded by young people and things going on!

It's based in London...

You could leave/breathe/sleep L'Oreal if you wanted. Running clubs, netball, charity events, marketing & commercial are always looking for people to help out with events/store visits.