Visual Merchandiser Review

I enjoyed working as a Visual Merchandiser with the consumer products division because I was able to learn a lot in the 10 weeks. Due to the number of interns L'Oreal takes on, there is a really lovely social community between the interns. There are socials and sporting events that the intern committee organise and this made the placement really enjoyable.

At L'Oreal, interns are thrown straight into their roles and are given tasks that are as if they are permeant members. Therefore my work was valued as I was trusted in undertaking those tasks and delivery the results. When our creative agencies were busy I was able to help my team by utilising my Photoshop skills and undertake the role of an artworker in order to complete the job.

At the beginning of my internship I had hoped for more introduction and inductions into the different subdivisions and guidance on the products I would be merchandising and this would have allowed me to utilise my skills for the role quicker. However, as part of the L'Oreal internship scheme, we had scheduled reviews where we laid out my goals and my manager gave me feedback which was useful.

As a visual merchandiser intern, I was given a lot of day to day tasks. In my role I was required to support a number of teams, which meant the the days were very fast paced. I would either be briefing agencies on artwork jobs or chasing departments for feedback on our work so that we could then send for prototypes and make adjustments to briefs etc. There was always something to get on with.

I was trusted by my manager to directly contact clients for feedback on our work and to directly brief agencies with creative briefs. On some projects, it was up to me to keep track of the progress of agency work and be aware of internal deadlines. This responsibility allowed me to truly understand the role of a visual merchandiser.

I was given the opportunity to visit one of the creative agencies L'Oreal works with, which allowed me to physically sit next to the artworker whilst he followed my creative brief. This also meant that I could ask him to make adjustments there and then to the artwork. In my course I use Adobe Suite a lot and so I picked up a lot of tips and tricks that I will utilise on my course. Other skills I enhanced included, time management and working with colleagues.

There was always a good hubbub in the office which made it a comfortable atmosphere to work in. Due to the fast paced nature of the consumer products division that I worked in, there was a lot of energy in the room as people worked to get things done. However, I felt that the design of the office lacked inspiration and opportunity for innovation and creativity.

I was really pleased to have been talent spotted at the beginning of the L'Oreal application process. Unfortunately I often felt that having by pasted a few steps as a result of being talent spotted, that I seemed to be left out of communications and I was worried that I had been forgotten. For example, I received my contract very late, I was missed off the email list for pre-internship documents, I wasn't added to the Facebook group and so I wasn't invited to the first intern social. I also felt that my manager wasn't fully prepared for me as I didn't have a proper desk to work at and had the impression that she was not clear on the internship scheme to start with.

There were many free training events but unfortunately, most of these were either not relevant or for after my time at L'Oreal. I would have liked the opportunity to have had a main project that I could have run alongside the day to day tasks so that I could have presented this to my team, like many of the other summer interns.

I am interested in working at L'Oreal in the future and as a visual merchandiser. I am very interested in finding out more about opportunities at their Head Offices for the different brands as this may offer more creative and innovation roles. I look forward to staying in touch with many of the people I worked with.

Due to the number of interns L'Oreal takes on, there is a really lovely social community between the interns. There are socials and sporting events that the intern committee organise and this made the placement really enjoyable. Furthermore the HR team organised a welcome social which was really good for meeting other interns and they also organised the best leaving social, a cocktail making event. This was such a lovely evening.

I travelled in from home in Hertfordshire and so I had to cover the costs for this. However, as this was a paid internship, I could still socialise and have a good time. There are also many free activities and events going on in London too and so it wasn't always a big day out.

There are a lot of nice bars and good pubs near L'Oreal in Hammersmith. We would often go for drinks or food after work, which gave us good motivation to finish our work by 5pm. As many of the interns were living together, some had flat parties and BBQ's which was really fun too!

Yes there were lots of opportunities to get involved with sporting activities and charity initiatives. There was an intern committee with sport reps who organised weekly rounders, football and netball. The rounders was really good because there was only a joining fee of £2. Unfortunately only being a 10 week intern, the charity rep only started to organise charity initiatives after my time at L'Oreal.