Marketing Intern at L'Oreal Review

My placement with L'Oreal has been insightful, gratifying and experiential. I have enjoyed my time here thoroughly and will take so much knowledge and understanding of the beauty market when I leave. During my time as an intern I never felt as if i was an 'intern' I was completely immersed with the team as we all worked so well together.

As I found myself in one of the smaller brands within L'Oreal i was highly valued by my surrounding colleagues as I was greatly needed to help out with the logistics and complete all the artworking for launches and campaigns. I would not only help my department but also other teams within my brand which made the whole team feel like a family. The kindness, support and good humour was definitely one of the greatest experiences of the entire placement.

I benefited greatly by having such a supportive and fun manager. My manager was extremely good at making sure I was on top of the projects set and giving me opportunities to develop my knowledge in marketing. We would have weekly meetings to go over what I would be working on and future projects as well as always being more than happy to discuss during the day face to face and over email.

There was never a time when I would be bored with no work to do. I would constantly be working on the launches from start to finish giving myself a full 360 experience of launches. From ad-hoc, logistics, art working and helping out at events I have learnt great time management and task prioritisation skills.

I was surprised at the amount of responsibility I was given at an intern and it has been extremely rewarding. I would help from start to finish with every launch from the day I started. After taking on the role from the previous intern I designed all the in-store collateral to go to all stores for one of the biggest launches of the year for our brand. I would input all the quantities of products, testers and artwork that would reach the stores .

My placement with L'Oreal has taught me so many skills for my final year at university where I have chosen to study retail and digital marketing for some of my chosen modules as the retail industry has fascinated me. I have greatly improved on time management and take on every bit of feedback that is given to me in order to learn in the future. My communication skills has thoroughly improved and my creativity has excelled and I enjoy every bit of art working I do.

The atmosphere in the office was always extremely welcoming and I never felt as if it was negative. Working in the beauty industry it is extremely fast paced at times but it never got out of hand and too stressful. Everyone would always look out to help each other if there was ever a situation in which it was starting to get stressful. I never felt threatened by talking to higher management within meetings and It would be extremely rewarding when they would take on points I made.

The overall placement even before officially starting is extremely well set up. L'Oreal offer conference calls where interns about to start can dial in and find out more information. I also spoke to my line manager and previous intern before starting to get a feel for the brand and what to expect when starting. When I started I was given a guide on all the roles I would take over and it definitely helped in the first month! Everything from how we are assigned to our brands is thought through.

L'Oreal offer tonnes of courses that interns are allowed to sign up to to learn more about the industry or about software's. You are also invited to guest speakers events and external seminars if you wish to go. There are regular training's such as excel and public speaking which I have found extremely useful for not just in L'Oreal but for when I return to University.

All interns are given the opportunity to apply for graduate schemes or talent track. It would be extremely appealing securing a future employment with L'Oreal and all that it has to offer. With the knowledge and experience I have gained from 1 year I am sure that a future with L'Oreal after university would be extremely rewarding.

There is a good social scene for interns such as a Facebook group where you can join before you even start so you can meet all the others interns that will start with you. In this group there were regular invites to drinks, events and even questions. There is an intern social committee where every now and then an event for the L'Oreal interns would be organised.

I commuted into L'Oreal as I live near London. However the cost to commute was still rather expensive. As my internship was paid for and was priced better than other companies I managed to save up money and still have a great social life as well!

The nightlife around Hammersmith is never quiet! You can always find bars, pubs and clubs around the area easily and quickly. A good evening or night our is always guaranteed as London is one of the best cities to explore. It has great nightlife throughout the year but personally there is nothing better than summer time!

L'Oreal offered many opportunities to work at LGBT fairs, Charity fundraising for the Princess Trust etc. However it was sometimes rather difficult to sign up to the events as they would book up quite quick. For interns there are sports clubs that you can join such as football, rounders and netball.