Manufacturing and Operations Intern Review

My placement at Unilever was brilliant and gave me exposure to various aspects of manufacturing and engineering. I found I was able to contact the necessary people in R&D also to gain awareness of different roles within this division. My manager gave me the perfect balance between support and independence and I felt my contribution to the business was valued.

The environment at Unilever is very easy to integrate into. Almost every worker is willing to help you with whatever work you have. People will readily take time out of their day to help you progress in your projects and if they can't help you they will refer you onto someone who can.

The balance between manager support and having license to pursue projects how I wanted to was perfect. Within the placement I spent a lot of time autonomously solving problems and deciding how I wanted to pursue projects. However, whenever I needed guidance I found it was easy to contact my line manager to ask for their advice.

At the start of my placement I wasn't particularly busy and spent my time supporting my line manager in meetings or utilising the vast array of digital learning resources on offer at Unilever. However, the further I went into the placement and the more I managed my own projects the more able I was to decide the pace of my daily work.

Over the course of my placement I undertook various levels of responsibility in project and operational delivery. During the start of my placement I observed my manager work on large projects and gained awareness of how these are managed. The further I progressed into my internship I found I engaged in the delivery of medium scale projects and project managed small scale projects.

As a chemical engineer the internship did not contribute directly to my degree. I gained a strong awareness of how engineering is used in manufacturing environments, however my exposure to pursuing these activites was limited. I would advise for any individuals seeking a heavy chemical engineering placement to apply for companies in the Oil and Gas sector. However, if you would prefer a taster if chemical engineering mixed with supply chain and manufacturing then Unilever is a great place to apply to.

The atmosphere in my office was great - and I found that this was shared around all the manufacturing offices. There was a family feel around the office in what was a diverse and accepting environment. Only when people were exceedingly busy would people be unwilling to have a chat.

The structure of my internship was slightly chaotic at the start of my placement but all in all with onboarding processes included was good. My proposed manager for my internship left before the start of my internship which meant my key performance indicators needed rethinking with the shift in the management structure - however these issues were solved within the first week of my placement.

The company and manager invested significantly in my training and development in the placement. Unilever offers great learning material on its intranet, offering courses on subjects as diverse as coding and project management. My manager allowed me to attend WCM, pipeline engineering and safety courses - the facility for development was outstanding.

Personally I would love a future role within the company. The facility to gain an end-to-end view of a business through experience in several different roles and incorporate this into management is something that few companies offer. Progression into some management roles is difficult but this is balanced with the skills you will learn over the course of a graduate placement and how employable that makes you as a professional.

The best part of Unilever was the people; from students of chemical engineering to psychology everyone was interesting and very approachable. The people who Unilever pick out to work at their company are intelligent and welcoming people and the opportunity to work and socialise with these people is very rewarding.

Worked in Liverpool