Commercial Intern - CPD Review

Day to day I was responsible for the sales reporting of the team, tracking how our categories and brands are performing and reporting this into the Account Managers. I also worked as a Cosmetics Specific intern helping drive promotions, and optimising them to drive category growth. Being a commercial intern also involves being the eyes and ears of what is going on in store and reporting any innovations/brand changes to the team.

I have developed my excel and data analysis skills hugely! I also have learnt a lot of business terms and how the world of sales works - something I hadn't had exposure to at University. The placement has been great at expanding my negation and multiple stakeholder communication skills.

Its something I definitely had to earn and build trust with my wider team before I was given. However, as soon as I had established this, my team were great at giving me additional responsibility. For example I took responsibility of a smaller rocket e-commerce account and this involved taking on Account Manager Responsibilities and pitching proposals to the head of the division.

I was the only intern on my team so received lots of support and guidance, and there was a huge focus from each team member in finding out what I wanted to develop and be involved in and then brining me into things that would allow that. I had regular 1-1s with my line manager and the team boss to track my development. I was allowed to shadow meetings to gain more exposure.

The culture is quite extroverted, especially in CPD, and its very work hard play hard, but it is super fun to be involved in. There is a great emphasis on peer support and team bonding, with regular meet ups and people genuinely being invested in getting to know you.

I have really enjoyed it! Its been so great to get exposure to one of the largest companies in the world, and work on real life innovative projects that we see come to life on the highstreet. L'Oréal s a great place to see market leading innovation, be given big levels of responsibility and expand your network with incredible talented people.

Yes

Know what innovations are currently happening on the market and have examples to hand. Know what L'Oréal is currently working on both on a local and global level. Also don't forget to show your personality!