PR and Communications Intern Review

My role is to delve into the data and statistics on how well the influencers we work with (organically or paid) perform. I also track how we sit compared to our competitors and look into their strategies to see how we can improve our own. Day to day I scan the brand social accounts for any coverage sharing that with my team, I place stock orders for agencies as well as internally alongside planning and scheduling social media posts for the brands social accounts.

I have learnt how to use tracking platforms such as DOMO, Traackr and MMI which I know will stand me in good stead for any jobs I apply for in the future. My excel skills have also improved as I use the platform daily to track and forecast. Personally I further developed my time management, communication and resilience through working in such a fast paced environment and keeping on top of such a heavy workload which I hadn't experienced before.

I would say this has been a 50/50 split. There are projects which have been solely mine to own in regard to reporting and sharing insights with the team / agencies as well as leading meetings with our agencies to help better our strategies. However, there has also been a lot of admin work such as diary management of my managers, cleaning of stock rooms and gift organising which has at times felt irrelevant to my development.

I feel a lot more support for interns should have been provided, especially in the first 3-6months. It is so daunting going to work for such a big company when you are still a student and taking on such a heavy workload from the offset is a lot to deal with, especially when some of the work you are carrying out managers don't even know how to do. For me, this made it hard to sometimes ask questions when they don't know the answers, meaning that in the first 6 months of my internship I felt like I couldn't ask questions in fear of looking like I was a failure or couldn't cope with the workload. My managers are also so busy with their own responsibilities that when you do need help or guidance it can be hard for them to find the time.

I think the intern culture at L'Oreal is unmatched. We had a whatsapp groupchat which was created by an intern when we joined and this has been used through the year for people to ask questions relating to work if they were ever stuck with anything, to arrange post-work drinks and easily find out who worked what role. Having this chat and social outside of work when I first joined made it a great way to meet new people and make friends in the office so you always had someone to speak to. Interns also arranged sports teams outside of work such as football and netball of which I partook in and was a great was to speak and meet people outside of work. I made so many new friends through doing this. As for internal social events I think there could have been more of them within my division to boost morale in the office and to get to know my wider team outside of a working environment. I would also say the same for cross-divisional events, it would have been great for there to have been at least 1 full L'Oreal social to get to know everyone within the company.

I enjoyed my placement overall and found it very insightful to see how such a big corporation works and learn about the area I am interested in as this has led me to know what career path I would like to go down. I wish my roles and responsibilities had been more creative at times as it was very much excel and data based which I wasn't expecting from the job specification I originally applied for. The workload itself has been very heavy especially from the get go which is very challenging. I have got on well with my team, especially the others interns within my division who I work closely with which has made my time enjoyable. One thing I would not though is that there is very much a hierarchical culture within L'Oreal which can be very intimidating as a newcomer. Overall, I have enjoyed my time at L'Oreal and although is has been different to my expectations in terms of job role I have been nicely surprised how I have pushed myself and met so many amazing people meaning that I would go back to work for the company in the future.

Yes

I would say to take time with the application / assessment centre process and to be yourself in the interview putting emphasis on why you know you would be good in the role, show you are capable! My advice for day one would be to ensure that you have a diary. I had one which was page view and dated as this allowed me to write down each of my tasks and meetings for the day and tick them off as I went keeping my organised and on top of work. If I was too re apply and start the job again I would tell myself to not down play the work I do and be confident that the work I am doing is correct.