Marketing Summer Placement Review

I had a really challenging but enjoyable time at Unilever. I was given a lot of responsibility early on and stretched by my line managers. My team were outstanding and an amazing group to work with!

The people at Unilever are so friendly and welcoming. My team were really supportive of my work and respected the contribution that I made.

For me I was give just the right amount of freedom. I was regularly on the edge of my comfort zone having control over a series of budgets and projects but my managers were always available to help me when I needed support.

I was hugely busy at times. The role I was in was very intense but I was as busy as I was as a result of the projects I had taken on. Some days I was would finish by 6pm and others I would take some work home with me. The flexible working arrangements made that possible.

My line manager gave me a large amount of responsibility and there was a staffing change in my team which led to me being given more work than initially intended. I felt as though this was one of the best parts of my placement because I was given the opportunity the take on whole projects.

My placement gave me excellent project management skills and showed me that organisational skills need to be of a whole new level when you are coordinating work of many parties at the same time. This has been really helpful. I've also benefitted from a huge amount of marketing training and knowledge which I would never have otherwise been able to have had access to.

Unilever Leatherhead office is a really friendly and enjoyable atmosphere where a lot of work gets done but most people tend to have a smile on their face.

My placement was very well organised. There was a need to be proactive and take the initiative to ensure that your own training happened and that you got feedback when you needed it but that is a good representation of what it is like in the world of work.

I was sent on a training course intially and my line manager trained me up individually in the crucial skills and knowledge I needed from day 1.

I was put through to the final stage and assessment centre for their graduate programme and was lucky enough to get through! It was not a golden ticket and did require a lot of work after the placement but it went very well.

All the placement students created our own social scene. It was really great fun. Nothing formal was prepared which I had expected but they try to encourage us to bond with our teams rather than creating an intern network.

I was based in Surrey so we needed to travel to go out in London. It wasn't cheap but there was a lot of variety.

I worked in Leatherhead. Surrey doesn't really have a night life other than restaurants.

There were some but other than the gym and intern socialising these were few and far between. If you do a year's placement then you are around the office long enough to join in their many events and challenges that staff have the chance to be involved with.