Outline: A student at Católica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics talks about her job at Unilever for #Uduni job series. #unilever job
Unilever Job Report – Internship
1. Introduce yourself and your work experience:
I am a Master student at Católica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics. On my previous years, I studied Management at ISEG and did an Exchange semester in Beijing, China.
Currently I am majoring in Marketing and I did an Exchange semester in Seoul, South Korea.
When I finished my Bachelor degree I was not sure if I wanted to pursue my studies and I decided to look for an internship. After my exams I started looking for jobs.
2. How did you find out about this position?
I searched many company’s websites and I tried to gather contacts through the website, LinkedIn and also by talking to people that I know. Finally, I managed to get Unilever’s email and I applied.
Related: Porsche internship report!
3. How was the application process for you? If applicable, please provide info on each individual interview round.
For an internship it was surprisingly easy in the sense that I only had to go there to talk with the HR in the first stage and with the department head manager for the second interview.
The first interview was mainly about introducing myself, what did I like, what I used to do on my free time, what my motivations were and so on. The second interview had two purposes: getting to know the candidate and its analytical and logic skills by presenting a very short case.
4. How long did it take the company to contact you after you had sent your application?
I’m not exactly sure. Maybe 2 weeks. I remember I was a bit disappointed because it seems it had passed a long time already and suddenly I received a call.
5. What was the exact position you were working in? Indicate the three main responsibilities / activities of the job according with your time investment (%)
I was doing an internship and my title was Marketing Assistant. I had to do the budget of 4 brands, organize cooking workshops (I was working with food brands), had to help with the contents of the cooking magazine. I also made a short market analysis of a specific food segment where I had to go to supermarket and collect information about the brands, such as prices and make a research analysis about it. Furthermore, I helped with the internal marketing of the company, I had to keep in touch with customers and had to deal with the problems that the call-center couldn’t.
Related: Jerónimo Martins internship report!
6. Describe a typical day in the job. (e.g. arriving at 9am, client meeting at 10am, team discussion at 11.30am etc.)
Every day was different, I used to arrive around 8.45am/9am and start working in my PC, started by answering all the emails, update the brand’s budget and check the To Do’s of the day. Sometimes there was meetings before lunch. Around 12.30pm I used to go for lunch with my colleagues, either to the canteen or to a restaurant nearby. After lunch I used to organize the workshops, print the booklets, check confirmations and payments for the following days, make sure the kitchen was prepared, etc. I would also have a look on what needed to be done for the magazine, such as available content, contacting the media agency, the photo’s producer, etc. When there was promotion campaign I had to order and organize all the merchandising. I used to leave around 6pm.
7. Was there any team spirit? Tell us a little bit about the corporate culture and your colleagues / superiors.
The team was super nice and helpful. Always making sire I understood what needed to be done, always trying to update me on what was going on besides the job I was doing and always helping to understand the business and giving me new responsibilities such as updating the website’s content myself.
8. Evaluate your level of responsibility during the Internship
Meaningful Tasks (scale 1-10): 7
Important Tasks (Scale 1-10): 7
7, in both, because it was an internship and therefore there was not so much freedom, however I was allowed to use my creativity and do things the way I thought it was best. Besides, my work was very useful for the good functioning of the team, it made my colleagues life’s easier and more organized and therefore, in a certain extent, it needed some level of responsibility.
Related: McKinsey internship report!
9. How much did you enjoy your internship (1 – Worst Internship, 10 – Awesome Internship)?
8, it was the first time I worked for real and in my field of studies. It was very good for me to truly understand how a company works and how is it to be part of the professional world. Besides, my team was amazing, super friendly, easy going and willing to help. Nowadays, I still maintain contact with them.
10. What would you improve in your professional experience?
Maybe the opportunity to have more responsibilities such as training on online marketing tools, research tools and so on to be able to help more and also to understand better the functioning of the company and the evolutions of the brands.
11. If possible, please indicate the monthly compensation (if any) you received.
I received a monthly payment, however since it was an internship the payment was not very high. Around 500€/month. However, there were some benefits such as discounted prices in the canteen and promotions in the employees store where they sell their products at cheaper prices for employees. Sometimes the head manager would also offer me some products of the brands.