Summers at Unilever

 

Sitting at Ca’puccino Cafe at Heathrow Airport as I write this, I’m filled with nostalgia and contentment having spent one of the best summer interning with one of the biggest FMCGs - Unilever.

Selection

Hindustan Unilever Limited is one of the first companies to come for internship. An interesting PPT, raving reviews by the past interns and fundae from seniors I was convinced that it would be a great place to spend my third year summers. The selection process involves a Group Discussion (generally on a topic you might face as a Factory Manager and what decisions you’ll take, a mock GD with your friends on past topics is highly recommended) followed by a Technical and then HR round.

Experience

Unilever places a lot of importance on building team spirit and encouraging interactions among the interns and then finally between its employees and interns. They run some online contests long before the intern start to promote this. The intern finally starts in May, with a fun filled and awesome-beyond-any-expectations 3 day induction program. It is here you get to meet all the interns from various IITs, explore the Unilever culture and workplace and get a hang of what the intern might hold in store for you. And during all this time you stay in the amazing Learning Centre inside Unilever Campus, which is no less than any 5 star hotel and is indeed a branch of the Portico group (if I remember correctly). You might even stand to win exciting goodies! ( I won an Amazon Kindle and Headphones, which had been on my Wishlist for the stipend, thanks HUL!).

Project

During the endsems I got a call from Unilever notifying me that I have been given one of the dream postings - in UK! I was working out of the Leatherhead Head Office, a city near London. And of course, the travel and accommodation (a luxurious 2 bedroom serviced apartment) had all been arranged by Unilever. It really is an experience on how quickly things move that I got my Visa on 12 PM and same day by 3 PM I had a booking on 8 PM flight to London Heathrow. I worked as a Demand Planner aiming to improve the forecast accuracy. While the exact details of the project remains confidential (which I admit, sounds pretty cool to say) suffice it to say that the project was great and everything promised - a real time project mattering to the company giving you an opportunity to actually make a change. Having said that it also feels appropriate to say that Unilever invests a lot in its interns and does expect good results. They treat you like and employee and in return expect similar performance. One can’t slack off as there are some very real deadlines to meet, with people very high in the hierarchies depending on you.

Work Life

Working in UK does expose one to a ‘European work culture’. With many people utilizing the option to Work from home one often saw quite a deserted workplace on Fridays. I was given the flexibility to set my own times, work as I saw fit, the resources to contact anybody I might feel would help in the project and a lot of freedom to approach the problem as I saw fit. I can summarize it by saying that as long as the project deliverables and deadlines were being met everyone will be happy with you. However the work life in an operational role might be very different. Weekends are left to you and were spent exploring the delightful beauty of English countryside, the Scottish highlands and sights of London.

Takeaways

As would be mentioned by any HUL intern, this was one of the best experiences. You learn a lot about the corporate culture, whether you’ll fit in, what your work life might be, taking initiatives, responsibilities and delivering on them, and get a very fat stipend at the end. Trust me on this after an intern like this you won’t look at the products in the supermarket in the same way again. 10/10 would recommend.