234 days of interning at Unilever in a pandemic
Tags: Work From Home, Unilever, Internships, Procurement, Singapore

It has been 234 days and counting since I started interning with Unilever, and it has been an experience filled with growth and creative challenges. As a globally renowned organisation, it is far from a traditional multinational corporation. It is agile, interconnected, digital savvy and offers every individual high levels of autonomy to pursue their quest for purpose.

Standing by the commitment to sustainability on reducing and reusing plastics in the Unilever Singapore Office

As a business undergraduate from Singapore Management University (SMU) majoring in Operations Management and Analytics, I embarked on my journey in Unilever with the Unilever Leadership Internship Programme (ULIP), a three months summer internship programme, followed by a Gen-Next Internship, a flexible six months internship programme. Currently, I am working in the Rigids & Plastics Team under the Global Procurement (Packaging) function. I am also excited to be a part of U Faces, a group of passionate Unilever campus ambassadors, so to anyone who is interested to learn more, do reach out or connect with me at LinkedIn.

Click here to find out more about the exciting internship and career opportunities with Unilever

My Virtual Recruitment Experience

Truth be told, getting into the highly coveted internship programme in Unilever was unexpected for me. Having no prior internship experience during my time in University, I took a leap of faith and sent out countless applications but was met with numerous rejections.

Last year, I applied for ULIP 2020 (Procurement), and I was thrilled to have received an email in January this year, notifying that I was shortlisted for the next stage of the process. As I was in the United States on an exchange programme, I was disappointed as I thought that I was unable to proceed with my application and would have to give this great opportunity a miss.

A few months later, the COVID-19 pandemic struck globally. As unfortunate as a pandemic is, it became one of the very reasons I was able to witness the agility and digital adaptability that Unilever has, as it transitioned and developed a virtual Discovery Centre experience. I embraced this unexpected twist of events as it eventually allowed me to secure a placement in ULIP 2020 even while I was overseas.

Throughout my virtual Discovery Centre experience, the HR Talent team was extremely supportive and receptive to feedback. It also provided me with additional opportunities to interact with the team outside of the interview. The team was understanding of my situation and provided great advice, guidance, and flexibility.

Virtual Graduation for ULIP batch of 2020

A New Normal: My Virtual Internship Experience

Despite the fact that the entire course of my internship was conducted virtually, I’ve never felt disconnected in any way. There were three key factors of the internship that contributed to my positive working experience here at Unilever.

Building relationships empowered by technology

It was easy and convenient to connect with one another, with the help of technology. As a new hire, I was initially worried about the limitations of delivering and connecting with people in a virtual setting, while adapting to a new work environment.

These worries were quickly dispelled. In fact, it made it easy to reach out directly to senior members of the team for their advice on projects. I greatly enjoyed the virtual meetings as they were always two-way conversations — connecting with stakeholders at every level became way more accessible and convenient.

Beyond the functional and learning aspects of the role, regular townhall sessions were conducted to ensure that everyone is kept in the loop on the latest news and updates. Additionally, the packaging team also had weekly huddles to allow the team to connect and engage in casual conversations, such as learning about each other’s strengths, hobbies, and coping strategies during circuit breaker. I really enjoyed this inclusive environment and felt that I could connect well with my colleagues, which elevated my internship experience.

I was able to organise one such session, where we simply shared our comfort food recipes for cooking during the challenging circuit breaker times. Through this session, I got to learn more about my teammates in a fun and lighthearted manner!

Connecting with the team over Microsoft Teams while working from home

2. Growth and learning opportunities with impactful projects

I was entrusted with a major role in driving the digital agenda forward in the Rigids & Plastics team. This translated into a ton of learning opportunities to create meaningful change and impact at various levels of the project. I was involved in strategic planning and learned how to adapt to the mechanism, tools, and high-level plans at an extremely fast pace.

As an Operations and Analytics major, I was keen to explore the field of analytics and tools that leverage data to deliver high levels of efficiency and effectiveness. Within the first month, I was granted the opportunity to implement two of my proposed process improvements.

Firstly, I created a regulatory validation to harmonise the quality of data being uploaded right at the root stage of the process. This grew to be a key foundation of future standardisation that were rolled out over the course of my internship and improved the quality of data and analysis significantly by reducing up to 80% of the time required on data preparation and cleaning.

Secondly, despite being new to analytics, my manager gave me the opportunity to put my theoretical knowledge to practice. I had the chance to hone my skills in translating business requirements into technical objectives and co-create the solutions as a module to complement the existing digital structures. It was a daunting endeavour to work on various aspects of coding and understanding subtle nuances of business needs, and it was also one of the most fulfilling aspects of the internship where it provided me the chance to land long-term tangible developments in the project pipeline. I felt a great sense of achievement to have been part of the team that built the module that is being used today.

3. Understanding and supporting the sustainability agenda

As part of the digital agenda, one of the key focus was on identifying opportunities in terms of savings and improving sustainability efforts. With the data captured and analysed, the process to identify opportunities to reduce the usage of virgin plastics were made far more visible. Over the course of my term, our multiple efforts in #RethinkingPlastics brought about a reduction in the use of plastics and simultaneously increased the push towards incorporating post-consumer resins!

Overcoming Challenges

As with every journey, there are no doubt challenges that we will face along the way.

Having to work entirely from home, the social and personal aspects were being challenged. We are unable to hold personal conversations in the office over a cup of coffee or Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Although it was easy to communicate and connect with people virtually, a lack of physical interaction does affect camaraderie to a certain extent. This could be draining and impact our mental well-being. Another concern I had was being unable to meet my colleagues in person. I was worried that this meant a lack of trust in my work capabilities and the delegation of challenging tasks may not be entrusted to a newcomer on the team.

However, multiple efforts and fronts championed by the teams in Unilever helped to alleviate such stress. One such instance was the appreciation month held in October, where numerous activities were planned — ranging from discovering your purpose workshop, reigniting and rediscovering motivations and goals in life, to mental well-being advocacy and tips. Furthermore, I am thankful for all the little acts of welfare such as virtual yoga and fitness sessions and welfare care packs to ensure that my mental and physical health are in check while working from home!

Countless care packs and welfare to aid the work-from-home fever were a great bonus of the internship! Photo credits to my fellow intern, Nathaniel Lim!

#WFH Tips

To sum up my virtual internship experience, I believe it is nothing lacking compared to an in-office internship. Working from home has its own set of perks and downsides — knowing how to leverage and work around them will help to make the most out of your experience anywhere. It is important to adopt a growth mindset, and never be afraid to reach out and ask questions for clarifications! Manage your time and set up a process that works best for you. Be it a routine or a gear-starting cycle that springs you off to a great start of the day!

To follow my lead and embark on a quest for purpose with Unilever, click here to find out more about the exciting internship and career opportunities with Unilever