Shopper Marketing apprentice Review

I am a Shopper Marketing apprentice working as part of a team who deliever point of sale on .com and in store. We also organise D6S and other media through multiple rostered agencies. I am in charge of liasing with brand teams, agencies and designers to ensure all our POS is effective for a good Unilever focused shopping experience.

I have developed lots of skills here already, having only been at Unilever for just over a month and a half I have done Creativity training courses, It training course, legal and finance training courses and have had opportunities to visit seminars in London at the Office from guest speakers who gave me insight into multiple different sections of the industry

I love my Unilever programme, I have settled in fairly well and am enjoying the work I have been tasked with. Every day is different and I'm facing new challenges regularly which I really appreciate. My team have been really helpful and accommodating and there is always a friendly face to ask questions to. They definitely don't make me suffer in silence and there is lots of support from other line managers as well which is great.

I feel greatly valued as I am always invited to all the events here at Unilever and have involvement with large projects very early on in my apprenticeship. There are regular and frequent huddles/meetings where peoples achievements get recognised and there is always feedback from senior members of staff which is often very quickly filtered down to us which is great!

I feel like all my inductions have now happened and that was really helpful and smoothly run for me. I am yet to be set up with a mentor however, I am assuming this will happen further down the line when I am thinking about future career prospects. The team hierarchy is very clear as every department here seems to have a very well-organised organogram which made it easy to locate peoples placement in the hierarchy.

I have many meeting and review sessions with BPP however, they are very rarely informative and/or engaging. The concept of a webinar is difficult in itself however there does not seem to be any attempt at making them fun or engaging and when you raise an issue you are told that you aren't going to be baby fed the information? And that it is solely student led? however, the information is so muddled that for someone who is juggling working and studying this is near on impossible to process.

I receive lots of support from my team especially my line manager and my apprentice predecessor who I am fortunate to be working alongside! - I have weekly hour long catch ups with my line manager and am encouraged to regularly feedback on work I have done and if I have any queries/questions then most people are more than happy to help me out here

I get a decent wage each month for an apprentice in comparison to some of the other schemes I was looking at in the area. I pay phone bills and petrol money however this is it. I was looking to move to the offices based in Port Sunlight and I know for a fact if this was on the wage I am on now I would not have been able to do it! I also know people who have moved down south for this apprenticeship and are really struggling financially

There's lots of after/pre work training sessions available here, we have an on site gym and shop for working out and browsing! I have also been to a fair few social events with the other apprentices here and my team have regular away days to ensure team bonding and alignment is taking place. Socialising is a massive part of my life and I'm really glad you're able to live and breathe that here.

Yes

Because Unilever has exceeded my expectations with the work I have been assigned and I thoroughly enjoy coming into work. The support the apprentices have is outstanding and I highly doubt other companies have such a dedicated team for the apprentices. We are sent regular updates on apprentice news and the line managers here have such great training that they are all informed about things which filters down to us.

I would give the advice of being yourself 100% in the interview process and once you start because Unilever is such an accommodating community that you need to make sure you're the right kind of person to fit in here. Take every opportunity you are sent as your learning is invaluable and this whole process is giving you the ability to soak up enough knowledge to get a job at any FMCG company.