Digital Marketing Review

I work under Nestlé Health Science and am involved in a few VMS brands where I do community management, answering questions and queries from customers. I also do influencer outreach in order to build a community and spread the word about the brands. On top of this I've created social media calendar briefs, various copies and even done competitor analyses.

I have definitely learned new skills and nearly 7 months in I know so much more than before I started. I didn't know much about the corporate world but I have developed my communication skills so that I can go to anyone with the team with confidence, presentation skills, and critical thinking.

I enjoy my programme to the best of my ability - my team is lovely and my manager cares for me, and the work isn't too difficult for what it is, but I don't enjoy it as much as the regular person would because I have undiagnosed ADHD which everything in the corporate environment difficult. I get immense anxiety, struggle with prioritisation skills, forget important things, become unintentionally disinterested and distracted and I feel a more creative field is likely suited better for me.

The organisation is quite poor actually. The induction was okay and I thought I would be okay going in but the first month or so was a bit strange and I didn't know what I was meant to be doing and was left out of the loop a lot. This is still a common occurrence, and I don't know a lot of things that are going on. I'm the first cohort for this particular course so this may be the reason but it feels like everything is being made up as we're going along and I haven't had that much support apart from day-to-day tasks that are expected from me. Communication between Nestlé and 3rd party organisations aren't great.

My dotted line manager is quite supportive but I struggle to communicate with him due to misunderstandings and the feeling like I can't speak up. I don't think it's his fault, but it can sometimes feel like I can't get a word in or like he's too much of a mentor and not enough of an equal. My line manager never messages or emails me so I don't know what's going on with her. In terms of Uni support, I get almost none, partly because I feel they won't know how to help me and also because the University doesn't communicate that much with Nestlé.

My tutor is quite good and I like her because she understands I've been struggling with getting my ADHD diagnosed, and that it's affecting my work and uni. In terms of support with assignments, I wish there was more time to go through things like how to write reports, how to analyse, etc, without me having to reach out to do it on my own, as I struggle to hold myself accountable. For the first assignment, I had to write a report and I had never done it before and was just expected to do it which I didn't like. I needed a guiding hand and wasn't given one, instead I had to scramble on my own to do it.

I do actually use some of the theory I learn when thinking about certain things in my role, but I can't say I've used that much of it in practise in my day-to-day activities, and it seems like a lot of it is just theory that I will use when writing my assignments. I definitely know more about the industry, that's for sure, but my Nestlé doesn't tie the two in together enough, they just expect my manager to tell me to do things but the weight can't be on just his shoulders.

There are a few extra curricular activities such as volunteering work and others, but I haven't properly been involved in any of them yet apart from a Christmas dinner which was quite good. There is a business exhibit sort of event that I am attending next week and that seems quite interesting.

No

Nestlé is cool and all and has good pay, benefits, as well as a decent working environment with my colleagues but I don't find the work to be fulfilling or that interesting which makes me think other people in the same boots as me would feel the same way.

Answer the application questions with as much depth as you can, and prepare lots for the interview and presentation. Be prepared to be thrown into the deep end if you've never worked in an corporate environment and don't expect a lot of help. People expect you to know things and if you don't you feel lost and stupid. It's not anyone's fault but as a collective, Nestlé needs to do better.