Mars

Graduate jobs explained

Mars graduates are generally required to complete several placements across different divisions of the business during their training. Graduate programmes are available in several different areas.

General management

General management graduates complete three 12-month placements on national, European or international projects.

Projects may be international.

The first placement is in a ‘demand’ function, either sales or marketing. The second placement is in a ‘supply’ function, such as manufacturing, HR or supply chain.

The final placement has no specified requirements, and may well reflect the specialisms developed on the scheme thus far.

Engineering

Engineering graduates complete three 8-month placements, usually focused around project engineering such as commissioning and installing new equipment. The final placement will generally be in a role similar to that which they will take on permanently after the graduate scheme ends.

European finance

European finance graduates complete three 12-month placements, one of which is based in another European country. They must complete placements in ‘supply’, a consumer-focused role and a financial control role.

European finance includes CIMA.

European finance graduates also complete the accredited CIMA accountancy qualification.

Procurement

Procurement graduates complete two 12-month placements. These can cover any and all aspects of the procurement process, including resourcing, supplier relations and purchasing.

Research and development

Research and development graduates complete three 9-month placements. These placements are in product development, technology, and research and development or manufacturing interface.

Work experience explained

Mars divides its work experience opportunities into two schemes: industrial placements and summer placements.

Industrial placements

These placements are open to penultimate-year students who are completing a year in industry as a part of their degree.

Industrial placement applicants have recently been invited to apply in the following areas:

• Information technology: placements are in information services, knowledge management (such as librarian or information science) or HR roles.
• Purchasing: roles are in market services buying and commercial effectiveness.
• Research and development: students may be placed in quality and food safety; scientific and regulatory affairs; process scale-up science; product innovation; and chocolate science and technology.
• Sales: roles are typically in sales and marketing, or shopper marketing.

Industrial placement students receive a salary of £15,500.

Summer placements

The summer placements available change each year. In the 2011 scheme, placement students could spend 10 weeks in the engineering division, at chocolate, petcare and food factories.

Applicants must be studying for engineering degrees or similar.

Training and development

Mars operates a 70/20/10 learning model, whereby 70% of employee training should come from on-the-job experience, 20% from guidance and mentoring, and 10% from formal courses – so the majority of graduate training will be work-based.

However, there are also a range of training courses available, some of which provide skills relevant to the graduate’s specific business area, and others covering soft skills that will be useful across the business. These include:

• Facilitation skills
• Health and safety
• Negotiation
• Presenting with impact
• Project management
• Situational leadership

Some courses may delivered overseas, giving graduates the chance to visit company sites all over the world.

Professional accreditation

Depending on the scheme they have joined, graduates may also have the opportunity to pursue professional qualifications at Mars. For example, graduates on the European finance scheme will complete the CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) professional accountant qualification, and engineering graduates who completed an Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) certified degree can achieve chartership within four years.

Mars University

The company’s so-called ‘Mars University’ is an internal training and development facility, through which graduates can access a range of different training courses and materials. Options include:

• Generalist training courses.
• Online videocasts and other ‘e-learning’ resources.
• Face-to-face workshops.
• Recommended reading and book summaries.

Support and guidance

Mars says that its graduates are ultimately the ones who determine their own career development. However, to help them on the way, they will be assigned a mentor and a buddy when the join – the former will be a senior manager, while the latter will be a graduate from a previous intake.