Meet Simona, one of our Supply Chain Placement Students

What is your role and how long have you been with Unilever? 

I am in the Global Quality Expertise Team within the Supply Chain function. We are responsible for the Quality Management System which is in place to ensure superior and consistent quality in all Unilever’s products across all sites. 

What inspired you to apply? 

Being a user of many Unilever owned brands and having a lot of prior knowledge about different products. Superiority of the company and how well known and respected it is across the world. Various locations around the UK with London being a centre focus of mine.

What does a normal day look like for you? 

I often have multiple tasks at once which I have gotten from members of my team that are all working on different types of projects to do with either the Quality Management System or Auditing.

Lots of communication with stakeholders and Quality Managers of the different Business Groups where I collate their requests and present them to my expertise team.

Lots of Excel spreadsheets!!!

What do you find most interesting? 

Shadowing calls with senior members of different teams as it is an opportunity to network and gain insight into different roles within Unilever and the Business Groups rather than only having knowledge of Quality Expertise.

What’s the most important thing you’ve learnt so far? 

• Formal communication with senior members of staff
• Having confidence in showcasing my knowledge and work to new people that I have not previously met
• Just overall being confident to chat to new people and introduce myself well, making a good impression
• Being productive on a 9-5 schedule

Any tips for anyone applying?

Be yourself!! I did not specifically aim to be placed into the Quality team nor did I expect to be but I was chosen due to how I showcased my own individual personality in the Discovery Centre and how I used my own knowledge to help me rather than trying to alter my applications and responses to what I thought specific roles would want. I ended up in a completely unexpected role where I had 0 previous knowledge and have had the opportunity to learn something completely new and different!