Thomas Meheut

Country of origin: France

Placement: Unilever

One of the main reasons for taking a placement year was because I wanted to experience what it is really like to work in industry- testing the skills I learnt at university, contributing  to a project bigger than myself, understanding how consumers behave and also earning money. In fact I wanted to see what the real life is. 

Another reason for taking an industrial placement was because I felt that spending a full year in a prestigious company like Unilever at such an early stage in my career would give me a competitive advantage for future job applications as there would be many students graduating who do not have such significant work experience.

Throughout the 12 months at Unilever I worked on a project for a toothpaste brand renovation and assisted my manager in most of the product and marketing steps. Examples of my tasks include; toothpaste formulation research, packaging design development, PR and digital strategy work, advertising creation and developing the brands visual identity.

I found the work on my placement year to be both exciting and challenging. My work wasn’t used unless it was perfectly done within tough time constraint so it really pushed me to be pro-active and pay attention to the smallest details. The good thing is that I raised my standards of work quality as well as my capacity to work efficiently during long hours, which is something really self-satisfying.

The people at Unilever were all smart but very straight forward and approachable. Whatever your position is in the hierarchy, you’ll be treated the same. I learnt so much from them, both in the marketing and the leadership field. 

I thoroughly enjoyed working with the consumers throughout my placement. As a Marketer we are asked to put the consumer first in all the work we were doing, this forced us to take the time to listen to them- what they like, what they say, what they do, what they believe in and what they are afraid of. After one year spent listening to consumers from all walks of life, I feel like I know a bit more about people and different cultures. Great marketing is all about understanding who buy your product and why.

I appreciated that the help of the LUMS Placements Team came very early in my studies (1st year), as this enabled me to have time to think of what type of placement I wanted to do without being in a rush.  The LUMS careers team gave me great tips to build a pertinent CV and they communicated countless placement opportunities to me during my first two years at Lancaster.

I have no doubt that my placement year will be highly valuable for me, for both employment and further study as a full year in a company is something very appreciated on a CV.