Name: Ella Ward
Joined Unilever September 2007
Current job title: Lipton Operations Assistant
What attracted you to Unilever?
I studied Chemical Engineering at university
and after 4 years of pipes, oil and a summer
placement with Shell Global Solutions, I
knew that I didn't want to pursue a traditional
chemical engineering career. During my 4th
year I started to look at industries which
interested me and discovered that the world
of consumer goods was where I wanted
to start my career. For me, it was really
important to be excited and motivated by the
end product, which would be easy to achieve
with Unilever's amazing brands and global
presence.
Ultimately, I liked that the scheme offered
Flexibility
Opportunity to move around the business
Ability to get involved in a variety of
projects and work
Training and support.
Why did you choose your career area?
I didn't want to completely lose my technical
background and joining the ITM scheme still
allowed me to do technically challenging
and innovative work but for exciting and
successful brands in a business context.
Career So Far
My first placement was based at the Centre
of Excellence Drinks located in Colworth,
Bedfordshire, where I joined the Product
Technology 1 team. I worked as a product
developer on Lipton Ice Tea, supporting
the current work within the team as well as
working on my own projects. This included
working with external flavour houses to
develop a replacement lemon flavour for
Lipton Ice Tea. Although the results were not
quite what everyone had hoped for, the ground
work has been set for future development
work.
I am now in my second placement and am
based at the PepsiCo head office in Richmond,
London. I am still working for the Lipton Ice
Tea brand, which has enabled me to have some
continuity through my first year, although I
now work from a supply chain perspective.
This role is more business facing and I enjoy
the project co-ordination required to ensure a
new product is produced at the right location,
in the right bottle, with the right label, on time
and with minimised write off.
My personal highlight so far has been
travelling to New York for a week to attend
the PLI (Pepsi Lipton International) kick-off
event for 2008, in order to showcase the work
done by R&D. This was an amazing insight
into both the world of Pepsi and also the joint
venture between Unilever and Pepsi. Also
having some time to shop and sight-see in
New York was fantastic!!
Your training and development
Training and development is very much in
your hands once you start on the Unilever
graduate scheme. There are some suggested
training courses that should be attended in
the first two years but there is no specific
general training for all graduates. Training
and development should be discussed with
each new line manager to determine if there is
particular training relevant to the placement,
which should be undertaken. Training is
delivered via e-learning, instructor led courses
or a mixture of the two.
What is your favourite Unilever product and
why?
The Vaseline Essential Moisture moisturising
range - it works wonders on my skin!!
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