What I learnt during my internship at L’Oréal -By Bhavya Jain from MDI Gurgaon

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A week before my internship at L’Oréal was supposed to end, one of my close friends asked me how many projects am I actually working on. I replied with a grin that it’s just one. But it actually sent me into deep thinking about how diversified and well-crafted this work was. Maybe he got confused since I had multiple unrelated primary research surveys. But the sense of fulfillment after completing the project was altogether different! So, here is an anecdote of the internship experience with the world's largest cosmetics company. Let’s dive into this amazing journey.

A selection process where creativity is valued

The team L’Oréal visited our campus during the summer placements. The preliminary shortlisting involved making a creative CV where we could submit the answers to L’Oréal in any format including word document, PowerPoint presentation, video, poster, or absolutely any other format known to mankind. With the belief that creativity cannot be straight-jacketed, L’Oréal placed no restriction on the way we chose to express ourselves.

The questions in the form were centered around - what drives you, your experiences, and what truly makes you interested in the business of beauty. The questions were positioned so as to give the company a better insight into who you are and how you’ll fit into the L’Oréal family.

After the shortlisting, we had round 2 - a group discussion based on a case, which further filtered students for the final interview. My final interview had 3 panelists with questions based on my CV, past work experience, about L’Oréal, and why Sales & Marketing. The interns were to be selected for either of the profiles,

• Commercial/e-commerce internship

• Marketing/digital internship 

An enlightening induction 

We started Day-1 with such an amazing speaker line-up. All those anxieties about how to go ahead with a virtual internship were handled really well. From the leadership team, we had various sessions for giving an overview of L'Oréal, what were the expectations from the interns, how to ace the virtual internship, interaction with our HR head, and group activity as well to break the ice and make interns comfortable.

Many of you might be surprised to know but we actually had a session on sustainability at L'Oréal right in our induction. The session reflected how environmental sustainability is one of the core focus areas for the company and its vision for reducing the usage of single-use plastic. In times of such an unprecedented pandemic, we were guided really well by our campus lead Ms Nandini Bhalla as to how interns should move forward in the best possible manner. 

Dealing with live business intricacies

One thing I absolutely loved about my summer internship at L’Oréal was the elaborate project I got a chance to work on. It was immensely relevant and one of the key parts of L’Oreal’s upcoming market strategy. As mentioned by my mentor this was not just another academic project but a live business problem that was extremely critical for the company. The challenges and the scope while working were immense and I am glad I could put in my 100% to make sure I deliver what was asked. It was majorly oriented towards recommendations based on consumer insights and market research. 

During the course of my internship at L’Oréal, I developed certain skills that I feel would really benefit me in my corporate stint in the future as well. My project was different in many ways. I got direct access to the top Leadership team and got a chance to learn the business intricacies upfront from them. The daily communications, one-on-one interactions and course correction suggested by them were top notch. 

In terms of corporate learnings, I learnt the importance of effective communication, generating consumer insights from primary research, filtering relevant data, and reaching conclusions. 

Rigorous monitoring and feedback matters!

Along with the assigned mentor, I also had inputs from an external consultant who was always ready to share his valuable feedback and correct me in case I swayed.

We had a mid-review where the project was presented to division heads along with HR so that we can have a mid-way course correction if needed and know what exactly would be required from each of the interns during the final presentation. What really struck me hard was, how involved everyone was during the whole process. Never for a minute, I was told to revert back later or my messages were seen but not replied.

I received answers for every single query I posed. They even helped to formulate a strategy about how to present my findings. This really struck a chord with me as I could witness the excellent culture and inclusivity first hand. I was really encouraged to put forth my views unabashed. In fact, during my final review, I even had a few words with the L'Oreal India Managing Director, who was really involved in understanding my project and how I approached the same. This to me, was the top highlight during the entire course of internship! 

An engaging and power-packed internship at L'Oreal

Along with work and projects, we had various fun activities and ice-breaking sessions. The first ice breaker session was conducted on the very first day of induction itself. So all the interns were divided into 4 different teams and they were supposed to present a business idea and basically create a pitch for it. It was a fun-filled event with each team getting an hour to prepare and present. In fact, it was judged by few business heads and the overall learnings were immense and gave us an insight as to how L’Oreal encourages teamwork rather than working in silos. 

Apart from this, my favourite part was Virtual Sessions which we had every Friday with L’Oréal Leaders, called – ‘Internship Socials’. This involved many distinguished employees candidly sharing their journey at L’Oreal, guiding interns about what worked for them, and answering any question about the company, work culture, responsibilities, etc. Lastly, we had a farewell session too where again various mentors spoke about their journey with mentees and a mini run-through of the last 2 months. 

A memory close to my heart

One of the most interesting incidents happened midway during my internship at L’Oréal, I received a call from someone asking about my work. He asked me to document the work I had done and was really inquisitive. Later, I got to know that he was the General Manager of L'Oreal for a specific domain and had been part of L'Oreal India for more than 24 years! This felt really amazing as we had a great impromptu meeting for over half an hour. It actually made me feel surreal that the kind of work I am doing is really important for the company and is not being done just for the sake of a project!