Finance Intern Review

The job role involved both routine and adhoc tasks.
Routine tasks typically consisted of financial &internal reporting, use of SAP and managing budgets. Whereas adhoc tasks could range from working on a new project to analysis on an internal business area.

At L’Oréal, given its scale, the organisational structure is less lean, especially at the entry levels. With about 100 interns, many of the tasks are very routine and standardised and most people could complete them. So overall I’d say there is little responsibility. However, during my internship, I did get the opportunity to work on several projects and actively contribute ideas.

During my year placement I developed a lot of useful skills, mainly soft skills - most of which are very transferable to other working environments. I used basic excel skills, was exposed to SAP and had exposure to working in a corporate environment.
Working in a corporate environment I developed soft skills like presenting, working as a team, communication etc which has been very useful in the future.
Although overall the training plan for the role is pretty basic.

Throughout my placement my manager was very supportive and helped me to learn and develop.
However I’d say L’Oreal as a company aren’t supportive. There are around 100 interns so it’s impossible to provide much support and guidance to everyone and help you reach your goals. IMO the business model is generally to take on a lot of interns for cheap labour to complete basic tasks, which isn’t necessarily a bad model, but not good for development and support from an intern POV. L’Oréal only has one week overlap between yourself and the previous intern which is bad. I’d say there’s much less support and guidance than other firms I’ve been at.
For example after my placement it took almost 2 months to receive my P45 which meant I was placed on an emergency tax code for the 2 months following my employment at L’Oréal. After frequently emailing the company, I was told I would receive it with my July payslip. Although, after waiting, I didn’t receive any payslip at the end of July and also no P45. This is something I wouldn’t expect at a top company like L’Oréal.

The company culture was pretty good, in general most people are supportive and I met a lot of interesting people throughout my year at L’Oréal.
Although, there could be more of a feedback culture there to help employees improve and improve processes. IMO there’s a lot of positive feedback which is nice to hear but not much constructive feedback given.

I enjoyed my placement year at L’Oréal, I met a lot of great people getting the opportunity to learn from a lot of people and develop soft skills. It was a decent working environment and working in London was a great experience.
Unfortunately a couple negatives, pay is awful (below the real minimum wage for the majority of the internship) which is tough when living in London. I think there’s a relatively low ceiling, particularly at the start of your career, there’s a lot of horizontal movement but less opportunity to move upwards compared to doing finance at other firms. And internally IMO a lot of basic processes are pretty inefficient, for example reports like a company headcount which is relatively basic and important were often incorrect which is surprising for a company as good as L’Oréal.

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