Product Developer - R&D Review

Item: Product Developer - R&D at Unilever
Rating: 3.5
Author: Anonymous

at Unilever

Placement (10 Months+)

Consumer Products/FMCG

Bedford

Review Submitted: June 2025

Overall Rating

3.5 /5

The Overall Rating is the average of all the ratings given in each category. We take those individual ratings and combine them into one final score!

4/5 - Overview of Role

4/5 - Skills Development

5/5 - Support and Guidance

2/5 - Company Culture

3/5 - Overall Experience

5/5 - Future Career Prospects

Overview of Role

Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis.

Daily tasks involve:
- contacting supplier
- analysing mixes
- project meetings
- creating costings
- organise pilot plant trials
- send out shipments
- working on recipes

Were you given much responsibility during your placement / internship?

Yes - got given tasks straight away which were integral to ensure projects were running smoothly.

Please rate how meaningful the work you were doing was

4/5

Skills Development

Have you learnt any new skills, or developed your existing skills?

Skills developed:
- team work
- organisation
- organisational awareness
- independence
- confidence
- professionalism

How would you rate the training provided during your experience?

3/5

How would you rate your development of industry-specific skills during the experience?

4/5

How would you rate your development of personal / soft skills during the experience?

5/5

Please rate how these skills have helped you in your career development

4/5

Support and Guidance

How much support and guidance did you receive during your placement / internship?

Not much - events usually take place in the London and Liverpool offices, so being based in Bedford meant not being able to attend training events in person.

How would you rate the support and guidance from your line manager?

5/5

How would you rate the support and guidance from the wider team?

5/5

Company Culture

What was the company culture and general atmosphere like?

Very welcoming but due to the location of the site there is a big lack of social events after work.

How would you rate the inclusiveness of the culture?

3/5

How would you rate the social opportunities?

2/5

How would you rate the diversity initiatives?

1/5

How would you rate the charity, sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives?

2/5

Overall Experience

To what extent did you enjoy your placement / internship?

I did enjoy the role and working with the team. However the lack of support from the central future careers team and the lack of social events made living in the area very isolating.