Opportunities to achieve
"There aren’t many companies with a bigger global presence than Unilever – and that’s what attracted me most. Although in Information Technology we still have local IT departments in the UK, it’s very much a global function – and that also means there are a huge variety of problems to tackle.
I experienced that international aspect almost from the moment I joined. My first placement was in Unilever’s IT Shared Services centre outside Chester – which is also the headquarters for IT services in Europe. I spent around half of my time on this placement working for the European Director of Consumer Services; and the other half working for the Global Director of Consumer Services, who was based in Sao Paulo. That gave me a really interesting mix of work: on the global side, I’d be working to set standards for delivering service improvements – essentially looking at how the IT helpdesk could help customers quicker and more effectively. Then, on the European side, I’d be helping to implement these standards.
The highlight of the scheme so far, however, was my placement in Durban, South Africa. Almost the moment I joined Unilever, I identified it as something I wanted to do – and I worked hard to make it happen. It was worth it: both professionally and personally, it was a fantastic experience. I was working at the implementation stage of an internal global IT project, which was aiming to install new processes in Unilever, to ensure everyone working in IT followed best practice. Previously, every region had done things differently, so it was an important project in terms of helping the business develop.
Working in a different continent posed its own challenges, of course. Because the region I was working in covered areas as wide-ranging as Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia, there were many cultural and communication issues to consider. Plus of course, it takes time to adjust to living and working in Africa. That said, being able to go surfing before work every morning was a definite benefit.
This experience, above all, highlights one of the real advantages of Unilever: namely that if you’ve the motivation and determination to do something, there are the opportunities and support to help you achieve it.
You don’t work on the operational, ‘nitty gritty’ side of IT here. It’s not a ‘technical’ role. Obviously, you do have to understand and be interested in a variety of technical issues, because you’ll be talking to technical experts every day. But this is all about making sure everybody has the information they need, and as such, you have to take a wider, more commercial view to the challenges you face."
