Working at Unilever as a Finance Management Associate

After spending 6 months at one of the best FMCG companies in the world, I learned many things. Inflation during the past half a year has been tremendous - energy crisis, COVID labour shortage, increasing freight costs, and skyrocketing material costs. These changes happen so fast with such huge impact and it has definitely opened my eyes to how volatile and uncertain the world is today. Here are the 4 takeaways that I would love to share:

1. Understanding My manager has shown understanding to my learning difficulties and offer time extensions whenever needed. Procurement teams have also shown patience on the requests because they understand that it isn't my wish to chase them but rather coming from the top. On my end too, I have respected the work-life balance of others and understand their difficulties in submitting numbers in ever-changing economic conditions.
   

2. Fastidiousness It has also been ingrained in me to keep a clear trail of workings, to have multiple methods to check, and to keep numbers easily viewable. Conscientiousness of keeping records are also important! Document changes clearly in folders and to converse through email chains to leave evidence of instructions from others!
   

3. Life I have learned how to treasure life more as work never ends and only piles up. When you're out of office, be really off from work and take a breather. Work-Life Integration is another term that has evolved from Work-Life Balance. Work-from-home has further blurred the lines of working hours and we really need to have more discipline and communication to know when to knock off.
   

4. Purpose With most of my time spent on improving processes, I can further affirm that I have an obsession with optimising processes. And, especially on Excel! I love providing tailored solutions backed with calculations and giving advice to people too!