Come meet me at the internship fair! (5 Viewers)

[velvetorchid]

thanks staz, for everything man =)

and PT, keep up the good work and keep us informed of your progress ey?

all the best!

 

[skopje]

stazi, how are the opportunities for international secondments at P&G? Although, I am disappointed at getting rejected I am definitely going to apply for a grad job next year.

On another note, velvetorchid, how bad was some of the grammar and spelling in the e-mails? I think it's only fair that we defame P&G after that email.

 

[pmtruong]

Hey skopje and velvetor neither of you are penultimate so that is a massive disadvantage as the point of it is to have you over summer then get you to join the company not long after. So apply next year definately! and skopje you want 2 get into finance theres soo many finance internships you can go for.

velvetor will keep you updated. i have my interview tomorow so i spent today prepping..nervous but exciting!

i laughed hard when i saw that rejection she sent you...
so blunt and harsh! hahah i wood rather get that than a generic one
tho at least u got a laugh out of it

 

[skopje]

I am penultimate (4th year Commerce/Law). I've been rejected from heaps of places at different levels of the recruitment process before so I'm used to it. It would have been nice to have an internship on my resume but shit happens. I was just looking forward to P&G because it looks like a great company and I think the interviews would have been nicer than the Investment Banking ones I'm accustomed to.

 

[Charizard]

Pretty big stretch if you think you're a chance and not in penultimate year...

 

[stazi]

I am penultimate (4th year Commerce/Law). I've been rejected from heaps of places at different levels of the recruitment process before so I'm used to it. It would have been nice to have an internship on my resume but shit happens. I was just looking forward to P&G because it looks like a great company and I think the interviews would have been nicer than the Investment Banking ones I'm accustomed to.

The interviews aren't that easy at P&G (particularly because there are so many people for each position).

However, I do encourage you and all others to reapply for grad/future internships. It is likely you didn't get an interview because you lacked in something crucial to success at P&G. You can read those success factors and recruitment mantras on the website. You now have the advantage, as you can work to satisfy these criteria in the following year. For example, if you lack in leadership ability, find work experience/extracurricular experience where you lead a team to accomplish something amazing.

Also, I wouldn't take the content of the email to heart. It would have been written by someone for whom English isn't the first language, so in her mind, it probably sounded like a compliment. However, she is an amazing employee as she's incredibly nice, works very fast (as you probably have learned when you receive test results by the next day) and keeps everything organised. She probably did write customised responses for some special people.

Again, nice work on everyone for even getting past the reasoning test, which has a massive failure rate.

stazi, how are the opportunities for international secondments at P&G? Although, I am disappointed at getting rejected I am definitely going to apply for a grad job next year.

On another note, velvetorchid, how bad was some of the grammar and spelling in the e-mails? I think it's only fair that we defame P&G after that email.

What do you mean by international secondments?

 

[velvetorchid]

yeh, the grammar was very eeer... just "lol". but i was just happy to get thru a couple of stages, she could have written it in broken english for all i care haha. it's a real shame i didnt have what they were after; they sound like a great co to work for... so work hard pt! get that intern

gl

 

[pmtruong]

staz has given great tips! thanks so much.
yeh yvonne has been so efficient! i dont think she was tryna be harsh. now that you know what they are looking for you can really try and get some good work experince and extracurriculars under your belt. it wasnt easy for me and it certainly didnt happen overnight. ever since i found out about this i have been doing things to positon myself the best i cood for this.
i can send u guys my sds after the interviews finish so u have a better idea of what they look for next time

 

[skopje]

I'm just taking the piss (about the grammar and content of the e-mail) - P&G was probably the best company in terms of the speed of communication and they generally had a pleasant demeanor. If you ask one of the investment banks questions outside of the defined recruitment process their replies tend to be rushed and have that general "stop wasting my time" overtone (although Credit Suisse were particularly nice to me). I didn't get that from P&G which is why I will apply again.

"International secondments" - getting transferred to offices around the world or getting to do projects internationally. Many companies have international secondment programs where usually after one or two years you can apply for an international secondment to one of their offices around the world. I know you are starting out in Singapore, but do they have such programs in place where, for example, after working in the Sydney office you can apply to work in one of their international offices?

 

[stazi]

Oh right, well, in marketing and CMK you start in Singapore a lot of the time. All of this year's grads started in Singapore.

After two years of working in P&G, you get access to an open job posting board, where you can apply for a P&G position anywhere in the world.

With that said, they are cutting down on the number of expats (A G Lafley, the CEO said they're sharply decreasing the number of expats, and also upper level managers (albeit not by firing them, which is good)). So, in the future opportunities may not be as good as before, but you should still be able to work in offices around the world

If you work in Australia, then chances are you'd only get sent to Singapore for conferences (once a year) and maybe a trip to NZ for team bonding. If you work in Singapore, it depends on your market. For example, my manager was sent to India and Korea in an 8 week period. Another Aussie was working on the Philipines market, so got to travel there.

 

[skopje]

What's CMK like? Do you necessarily need a marketing major/background for it? I was looking at that function and it seems quite interesting.

 

[stazi]

nah, as i've said before, there have been people working in CMK without any marketing background. you simply can't be 'afraid' of numbers. CMK = marketing research/consumer insights.

to be honest, it's about 50% interesting and 50% dull. interesting parts include being able to go overseas for consumer research, live in with families learning about their lives, etc.

 

[skopje]

Cool. Seems like a good function for Finance/International Business major like myself - but that's obviously not the main criteria.

 

[stazi]

to be a good CMK manager you need to have developed skills in:
empathy
data analysis
communicating
logic/rationality
presenting

 

[pmtruong]

finished my interview today! went really well and he even said he liked my shirt

 

[stazi]

who interviewed you?

 

[pmtruong]

His name was Jeremy. Can't remember his last name but it was greek and difficult to pronounce. But really nice guy he said he played touch footy with pat rafter before. Do you know him?

 

[stazi]

Oh yeah Jeremy is a legend. hahahahaha he told me about his touch footy before. He's a great person to have interview you - very easy going, tells you a lot about the company very honestly.

He has worked in lots of countries. Started in SG I think, then went to Thailand to work, then back to Oz. I think he was recently promoted.

 

[pmtruong]

how do you know jeremy? have u worked with him before? yeh he told me how he joined as a grad and has been there for 7 years and hes worked all over the place yeh i think he started in singapore.
great guy really easy going hopefully people at p&g are just like him

 

[stazi]

how do you know jeremy? have u worked with him before? yeh he told me how he joined as a grad and has been there for 7 years and hes worked all over the place yeh i think he started in singapore.
great guy really easy going hopefully people at p&g are just like him

My exgf had her interview today. Brett Turnbull interviewed for, who works for Gillette. She had much the same impression: really awesome guy, easy to get along with.

Jeremy actually interviewed me in the one-on-one stage when I went for my internship. I worked with him, albeit indirectly. He was the category manager for hair care, and I was working from Singapore on Pantene. I presented my project to him via a teleconference.

Btw, not sure if I've said this already, but the best thing about the P&G internship is that it's a real life project. You never have to make coffee/make photocopies. You get all the resources a full time employee gets, and a project which actually matters: a problem that they need solving ASAP.

When did they say you'd hear about the next round of interviews? Also, how long did your interview go for?