Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg State University (GSOM SPbU) twice a year holds Management Career Week (MCW) — an event enabling students to get acquainted with career growth opportunities.  In the run-up to the MCW 2020: Autumn we talked with Gleb — a final year student in the profile of Logistics and an intern at P&G company. He told about selection of a company for summer internship, work in remote ways and continuation of a paid internship.

 

 

Last summer, I interned for two months at L'Oreal, where I got acquainted with colleagues from the sales department. I got interested in their work as it includes anlytics, in that I am really interested, as well as communication with requisitioners and partners, in which I also would like to acquire experience. That’s why in 2020, I deliberately searched an internship in this direction, and P&G is one of the best in sales.

 

Selection was done fully in online format. First stages were quite standard: logical and mathematical tests, and three stages of video interview afterwards. What's interesting is that during all three stages almost identical situational questions were asked. During one of the interviews, I got acquainted with my future supervisor.

 

The internship started remotely on 1 June. In parallel, I was passing the session, therefore, such format was convenient. Documents for registration were sent at my home, which I signed and sent back via courier. Moreover, I was given a laptop for work. 

 

The main task, on which I was working, was in-depth financial analytics for requisitioner — a company Lenta. There were many subtasks, from writing macros for atomization of some fields of the work to promotions analysis. Now, after prolonging my internship, I’m into analysis of promotions efficiency in several categories — indeed, there is a lot of work.  

 

At first, it was hard to work because of remote format there was no opportunity to meet with a team. However, process of adaptation in P&G is built very well: I was able to to get into the essence of the business and understand my tasks very quickly. From July we were working twice a week in the office, so I got acquainted personally with a whole department.  

 

For remote work, a priority is to organize your time correctly. At first, my laptop was always open, and I answered letters even at a quite later time. Therefore, it seemed like I don’t have any rest. Right now, after finishing to-do list for the day and accomplishing the work that emerged throughout the day, I try to switch and spend time with friends. 

 

The most useful skill for the internship was an ability to perform several tasks simultaneously. Both in the business school and P&G I had tasks with different deadlines. Therefore, I had to plan my work in such way that I could keep up with pressing matters as well as with strategic tasks with more recent deadlines.