Unilever Nordics

The Company
Unilever’s mission is to add Vitality to Life. We meet everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life.
Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of fast moving consumer goods in foods, household and personal care products. Our purpose is to meet the everyday needs of people everywhere – to anticipate the aspirations of our consumers and customers and to respond creatively and competitively with branded products and services, which raise the quality of life.

The Programme
We are looking for future leaders to join Unilever’s 2-year Nordic Trainee Programme. We offer an extensive on-boarding programme, both formal training and mentoring, as well on-the-job training and rotations in different business functions. You will learn about out strategy, understanding consumers, sales and marketing operations, customer management, corporate social responsibility, innovation and much more. You’ll enjoy up to four placements during your traineeship.
In 2011 we have openings for trainees in Customer Development (Sales/Key Account Management) and Marketing in both Sweden and Finland. We also have openings within Finance in Sweden.

Customer Development
Without the right promotion or position and without the right level of interest from our customers – the people who actually sell the products to everyday consumers – we are not going to realise the potential of even our most successful brands. And that’s where you fit in. 
It is the job of our Customer Development team to persuade our customers to position our products, put up new displays, participate in special promotions and take the risk of buying lots of stock of something new and unfamiliar. And when we say customers we could mean supermarkets, convenience stores, petrol stations, newsagents, chemists, restaurants, hotels - the list goes on. It is a fast moving and exciting place to be, but working here takes a lot of skill. You need to manage relationships with retailers and wholesalers – building business in the long term and dealing with day-to-day issues as they arise. Essentially, you need to influence a whole range of people and you are at the heart of our business.

Marketing
Marketing requires an expert knowledge of your brand, the people who use it and how to communicate with them. So as a marketer, you will work closely with consumers – perhaps commissioning research into their likes, dislikes and behaviour. You will liaise closely with agencies in PR, advertising and pack design to help you realise a campaign. And you’ll speak to retailers, Unilever Brand Innovation Centres across the world, and our Supply Chain and Customer Management teams. 
Being a global leader within the field of marketing, we will teach you all about strategy, brand positioning, understanding consumers, operations, customer management, communication and innovation. 
At the end of your training you will take the role of brand manager, responsible for projects on a big brand, or for managing your own smaller brand. As you progress you will take responsibility for bigger brands and either work for a local operation where you will focus on activating brands, or internationally developing regional and global brand strategies.

Finance
There are some rather large figures to contend with at Unilever: 40 million spray-on deodorants sold in a year, 35 million cups of Lipton drunk every day, and 60 million Magnums sold per year. This is a discipline that influences the development of our products and the growth of our business – and helps our teams make a real success of their work.
People will seek your advice on brand performance, pricing strategy and more. You’ll be the trusted expert who sees past the figures to the bigger picture, you’ll also be in involved in pricing strategies and investment decisions. You will have the chance to get up-to-speed on operations, processes and risks with real work in financial accounting, management reporting and analysis straight away.
You’ll be part of a cross-functional team that will include colleagues from other business functions, including Marketing, Supply Chain and Customer Development.

Your background and skills:
- Masters Degree with strong academic track record
- Extra curricular activities and/or work experiences outside the academic world, which display your commercial awareness, drive and energy
- Ideally international experience
- Fluent in English and Swedish, Danish or Finnish

Could this be U?
- Do you aspire to work for the leading global fast moving consumer goods company?
- Would you enjoy working with a wide range of people and building professional relationships across a variety of business functions?
- Do you enjoy managing complicated projects, with demanding deadlines and budgets – as well as creative challenges? - Do you get a thrill from winning?
- Are you motivated to develop yourself with fast pace to become one of Unilever’s future leaders?

The application process closes on the 13th of March. Telephone interviews will be done continuously so please apply as soon as possible.
Successful applicants will be invited for an assessment centre on the 14th of April in Stockholm. Selected graduates will be offered to join the programme in September 2011.