Finance Industrial Placement 2021

L'Oréal

As a billion pound company success often stems from managing the P&L effectively. At L'Oréal finance is not just sitting on excel, you will have direct exposure to people in all functions including marketing, purchasing and IT providing you with the perfect opportunity to understand how L'Oréal operates.
You will be placed in one of our 34 brands and become an integral part of the team using all major financial software programmes i.e. Salesforce, SAP and Magnitude. The role will test and develop your financial awareness, business acumen and interpersonal skills. You will undertake projects (e.g. cost cutting project) alongside your day to day duties and ad hoc report requests.

You will...

• Ensuring compliance with internal procedures, Accounting & Finance standards as well as audit requirements
• Assisting finance controllers and supporting marketing and/or commercial teams on a day-to-day basis
• Contributing from a finance perspective to initiatives to grow the business, ranging from product launches and marketing activities to pricing and commercial activities.
• Participating in the monthly financial closing which includes:
• Ensuring costs are booked correctly (purchase orders tracking
• Tracking actuals costs vs. forecasts (variance analysis),
• Month-end reconciliation (e.g. media spends in relation with internal and external teams in media agency, media commissions, commercial balance sheet reconciliation, etc.).
• Providing key corporate decision-makers with timely and accurate information/data.

You have...

• Strong technical skills along with an ability to analyse and draw conclusions from complex data, use this insight to provide reasoned recommendations
• Confidence in using Microsoft Excel with the aptitude to learn more
• Enjoy seeking new and creative solutions to business problems and using financial skills to approach these with an objective and rational view
• Demonstrate an ability to work in a multi-functional environment
• Good communication skills to interact effectively with your business partners outside the Finance function
• Be able to operate in a fast moving environment, who can adapt to changing deadline

You are...

• Eligible to work in the UK
• In your second year at University on a course which enables you to take an Industrial Placement Year (unfortunately if you are graduated you are not eligible).

At L'Oréal, we strongly believe that diversity is a source of creativity, growth and performance. By promoting the respect and value of difference through human resources development, we have established ourselves as a global corporate citizen and a preferred employer. We aim for our teams to reflect the diversity both of our consumers and our catchment areas, at all levels, particularly in terms of nationality, sexual orientation, ethnic and social origins, disability, gender and age.

Next Steps...
Once you click apply you will be greeted by our Chat Bot Mya. Mya will ask you a few questions to check you meet our eligibility for this role. Don't worry, she's not testing you! She's just checking you're comfortable with the location, salary and you have the eligible rights to work etc. You also have the opportunity to ask her any questions about the culture and working environment at L'Oréal!
If you are eligible to apply you will then be sent a link via email to a digital interview. In this we would like you to answer three competency questions, two written and one via video. Although there is no time limit on this the quicker you get it finished the quicker we can continue to move you through the process! The video element of the assessment is translated into a text and scored, so please don't worry what you look like, just worry about what you're saying!
If you have met our benchmark we will then send you some cognitive tests to complete. These will be sent via an email link and will give us a great idea on your numerical ability as well as testing you in a few other areas. Remember practise makes perfect so make sure you're prepared when you give these a go!
We will then do a final review of your entire application and if successful, invite you to an Assessment Centre. Please be patient with us, sometimes it can take a few weeks before your application gets reviewed.
Our Assessment Centres this year will all be completely virtual; they will be running from when applications open until the roles are filled. These Assessment Centres are specific to function, so please be patient if you don't get invited straight away - it might just be because your function's Assessment Centre date isn't until later on in the recruitment period!
Please note, if you apply for more than one role you will be put forward for the one we deem most suitable for you. If you have a strong preference please only apply to that one role to ensure you are considered for the correct role.