"To me the people here are really the best thing about my job – the team that I work with, and managing people – it's incredibly rewarding. There's a nice mixture of people and a good feeling around the lab. Socially it's great too. Being such a big organisation, there are opportunities and experiences that you just wouldn't get elsewhere – I'm currently looking for an opportunity for an overseas secondment.
My expertise is in hair fibre science and it couldn't be a better fit for what I'm doing here. I am working on a project specifically focused on ethnic hair care, delivering products to the ethnic hair care market under the Sunsilk brand. My role involves trying to understand what happens to the hair when different products or treatments are applied, then using this understanding to find ways to prevent negative effects and enhance positive ones. It's all about trying to make the consumer happier with her hair. It is a difficult project, as ethnic hair is so different to other hair types, and the consumer's needs and concerns are therefore very different too. Just trying to understand these needs is a huge challenge in itself, and then the science begins…
That's one of the rewarding things about working here: that it is real consumer needs that we are responding to. You begin to realise how many people depend on Unilever's brands in all sorts of ways and how deep the effect is on their well-being and sense of pride in themselves, even though they might not realise it. It's very humbling, and also very motivating."
