‘Offering everyone high quality, natural food that helps to build health through all of life’s stages. Cultivating a taste for things that are good for you. Feeding young children and vulnerable people as well as those in good health. Adapting our products to all cultures. Exploring what scientific research can bring to our daily diet. This is the adventure in which Danone has chosen to participate.’
Coming in at number 26 in the Top Larger Intake Firms to Work For in 2015/2016, Danone is a global leader in the FMCG business. Taking graduates onto their HR, Finance, Supply Chain and Sales rotations, Danone aim to bring out the leader in each of their team members. Priding themselves on their leadership development program, Danone scores well on training (4.0) along with management (4.2). With an overall score of 4.2, Danone receives high scores by their graduates for environmental awareness (4.4) and company culture (4.5) although there is a little room for improvement in their scores for work-life balance and career progression (both 3.8). Let’s take a look at further insights from graduates at Danone…
‘Every role within the company has a large scope that can be molded and developed by the individual employee. The company’s culture is also a massive benefit, which is open and allows room for all ideas. My role is quite internal facing and therefore I have very limited interaction with the supermarkets that we are actually selling the products to.’
Rotational Graduate, Rotational Graduate Scheme at Danone
‘The values, the people, the support I get. The rewards I get from my company and how well they treat their employees. I look forward to coming into work everyday.’
Category Executive, Category at Danone
‘The best thing about Danone is the company culture. As a graduate I have been given a lot of responsibility in terms of how I manage my time, how I can develop my role and what projects I want to get involved in. On top of this, the people I work with are great: they are fun, accommodating and helpful – my professional development is definitely in good hands. The graduate scheme is still finding its feet a bit, so there is a lack of certainty as to what role I will be going into next year, including whether I will have to move offices.’
National Account Executive, Sales – Account Management at Danone
Application Advice: Focus on CODE values. You need to be able to provide SPECIFIC examples of how you have demonstrated these. Explore all areas of your life for examples, not just your work history.
Interview Advice: Know how to give constructive, polite criticism. There will likely be group exercises in the assessment centre in which this skill will come to play. Also know when to recognise and support a winning idea, even if it is not your own. Your character is much more important than your degree.
Graduate Rotation, at Danone
Application Advice: Read up on the company well before you apply. There are many FMCG companies but showing that you know and are interested in Danone will highlight your passion for the company.
Interview Advice: Focus your answer to the competency based questions on how your behaviours will allow you to fit into the company.
Rotational Graduate, Rotational Graduate Scheme at Danone
Application Advice: Read up on the company’s “CODE” values, research the challenges the company is currently facing and try and tailor your answers to show how your skills can help the business achieve its goals.
Interview Advice: It will be competency based so make sure you have lots of examples to hand to back up your answers. The way I did it was to make a list of all the things I’ve achieved or been proud of doing in previous work experience or at university and then try and group all of those into different areas, e.g. teamwork, working under pressure, times something hasn’t gone to plan etc. This makes it much easier on the day when you’re asked the question, “give me a time when you have had to xyz…”. Also make sure you’re using the STAR answer method as it will really help you shape your answers.
Category Marketing Executive, Category at Danone
Click here to view the full range of Danone’s graduate reviewsand take a look at the video below to find out more about being a graduate with Danone.
Experts from the best companies in the UK share their experience and advice on how to boss the interview process
Jazz Panesar is a Digital and Technology Apprentice at Severn Trent. Read Jazz’s story here.
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Have your own questions prepared.It's your turn! As the interview comes to a close, one of the final questions you may be asked is "What can I answer for you?" Your interviewer will expect you to have...
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Research the Company.Do your homework about the employer and the industry so you are ready for the interview question "What do you know about this company?"
