Renáta Fehér: My CEMS internship at Henkel

Looking back to my CEMS year I have to admit that it was so far one of the most interesting and inspiring years of my life. Starting with my exchange semester in St. Gallen, Switzerland, continuing as member of the highly motivated CEMS Club Board in Budapest and ending up as a brand management intern at the Beauty Care Strategic Business Unit of the Henkel Headquarter in Düsseldorf, I had the chance to develop myself and collect a lot of unforgettable memories.

I started my 6-month internship in June in the Strategic Business Unit of the Hair Styling team. As I was working in the headquarter of Henkel, I could easily get numerous useful insights and learning experiences on an everyday basis. During my internship I was involved in the main innovation processes for 2018, and I was preparing and coordinating the implementation of the new product launches for 2017. Beside these tasks I had the chance to coordinate some projects on my own during which I was responsible for the coordination of the digital content of our brands and prepared the business plan for the Digital Acceleration of the brand, Syoss.

What’s more, Henkel has a strong focus on its interns and treats them very well. Since the HQ and the German local teams of all the three divisions are located in Düsseldorf, there is a huge community of interns (with a significant number of CEMS students among them). Various programs – such as after-work drinks, intern lunches and language exchange possibilities – ensure that you can easily network and make new friends within the company.

Several things can be highlighted which I enjoyed the most during my internship: following the creation of new products, from the trend analysis and brainstorming until the implementation process together with the countries is definitely the part of my job. In addition I could not imagine a more multinational working environment: I was working together with teams from all over the world and all my colleagues had a highly diverse background, as well.
Last but not least I got a mentor on my first day, who provided me continuous feedbacks and ensured that I can make the most out of my 6 months at the company.

All in all, I think this internship provided me a great opportunity to experience the core of brand management and provided me numerous insights and useful knowledge, on which I can rely during my future career too!