As an active member of AIESEC this is like the last major event I took part in and I just wanted to share some of my thoughts here about the event and everything. Well this is not the first time I have seen a promotional campaign done by Unilever within the universities to attract potential candidates to their annual management trainee recruitment program which usually takes place in the mid July. And this time around Unilever partnered with AIESEC in this massive recruitment drive which is beneficial for both the parties.
The event took place on Friday, June 24th 2011 in the New Arts Theatre [NAT] Hall ,University of Colombo from 9.00am to 4.00pm as a full day event and which is quite unusual just for a recruitment but in the agenda for the day there were few interesting sessions with intriguing topics, Panel discussions and Personal experience sharing as well. So this wasn't a typical "This is who we are" kind of a promotional campaign but more of a "Come and see who we are and take something back with you when you leave" promotional campaign which is quite good for the brand name Unilever as well.
The whole event was promoted with social media (mostly facebook) and off-line poster promos as well. Then again the registrations were online (http://www.unilever.aiesecsl.org/) which was quite effective. And when it came to the sessions starting with the Introduction to Unilever by Mr. Thalib Caffoor the energy and livelihood was there and this was a very strong brand promotion I would have ever seen and the effects of lighting were even used in favour and made me realise how many brands of Unilever I use in my day-today life which I hardly knew as well. Kudos goes to the speaker Mr. Thalib Caffoor, Director Finance. The panel discussion was followed by the presentation and it was hosted by non other than Ajanthan Sivathas, One year senior fellow graduate from University of Moratuwa who is currently in the MT program of Unilever and alongside him it was Sandamali Perera, Gayani De-Alwis and Asanga Ranasinghe. The topic was "What do Industry Expected form a young Graduates" and I should say that the delegation took the most of this discussion as questions were pouring off the limit even though a screening was done to ensure that no same questions will be asked twice or more. The panel made sure that they answered most of the question in the allowed time for the discussion and the unanswered ones would be answered during the next sessions to come on the relevance. The discussion was very informative and it was like awesome if you are planning on to apply for the MT program as well. The next session was the most awaited session on the day to be frank and it was about the Unilever Management Trainee Process by Chathurika Amarakoon and Inoka Dias. They thoroughly went through with all the 5 steps in the process which are namely
Then again we ended up the with the AIESEC style of finishing an event with quite a few AIESEC jives and Damn I realised then only how an Alumni would feel when we used to dance all those new dances. I was a bit away due to a personal reason from AIESEC and damn 2-3 new awfully sexy jives has come up on the stage :D I shouldn't be much away as all those so called persona matters are dissolved for good! And this event was like the PERFECT ending point for quite a few AIESECers who were present at that day but we know still the take over is gonna be glorious this year! :)
Few points of improvements as I saw the event.
Thank you letting me be a part of this wonderful event and I'm signing off from this post.
When you see this blog next time it'll be a completely different one I promise :D
Keep AIESECing!!
The event took place on Friday, June 24th 2011 in the New Arts Theatre [NAT] Hall ,University of Colombo from 9.00am to 4.00pm as a full day event and which is quite unusual just for a recruitment but in the agenda for the day there were few interesting sessions with intriguing topics, Panel discussions and Personal experience sharing as well. So this wasn't a typical "This is who we are" kind of a promotional campaign but more of a "Come and see who we are and take something back with you when you leave" promotional campaign which is quite good for the brand name Unilever as well.
The whole event was promoted with social media (mostly facebook) and off-line poster promos as well. Then again the registrations were online (http://www.unilever.aiesecsl.org/) which was quite effective. And when it came to the sessions starting with the Introduction to Unilever by Mr. Thalib Caffoor the energy and livelihood was there and this was a very strong brand promotion I would have ever seen and the effects of lighting were even used in favour and made me realise how many brands of Unilever I use in my day-today life which I hardly knew as well. Kudos goes to the speaker Mr. Thalib Caffoor, Director Finance. The panel discussion was followed by the presentation and it was hosted by non other than Ajanthan Sivathas, One year senior fellow graduate from University of Moratuwa who is currently in the MT program of Unilever and alongside him it was Sandamali Perera, Gayani De-Alwis and Asanga Ranasinghe. The topic was "What do Industry Expected form a young Graduates" and I should say that the delegation took the most of this discussion as questions were pouring off the limit even though a screening was done to ensure that no same questions will be asked twice or more. The panel made sure that they answered most of the question in the allowed time for the discussion and the unanswered ones would be answered during the next sessions to come on the relevance. The discussion was very informative and it was like awesome if you are planning on to apply for the MT program as well. The next session was the most awaited session on the day to be frank and it was about the Unilever Management Trainee Process by Chathurika Amarakoon and Inoka Dias. They thoroughly went through with all the 5 steps in the process which are namely
- Application
- Aptitude Test
- Assessment Centre
- Final Interview
- Welcome On board
Then again we ended up the with the AIESEC style of finishing an event with quite a few AIESEC jives and Damn I realised then only how an Alumni would feel when we used to dance all those new dances. I was a bit away due to a personal reason from AIESEC and damn 2-3 new awfully sexy jives has come up on the stage :D I shouldn't be much away as all those so called persona matters are dissolved for good! And this event was like the PERFECT ending point for quite a few AIESECers who were present at that day but we know still the take over is gonna be glorious this year! :)
Few points of improvements as I saw the event.
- Registering delegates were still a trouble so use more resources (human and technology) at the registration stations
- When you are registering the delegation online make sure the website/link is 100% functional at all the times and acknowledge with an email if possible with the seating arrangement if it's important. (Just an idea of mine)
- Few complains about the food saying that it was spoiled and so on. Take care of that and that's all :)
Thank you letting me be a part of this wonderful event and I'm signing off from this post.
When you see this blog next time it'll be a completely different one I promise :D
Keep AIESECing!!