If you are visiting this blog, you are probably willing to enter RB and you’re maybe thinking of the great opportunity that is the graduate program. As I have just entered RB’s Brazilian program in Supply, passing through the selective process, I thought I would tell you about my experience.

In a nutshell, that’s tough, very interesting, a little stressful and sometimes fun. But most of all, that’s definitively worth the pain.

As it is what I know, I will speak more specifically about the selection process for the brazilian graduate program but the profile RB is looking for in other countries is mainly the same and I hope that the tips will help anyone willing to work at RB. But do not hesitate to get help online too. There is a great tool for that.

First, the different steps which composed the Brazilian selection:

- Online inscription – Resume

- Online English test

- 1st group dynamic (external)

- Interview with Human Resources (external)

- 2nd group dynamic (at RB)

- Oral and written English test (at RB)

- Personal interview with future manager and Human Resources

- Personal interview with Brazil supply director

The whole selection process took a month and a half.

I am sure that you’d want to know the miraculous receipt. I am not sure there is one, but there is certainly some main advice that I can give you. I am not working in a HR team, I am not a manager or a director (yet!) so everything I tell you will be from my (recent) experience.

First headline: BE DIFFERENT!

More than being a fan of Apple or Steve Jobs, you have to show that you are one of a kind. You surely know that a company like RB receives thousands of applications, particularly for its graduate program. Is it a reason to be discouraged? Certainly not, but you have to be well prepared. If you want them to invest time and money in you, better convince right from the start.

Clearly, there are some basics like a compulsory advanced English level, an ability to work in multicultural teams or an availability for international relocation (for the graduate programs).

But the real point is for RB’s staff to understand that you are different from the others, in a good way. Don’t just say it, prove it! Show that RB’s core values are already part of your experience and that you fit our global profile. For this, you can use previous working or personal experience.

Some examples?

- Achievement: to prove to the recruiters and managers that I knew how to carry out a challenging mission, I told them about my last trip to Bolivia earlier this year and the expedition I made to the top of a 6000m high peek.

- Global profile: by my 26th birthday, I had lived in 9 different cities in 4 different countries. That is still not so usual, so I highlighted it during the process.

Not everybody has the same experience, but there are surely some achievements you are proud of. You have to show your best part, your outstanding results and how you have fought to get the job done.

Second headline: TURN YOUR “WEAKNESSES” INTO QUALITIES

Nobody has the perfect profile for the job. The important is the way you present the eventual lacks you have.

Personally, I had no previous experience in supply or even in the consumer goods market. Nevertheless, I showed the recruiters that with all the different fields I have already worked in, I was the most adaptable person they would find.

Third headline: PREPARE FOR THE INTERVIEWS

RB is not like other companies. You cannot go to you interview without knowing anything. Be prepared and you will increase your chances to give the best answers.

People from RB are very proud of the company’s core values: achievement, entrepreneurship, team spirit and ownership. Fitting to these 4 concepts could open you the door to your dream job. So, like you would do for a college exam: study! You will get prepared and see if RB is really the company that you’re looking for.

There is a lot of cool stuffs online. RB’s website is very rich. This blog was purposely made to help you and on You Tube you can find lots of interesting videos. The one about the graduate program helped me a lot. In my personal presentation in the end of the process, I quoted Amedeo Fasano, EVP Global Supply (now the boss of the boss of… the boss of my boss): “The world is divided in 3 parts : the ones who will not do it, the ones who will do it if they are asked and the ones who will do it asking to do it.” And you know what? It worked. My director liked it and therefore used the same quote during the annual supply event.

But that’s not all of it: you can go on Facebook, Twitter, look on Google where you’ll find lots of stuff about RB’s acquisitions and growth. Also getting to know the brands, you’ll be able to identify our TV ads and use them too.

One last thing: Human Resources people are not the enemy. They are here to evaluate you, but also, and this is important, to give you information and to answer your questions. So ask! Getting every answer you need before the end of the process is crucial. Particularly considering that you will rapidly have the chance to work with the same global managers and directors that you meet during the selection.

What I’d like you to remember is not to be over-prepared and nervous but to differentiate yourself from the other candidates and to be self-confident.

There are many ways to do that, so be creative!

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘entrepreneur’?

Do you think of someone who has broken the 9-5 mould and set up in business for themselves?
Or is it something greater than that to you? Can you be an entrepreneur and still be on the corporate career ladder?

.

I can’t agree more with Sydney Owen in this excellent blog post: “passion is not limited to entrepreneurship“.

She talks about how ‘entrepreneurs’ (ie those who set up in business for themselves) aren’t necessarily on the true path to passion just because they’ve broken the 9-5 mould.

There are those who are ‘living the dream’ by working on a 9-5 career ladder and consider themselves just as excited about it.
She says: “I get jazzed about thinking about how I started at my current employer as an intern, and I look forward to learning from everyone that works here as I move through (or up, whatever) the ladder that everyone has deemed evil” . . . “Doing good work, enjoying your life and making a difference is not limited to those who start their own business. In my 9-5 I have the structure that I obsess over. I also have the creative freedom to rock the house when I’m given a task and given the wings to take it and fly.”

.

And this is how it is at RB – being an entrepreneur doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t have that entrepreneurial attitude if you are in a corporate setting.
What makes working at RB so unique is that everybody – from entry level to top management – can contribute actively to the business.

There is an entrepreneurial culture which drives bold thinking, and the passion people bring is greatly valued.
When you work at RB, you are given tasks, goals, projects and the bar is always higher, but you are also given the wings to fly and reach your targets. To live and succeed in such a open context, people are encouraged to be bold thinking and take the initiative.
In my daily activities, every time I find a new best practice or a different way to approach a problem or a task, I always find in front of me colleagues and managers ready to listen to my ideas, and when they find it valuable, I am free to try the new way. And, most importantly, to share with other colleagues from other RB offices around the world.

Maybe the best synthesis of RB uniqueness and of being entrepreneurial in a corporate setting, is expressed in this video called ‘What makes the culture of RB so special?‘
And watch out for our CEO Bart Becht’s answer to the question at the end . . .  “When you show up at RB you smell it in the air” . . .

.

When I first started at RB back in July, our office layout was the stereotypical expanse of cubicles that one might expect in any larger corporation building.
I didn’t mind this so much, except for the fact that I am an extreme extrovert and get energized from interacting with others. Being in a cubicle behind 4 beige partitions hidden from the sunlight and the world is not my idea of an inspiring working environment. I also do not like interacting solely by email or phone, and in fact, I would find reasons to get in front of those with whom I was working, as I found that we were exponentially more productive and creative when we could interact in person.

The other challenge was that the people, both those on our immediate team and those on cross-functional teams, were not necessarily situated close to you, meaning that you would spend more time walking around the office than you wanted only to find that the person you needed wasn’t in his or her ‘cube’.

The RB management had clearly identified this issue as well, and had already initiated its “Power of One” plan to literally break down the walls separating co-workers and improve our productivity, thereby taking our company culture to the next level.

Just last week, our brand teams were relocated down a few floors as the company renovates our office space with a new open floor plan.
Our temporary “holding pen” has a similar, more open floor plan layout, allowing for more visibility of other people, more access to fellow team-mates and resources, and more overall productivity.
I am now sitting very close to all of my immediate team members, which makes everything from the asking of a question to the collaboration on a project that much quicker and simpler.

I have read before about the successful implementation of such floor plans leading to positive changes in advertising and social media agencies, so I am excited about what this “revolution” in the layout of our working environment will yield for us in the coming year.
As a strong believer in face-to-face interaction among colleagues, I suspect that this change will result in not only increased productivity but higher morale among RB employees.

Hi there! Here I am again with my new story!

Working in the marketing department I’ve always been interested in new RB video advertisements on TV (I will call them TVC it means Television Copies), especially the process of its production.  And recently I’ve had a chance to see the real TVC shooting “live” and I think details will be also very interesting for you.

I came to the movie set at 11 a.m. and went out only at 9 p.m (and the shooting was not finished yet!). So you may imagine that people had to work the whole day to get a result of 20 seconds “film”. From this point of view I can suppose how long a real movie takes to be made!

You might remember from my previous posts our campaign ‘Woman is not a diswasher’ - well the plot of this Calgonit TVC was the following: pretty little girl came to her father and showed him the family picture she drew. On the picture father saw only daughter and himself.

On his question where is the mother, little girl answers that usually mother washes the dishes that is why she is not with them in the picture.

The father thought it over, understood that his wife did not have time to spend with her family and bought the mother a dishwashing machine (with Calgonit, of course).

Little girl is happy, mother is happy and everyone is happy!

Seems to be not very complicated, isn’t it? I thought the same way, but when the shooting started I understood why films production takes so much time especially if the kids are involved.

Poor girl (she was only 5 years old) had to repeat the same phrase so many times that I thought she would never forget it. Then film crew changed the decorations several times to reach a good view, then we tried several clothes for “father” and “mother” to choose the best one.

By the time we finished the first part of shooting the girl became tired and capricious, so she needed some time for having a rest…

After lunch I liked the part when actors had to show happy family: everything was ok, but the girl was too serious and to make her smile the director assistant was hidden under the table to tickle her.

The girl liked this trick and laughed naturally.

I thought probably sometimes it’s more interesting to be a viewer (to see the idea) than a filmmaker?

You can see the great result of such a tedious process very soon – I’ll keep you informed.