UNILEVER FLP ANSWER AND QUESTION EXAMPLES

What attracted you to apply for the unilever Future Leader Program?

In my opinion, future leader program is an acceleration program provided by Unilever to recruit the best candidates from all over Indonesia to be developed as a leader of Unilever in the future. This program involves many world-class experts. I am really attracted to be involved in this program. To work in a multinational company has been my dream for a long time. This is the chance to prove myself that I can build my career, my better life and chance to be an expert in my discipline. I am sure that with this program, I can realize my dream to be a manager in a world-class company in the relatively short period, so I am sure that benefits will follow then. I have a dream to meet many people and to travel around the world someday. Finally, I want to work and serve for my company and my beloved country.      

What attracted you to your chosen function with Unilever?

It was beyond my expectation as a matter of fact that I was accepted in a university with accounting major. I never really enjoyed my study in the beginning. Then I thought that I must carry on the consequence of my choice. Reading books in the university’s library, discussing some materials with friends and teachers, working on some exercises were some of my activities leading me to understand accounting well. Day by day, I’ve found the reality that accounting is so entertaining. And above all, although not the first, I was still the best four in GPA among all accounting students of my year. Accounting is my dream, hobby and passion. I really want to be an expert of it. I really believe that Unilever, one of the biggest companies in Indonesia, can provide me with best experiences, skills, knowledge and practices.        

What actions have you taken to find out about Unilever and your chosen function?

When browsing on the internet, I saw a job vacancy which I have been waiting for, Unilever’s Future Leader Program. Soon after I clicked on the link of cdc.indonesia, I found the official website of Unilever on career center section. I read the announcement carefully and tried to figure it out more along with some information sources. I also watched the video and read some articles related to finance division of Unilever on Unilever’s official website.

     

Please tell us why you think Unilever should employ you

My abilities and competencies in accounting really seem to fit this job. I have worked with a similar position and have an adequate understanding of the technical aspects. I also have both combination of skills and experiences for this job. Besides, my experience as a member of a large team will contribute to your department and I am enthusiastic about the new challenges involved in this position. That reference emphasizes that as one of my strong points. In fact, one of the first things I learned early that hard work is the key to success. I recognize that hard working is a differentiator and I have put in the hours and effort to make sure that I do the job better.  Finally, my commitment and dedication to excellent work standards will add value to the team to reach the team's goal.

 The following questions ask you to recall and describe previous experiences. For each question, please indicate the situation which you were faced with, the task which was required of you, the steps/actions which you actually took and the result of the situation in no more than 500 words.

Tell me about a time when you came up with an idea that you had to obtain buy-in for
- What was the situation?
- What idea did you come up with? 
- How did you come up with this idea? 
- Who did you need to convince and why? 
- How did you approach this?

When the students of 2010-year were still freshmen, I had a big concept about triggering them to conduct some students creativity program’s teams. I was a seventh-semester student at that time. But I still took part in student’s extracurricular activities. I thought that the scientific climate in my faculty was so poor. Students came to the college just to attend in class lesson with a teacher just to obtain the GPA. They never took part in extracurricular activities giving them many lessons. This condition was resulted in very poor achievements of the students in my faculty. This was so different to other faculties. The faculty members never really concerned about this matter except in the accreditation period. 

Someday, I invited some new students to attend my informal meeting. I convinced them to come one by one although some of them finally rejected my invitation through some excuses. That day, about ten students from various years attended my meeting. I told them that we would create some PKM groups. I also gave them some time to think about the idea that would be suitable as a title. Some of us presented their ideas and the others just kept silence. Overall, we had very pleasant meeting. At the end of the meeting, we had seven ideas that must be realized.

In my boarding house, I made those proposals alone. It took two days from the title to the references. In two days, I could finish six unedited proposals while I made the seventh proposal done by new students. The cost of printing and binding were allocated proportionally. I assigned those new students to handle the complicated technical procedures of PKM but still gave them some directions. They really had very good spirit and effort; moreover some had their willingness to cut the class.

Some months later, only two from seven proposals were passed the selection and accepted. I was so proud, of course. I told them to assemble once more in common meeting room. That meeting was mainly to discuss about the realization of PKM which passed the selection. In realization, the technical matters were handled by them while I just took a role as an assistant. Sometimes I assisted them in technical and in concept. They were overall fast learners.           

2. Give me an example of situation when you have had a big problem and you needed help to solve it.
- What was the problem? 
- What impact was it having? 
- Why did you need help? 
- How did you identify who to ask for help?
- How did you reach out to this person?

This is very worth lesson in my life. It taught me how to keep my self-confidence, how to appreciate other people but still stand on my own feet. When in English Village in Pare, Kediri, East Java three months ago, January 2013, I took several programs at several English courses. One of the course places was Elfast.

The course which I took was grammar for speaking with Miss Nisa as my teacher. She is very kind and has very great ability in English, especially her fluency and pronunciation. Because grammar for speaking program is one-package-program alongside with pre-toefl and pre ielts, my partners in my class were all same for several schedules.

 One day, I started to think that my ability in English was decreased. I didn’t know exactly what the main factor was. But when I was talking to my friend who spoke English badly-according to my opinion, my ability looked like to disappear and I was just like an empty vessel.

 I was so depressed that I just confined myself from speaking English and tried to clear my mind from those matters. Someday after class, I disturbed her time just to talk and tried to figure it out. I asked many questions and complained to her. She actually recognized my good talent. She tried to convince me that I have very good competencies and to return my self confidence. In the end of conversation, she gave me some useful advices.

Firstly, I had to strengthen my endurance because endurance in learning English is very important. Secondly, I had to learn and talk in English to people whose their English are better than I in all aspects, such as fluency, pronunciation and diction. Finally, her last advice is that I had to improve my English and self confidence.         

3. Tell me about a time when you spotted an opportunity and made it happen
- What was the situation? 
- How did you spot the opportunity? 
- What prompted you to get involved? 
- How did your experience/skills/offering fit in with what was required overall? 
- What feedback did they give you?
- How valuable was your help do you think?

In 2008, I saw very big street banner hung on the university’s backside wall. While walking alongside the road, I read the official announcement from my university. That was about English Debate Competition. This event is held annually. The content of the banner attracted me so much because from the first winner to fifth winner, they would be given certain prizes and I was sure that it was really big amount of money for a student like me. I was standing in front of the banner and imagining if I were the fifth winner, I would obtain five million. But I woke up from my dream soon after I realized that my English ability was so bad. Actually I ever involved in similar competition when I was still a freshman but that was a bad competition, without any preparation.

Some days later, a guy named Bayu, a UNS student from my faculty, economics faculty, attached some pamphlets about the competition on the information center. He was a delegation from faculty who had a duty to recruit two teams with three students each. Then, some of my friends suggested me to participate in the competition. I was afraid in the beginning because I knew students enrolling the competition had very good ability. I still kept trying on to do my best effort. Finally, I registered my name to the committee.

The first meeting was held after couples of week. All participants were gathered in Faculty’s conference room. Mr Bayu wearing very formal blouse, gave us some directions for almost a half hour then the participants were given a topic to discuss after divided into several groups. After discussion, each group should express the arguments.

The selection day was come. I asked to my friend who had been experienced in debate competition for giving his recommended answers related to the given topic. Mr Bayu himself directly selected us. I presented my opinion just like a stammer but he told me to relax. After five-minute presentation, he gave me some comments.

Unexpectedly, my name was listed on short-listed name of candidates. I was the second group along with Mr. Bekti and Miss Tata while Mr Bayu was the first group along with with Miss Anna and Miss Annisa. The rehearsal for competition was held four times a week after making a schedule synchronization. We should build the cases for 56 motions provided. Mr Bayu also invited the most experienced teacher in debate, Mrs Retno Tanding. She had been in Europe for almost 4 years and now she is in USA.

The practices took approximately a month. Two hours before the competition, we were taking picture together. Our teams wore same dress code – white blouse. There were 26 teams competing with two teams as guest team. Every session of debate would be started by the first speaker of the affirmative team followed by the first speaker of the negative team until the last speaker of the negative team. They were very wonderful in their performance and they competed strictly. During the battle, we supported each other, gave time signal to our team member and motivated them. Unfortunately, my team was eliminated in quarter final. Lucky, we were in fifth place (that was my biggest dream when I was standing in front of that big banner-my dream came true) and another team was in third place. Since then, we were all good friends and the faculty members including my faculty’s dean, gave us their best appreciation.              

           


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