Somewhere in Shakila’s calendar, between meetings and project deadlines, there are sessions where she sits down and tastes chocolate samples fresh from the factory. It’s a real task. Someone has to approve them.
Shakila is a Marketing Graduate at Nestlé Australia, working in the confectionery team on brands you’ve grown up with, like KitKat and Allen’s Lollies. And while the taste-testing is a nice perk, it’s a small part of a much bigger job: taking a product from a pitch in a meeting room all the way to a supermarket shelf.
How Shakila ended up at Nestlé
Shakila’s path in started with an internship. While studying at the University of Sydney, she interned at Nestlé through the uni’s IPP program, and what she saw there stuck with her.
“I really enjoyed how they gave interns, and I could see other graduates, really owning their own projects,” she says. “It was a really nurturing environment, but one where I felt like I could really grow as a graduate.”
Interns running their own projects isn’t standard everywhere. That level of trust was enough to bring her back as a grad.
What the job looks like day to day
In Nestlé’s marketing team, grads follow what’s called the idea-to-launch process, or I2L. That means Shakila leads her own innovation projects from start to finish.
“I’ve had so much fun working on launching my own innovation projects, where we’ve had to taste the product samples from the factory, approve them with the team, then work with external agencies for packaging artwork, all the while making sure your project is still profitable and meets business needs.”
So on any given week she might be sampling products, briefing a design agency, checking the numbers, or organising samples for the sales teams to take out to customers. “No two days are ever the same,” she says, and given that job description, you can see why.
Marketing wasn’t the original plan
Shakila started uni doing a double major in marketing and finance. Finance didn’t last.
“I did always know I wanted a role where I could be creative and one that challenged me,” she says. So she swapped finance for a design major. Not graphic design, though. This one was built around design thinking: being handed a problem, working out the real issue underneath it, then coming up with solutions.
At the time it might have looked like a left-field move. Then she started at Nestlé and realised that exact process is how every marketer there works. Her “random” design major turned out to be the whole playbook.
The skills that landed the grad role
The uni theory helped, but Shakila doesn’t put it down to her degree.
“When you start your graduate role, no one expects you to know everything. If anything, they’re expecting you to know nothing. A lot of the hard skills are taught to you on the job.”
What she credits instead is everything she did outside the classroom. Uni societies, sport, volunteering, part-time work, internships, hobbies. All of it builds the soft skills that grad employers care about, like teamwork, communication, leadership and problem solving.
Her interview tip is worth writing down too: think of specific examples where you showed these qualities, and be ready to explain the result of what you did. That’s exactly what behavioural interview questions are fishing for.
Why Shakila rates Nestlé
For Shakila, it comes down to two things. The first is the people.
“I had so many questions. I still have so many questions, yet I’ve never once felt like a burden to the team just because of how supportive and patient everyone is.”
The second is the ownership. Grads at Nestlé are the project leads, not the assistants. “I do believe being thrown in the deep end is one of the best ways to learn, but also just knowing you’ve got your team that has your back is really comforting as well.”
And then there’s the moment that makes it all feel real: walking into a store and spotting a product you worked on sitting on the shelf. When those products are KitKats and Allen’s Lollies, that’s a pretty good flex.
The advice Shakila would give her high school self
If Shakila could give her high school self one piece of career advice, it would be this: get comfortable with the uncomfortable.
“I was always so fixated on making sure I had all the answers, evaluating my progress and performance on what I thought success looked like. But there isn’t just one version of success, and 99% of the time, success is not linear and neither are career paths.”
She’s upfront that setbacks happen. “You will fail, you will be rejected, and those times are tough. Trust me, I have been there, but they are not permanent.”
Shakila’s formula for getting through it: back yourself, ask for feedback every chance you get, and say yes to opportunities even when you can’t see where they lead yet. You never know who you’ll meet or what you’ll learn on the other side of your comfort zone.
Want to follow in Shakila’s footsteps?
If leading your own projects (and the occasional chocolate tasting) sounds like your kind of career, Nestlé’s graduate program could be where you start. Head here to learn more and find out how to apply.
