Mars Reviews

They say Mars graduates in New Zealand are on the GM development pipeline, ideally, they want to be making future leaders out of us. I see a clear path of how that looks to get to the top.

Natural energy conversion in all factories, helping pet homelessness, converting to sustainable packaging, donations to food banks, philanthropy to worthy causes, including the supporting of Ukraine during Russia's invasion

The offices working culture is friendly, supportive, and generous, while equally being determined and dedicated when it needs to be. The sense of hierarchical structure is not as strong as one would expect, however, there is a unspoken level of respect for those in positions of leadership. Outside of office (when COVID restrictions allow for it), the social culture amongst colognes creates for a strong environment to understand the background and lives of fellow associates.

To be honest, I was surprised, there seem to be more women than men, and plenty of other ethnic minorities and LGBT.

Day to day, my role involves working closely with the marketing managers to deliver the execution of marketing activity across the portfolio, this includes everything from the TV campaigns you see, to online advertising, partnered promotions, social media, sampling, working with retailers (Woolworths and Foodstuffs) regarding in store and online marketing. My role also requires me to turn data to insight, champion launching new products, forecast, and manage budgets.

Probably the highlight of my year is being able to shadow and learn from somebody who is so switched on and focused on helping you develop, it's not rare to find a line manager like that at Mars, it's common.

It's a great place to work, open plan, plenty of smiling associates, lots of private meeting rooms, free food, lots of lunches put on for everyone by the leadership team, dogs are allowed in the office, bathrooms are clean and nice, we even have a massage therapist in on Tuesdays which Mars will go halves with you on. Work attire is very relaxed, you'll often see directors in jandals.

The interview stages were thorough and instructions were clear throughout the entire process. The interviewer was also incredibly approachable and easy to talk to, which is often not the case with such a high application pool.

Mars' graduate salary is in line with average market salaries for similar positions

Good support in my team, always people to ask, and a dedicated handbook for my role.

Depending on the role, I have found that work hours can be flexible, if required within reason. Line managers are very understanding of personal situations, however, individual and collective expectations of an average work day tend to be around 8 hours a day.

We make a lot of plastic, there's no denying that. What we are working on is reducing the amount of plastic, increasing its recyclability, and ultimately transitioning to fully sustainable/biodegradable packaging, such as paper packaging for chocolate bars and seaweed alternative plastics. On top of this, we also have a lot of our factories converted to 100% solar energy.