The Journey Continues: Lessons Learned 1 Year At L’Oreal
In 2015 I met a campus recruiter at a campus career fair. While I didn’t have lab experience at the time, I spoke confidently about my passion for the beauty industry. I spoke about a recent study abroad experience that showed me how companies tailor consumer products to different regions. This recruiter highly recommended me for an internship at L’Oréal. After the internship, I was offered a full-time job out of college as a hair color chemist and that is the life I am currently living today!
Working at L’Oréal USA this past year has been an amazing experience.
I believe I am at a space where I can truly grow my understanding of the hair color industry, how to cater to consumers, while fully immersing myself in science. As I reflect on this past year here are some key learnings I want to share On how my experience has been thus far
Create Opportunities
One major learning I learned this past year is to create opportunities for myself. As a newcomer to the organization, I was able to shadow people by reaching out to people in different roles. Being able to branch outside of my role as a hair color chemist is truly exciting. I am a member of the L’Oréal Women of Color Think Tank. Through this employee resource group, I’ve been able to make connections with women across the company’s functions. I met women who are on the corporate side that serve as brand managers, marketing directors, and those who recruit talent. I have attended networking events where we mingle and truly celebrate our diversity. Through this initiative I’ve also helped a group of young high school women through an event by the Junior Achievement Club of NJ to help create their elevator pitches. More recently we had the honor of hosting Mikki Taylor, Editor-at-Large of Essence magazine, for a discussion on her amazing career. Just being able to connect with that diverse group of women gives me a competitive edge by allowing me to leverage different opportunities across the company. It was actually through the Women of Color (WOC) Think Tank, that I did a modeling shoot with one of our multi-cultural brands, MIZANI. They were looking for models with natural hair and I received an email blast through my affiliation with the WOC Think Tank. I submitted some photos & I was selected! It was a truly unique experience that I can’t say many chemists have had.
Content from the Mizani video shoot
Be Independent
Though it might sound strange since I have only been here for a year, I would say I learned to be independent in the sense of problem-solving and understanding things on my own. For example, as we work with different partner groups, I have had to extend outside of the comfort of my lab and reach out to people. This has given me confidence to reach out to those I don’t even know. This allowed me to grow a lot better and be more confident in myself as opposed to someone telling what to do at every step. On my own, I tried to troubleshoot different problems or tried to leverage past learnings from previous projects. I became a lot more comfortable reaching out to people in my lab, partner groups, and even marketing for different needs. Being in the lab it can be intimidating to speak with marketing as far as deadlines and being able to hold my ground during a conversation. The minute you communicate with marketing about a deadline, they take that information and run with it. I had to adapt to be more independent and confident with what I say as it truly holds weight even if I am in an entry-level position. Essentially, even at my position my words and actions hold a lot of weight.
First Product Launch:
Redken Shades EQ Natural Ash Shades
Be Realistic
Another key learning for me was the ability to be realistic with myself. Since I work as a chemist, I handle multiple projects that are in different stages of development. Since all my projects don’t start at the same time, they don’t end at the same time either. They certainly don’t have the same challenges or obstacles to overcome. I learned to be real with myself as far as how I dedicate my time making sure I’m working effectively. While working I try to prioritize what will take the least time and what I can knockout in one shot. Somethings require me to be seated at my desk for an hour while others require me to be on the bench for rest of the afternoon. I had to understand how to work to my best ability while maximizing my strong suits. I think this just speaks to the way I was able to grow and develop in the last year overall. I had to consistently make sure I was executing on par while being realistic with myself as far as my limits. If I’m being realistic in one year I can’t say that I am able to do everything but I can say that with time and working in different ways I’ll build a lot of experience. While I am pursuing an advanced degree, I know I still have a lot to learn at this company. I can only leverage all of my experiences to make me a stronger employee while keeping in mind that there is always room to grow.
Love What You Do
My final learning within this past year is that I noticed I am excelling because I truly like what I do. Who do you know that is a chemist let alone a hair color chemist? The uniqueness of my job makes the work I do so exciting. Growing up, working at L’Oréal was always my end goal. I dreamed of working at L’Oréal after I built experience in the beauty industry. I can proudly say that at 22 I landed my dream job. While I worked hard and never gave up, the passion I carry for this field is unmatched. As a woman of color pursuing STEM, there weren’t many examples I had if any growing up of women that did the work I dreamt of doing. It’s so meaningful to say that I work as a chemist and can see the application of my products in real-time in the hands of stylists. As a “girly nerd” as I say, I was always interested in science, experiments, and cosmetics. I am in a space that literally combines both science & beauty. I have the ability to work with a multitude of people who have a wide array of expertise. Being happy at work is a very critical part of development. You can’t grow if you’re not happy. You can’t grow if you don’t enjoy what you do. I think success in the workplace and happiness have a strong positive correlation. I can say for sure I truly enjoy working at L’Oréal USA.
I truly feel that I have exceeded the expectations of the dreams I set for myself. While I’m at my dream job I know that I can only go up from here. Now at 23, I have a year’s worth of experience while still pursuing an advanced degree. I share my experience with everyone so that I can inspire the next generation of women who are interested in science but want to apply it to the beauty industry. I was able to go from a college student without any lab experience, to a L’Oréal intern, and now a full-time employee. Believing in myself lead me to where I am today. I bet on me.
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