My first three months have flown by.
I work in the 'Snacking Today' team in Science and Technology. We deal with the design and development of everyday snacking products - this basically includes all the brands under the Cadbury Dairy Milk 'umbrella' and all our 'count lines' such as Crunchie and Flake. This year my teams' most successful launch has been The Crème Egg bar and next month is the eagerly anticipated Cadbury Dairy Milk Melts.
For the first couple of months I was closely shadowing my colleagues in order to learn basic confectionery skills, how the product development process works and where we fit into the 'big machine'. I'm now in charge of my own projects giving me real responsibility. I'm learning more and more everyday and my work is incredibly varied. I've been to factory trials, suppliers and third party manufacturers all over the country and even abroad. I'm looking forward to attending training courses in Brussels, Lille and Cologne in the near future.
Day to day I spend a lot of time in our pilot plant making up samples and concepts for my current projects. There is always a lot of correspondence to keep up with and project/team meetings to attend. Currently I'm also helping to organise my departments' community challenge - we're doing environmental work at a local heritage site for the day.
I'm really enjoying my job at the moment, like anyone I have my up and down days, but generally I look forward to going into work everyday. On the negative side - the staff shop - I seem to get carried away with the illusion that because all the sweets and chocolates are cheap, somehow I'm not really paying for them - needless to say I've spent a lot!
My friends appreciate all the free chocolate though. But this doesn't stop them asking stupid questions about what my job involves i.e. chocolate waterfalls, Umpa Lumpas and spoilt children called Augustus Gloop. I've also been asked several times why we don't produce a Crème Egg the size of an Easter egg - believe it or not this has already been attempted, not by us though.
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