I AM A LEGO BUILDER! #MYLEGOINTERNSHIP

A Peek through the glass door - A post by our 2016 LEGO Intern

Hi everyone! My name is Adrian and I am an intern at the LEGO SingHub.

Like the other interns, I am extremely excited to have this opportunity to introduce and share my internship experience in LEGO, where I learnt from the very best! As we were told that our posts will be seen by future LEGO Builders, I will do my very best to provide an accurate and sincere account of my wonderful 13 weeks internship. In this post, I will be sharing a bit on myself and how I stumbled on this internship, the job scope of the department I am attached to, some projects that I have touched on, as well as my reflection about this whole LEGO journey. Never would have thought to find myself enjoying all 13 weeks of work because LEGO has really outdone itself into making it a company where employees would want to work in. Want to hear more about the LEGO family? Here we go!

Who are you and how did you secure this internship?

LEGO SingHub front desk with the iconic logo

For starters, I am a 2nd year student in Singapore Management University (SMU), going into the 3rd year and thus spending this 3 months of summer holidays to complete my internship requirements. (SMU students will know lol) As I have just declared my major in Finance, I knew I still had much to learn in this field and tried to find internships with the mind-set to learn as much as possible. I went through many companies but none seemed suitable enough to secure a place, BUT by a stroke of luck and fate, LEGO posted its advert inviting LEGO Builders to embark on their very own LEGO journey. Intrigued by the very enthusiastic and unique description, I applied with hope but without thinking much. A few weeks later, there was an invitation to head down for interviews!

The interviews itself were not like any other, it was actually really fun and enjoyable despite being in the office and meeting new people for the first time. If anything, I felt that LEGO wanted to find out more about our personalities rather than focusing on capabilities (of course to a certain degree you have to have some knowledge too), so I just eased and became myself throughout the whole process. If I wasn’t a good fit, fine but at least I knew I had done my best. This makes you want to try for LEGO doesn’t it?

AND THEN I GOT ACCEPTED! I remember jumping up and down excitedly at the news haha. I AM GOING TO WORK IN LEGO!

P.S. The office tour was amazing.

LEGO? Let’s go!

How was the first few days like? Which department were you attached to?

LEGO SingHub Wall of Fame

I always tell my friends, the best thing about LEGO - the people. Immediately on the first week, there were full of welcomes and an amazing line-up of activities for all new employees to get accustomed to the amazing LEGO culture. I met really wonderful colleagues who would enthusiastically say hi as we walked past each other, and some even sat down to chat with us during our breaks! It really felt inclusive and there were no problems settling in at all given how welcoming the people of LEGO are. I remember thinking to myself, “Ah, so this is the LEGO family.” I will be working with these people of the next 13 weeks and I felt at ease. Don’t you want to have colleagues like that?

LEGO definitely values everyone’s opinions, so when the interns voiced out their field of interests during the interview, we were assigned accordingly. I am attached to the Market Finance (aka Commercial Finance) overseeing the South-East Asia (SEA) market. In particular, I was assigned to shadow the Business Controller for the Singapore unit, Jennifer. As a business partner to the Singapore team, I participated in meetings involving Sales, Marketing and Operations, really almost anything that has to do with the Singapore business. I quickly immersed myself to absorb while contributing as much as possible, by asking questions and offering suggestions. Although they were much more experienced senior colleagues, they took my comments seriously also taught me a lot about the know-how in the business.

One of the most interesting events I took part in was the APAC Regional Finance Days (RFD), where regional finance folks came over for a conference. Held at Pan-Pacific, it was truly an eye-opening experience because I got to meet LEGO colleagues all the way from Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan etc! There were knowledgeable discussions as well as fun bonding activities.

Myself, just chilling in the ballroom

What are some of the things you have worked on?

I have been assigned several ad-hoc assignments, mostly taking part in meetings with the sales team as well as the marketing team as the finance representative. Mostly helping with analysis and providing insights into our revenue and costs, I got to learn much from Jennifer as she taught me how to pick out anomalies and figure out reasons to these numbers.

One of the memorable ones was to deliver an analysis of the LEGO external events, to see how we can improve it and bring down any costs. I prepared the relevant files and finally presented it to the whole team. Although initially very nervous, I managed to overcome it with the help of my colleagues as I understood their working styles. So if I can do it, so can you!

Other things include helping out the sales team, such as with our customer Toys “R” Us and LEGO’s e-commerce, assessing price strategies, demand planning, reviewing consumer sales and marketing spend. There was a wide variety of things that I worked on, and Jennifer always encouraged me to ask for anything that I wish to learn more about, so I did!

Aside from the Singapore business, I also had to look at the SEA overview, so I also followed into meetings with the business controllers for the countries in the region as well.

How would you summarize your LEGO journey?

This is my first ever internship, so before the start, I was incredibly nervous at what would be in store for me. But now I can truly say that it was all for nothing because as soon as I entered the office, I felt so welcomed and quickly felt like I was already part of the LEGO family. The people were the nicest colleagues to work with, always offering guidance and making us feel at ease. The working environment is the nicest I have ever seen, with the office always being so lively with its décor and events. The pantry is a particular favourite of mine (I’m sure you all know why J). The work itself is challenging enough to really stretch our minds, but it wasn’t stressful at all because the work style of LEGO made it such that work seems like working on projects in school, albeit on a higher level. The LEGO values were constantly being reminded in many aspects of our work and every employee seemed to be united in the vision and mission, so it really drove up its employer proposition as a place anyone would want to work in.

I am really thankful for this opportunity to have gained a look and be a part of the inner workings of LEGO and it warms my heart now every time I see a child pick up a LEGO set at the stores. This internship has been very fulfilling and it will definitely be an experience to never forget.

YOU can be the next LEGO Builder!

The team of interns

(From left to right: Alicia, myself, Hong Liang, Edlyn)