Over Coffee Episode 1 | 'You Have to Be a Sponge’: Starting Out at L’Oréal

Introduction:
In this first episode of the Over Coffee series, SeedZ Graduate Program participants Max and Maryna catch up over coffee with Emma, who shares her experience taking on full-time responsibilities at L'Oréal. Filmed in an informal cafeteria setting at L'Oréal's headquarters, Emma reflects on her journey from dual sustainability internships at La Roche-Posay and Luxury into leading nationwide social impact programs for vulnerable women. The conversation explores the freedom to learn through failure, the art of expanding one’s internal network through informal "FIT" coffee chats, and the empowering French motto: « Qui ne tente rien n’a rien ».

MAX: For someone who’s just joined the business, what would be your advice to them on how they can grow their network within L’Oréal?

EMMA: You need to maintain your connections like you would maintain a friendship.

MARYNA: Oh my gosh!

MAX: What does this mean?

EMMA: Oh!

EMMA: I just remember being a sponge that entire week, which is something I think you need to do at L’Oréal.

OFF-CAMERA: Okay, camera rolling.

MAX: Welcome to Over Coffee at L’Oréal.

MARYNA: I’m Maryna.

MAX: And I’m Max. And we’re both part of the L’Oréal SeedZ Graduate Program.

MARYNA: Today, we’re grabbing coffee with Emma in the coolest cafeteria inside L’Oréal’s high-tech headquarters,

MAX: To see what her job really, really looks like.

MARYNA: No corporate scripts.

MAX: No suits or ties.

MARYNA: Just a real conversation because, as we all know, the best conversations never happen in a meeting. They happen…

MAX & MARYNA: Over a good coffee.

[Music]

MARYNA: Hi, Emma!

MAX: Emma! How are we doing? Welcome.

MARYNA: So happy to see you.

EMMA: Happy to be here.

MAX: Well, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re absolutely buzzing for it.

EMMA: My pleasure.

MAX: First question: how are you doing? How’s your day going?

EMMA: I’m doing great. My day has been good.

MAX: Let’s get into it.

MARYNA: Let’s come back to the first week. Do you remember it?

EMMA: Oh, I do remember it. I definitely remember it. So, it was my first week on the CDI, and so I was super nervous.

EMMA: But I really just, I wanted to get into it. I’m someone that learns by doing. I don’t know if you guys are kind of the same way, but that’s how I learn. That’s how I grow, and I just appreciate it so much more. And I told my boss, I’m like, “Please, just let me get in on the meetings, the nonprofits, everything.” And she’s like, “Are you sure that you want to kind of just deep-dive into it?” I’m like, “Yep, throw me in.” And so it was so amazing because she really trusted me to take on some meetings with nonprofits and take on some projects and some contracts. So I just remember being a sponge that entire week, which is something I think you need to do at L’Oréal.

MARYNA: I think it’s really a huge part of the L’Oréal culture, when you are doing by learning in a very smart way, to still be accompanied by your managers and your relatives. It’s very nice.

EMMA: No, you definitely get thrown in the pool, but it’s great.

MARYNA: Isn’t it?

MAX: What is it that you think drew you to L’Oréal, or that L’Oréal saw in you, for you to be here today?

EMMA: I definitely think that, so I’ve lived in a couple of different places, and one of the things I love is being part of that diverse background. I love talking to people that have been to different countries, that have travelled in different places, that speak different languages, and that’s something that is so present at L’Oréal. I think that it’s so easy to find someone who maybe didn’t even come from the cosmetics background; they just worked in different industries, but they all kind of come together. And I love that L’Oréalian diversity that I guess now I’m a part of.

MAX: I love that L’Oréalian word. That’s brilliant. I’ve realised myself, in my time at L’Oréal, how amazing it is to be able to work with people from different cultures, backgrounds. It’s absolutely brilliant.

MARYNA: Emma, imagine you’re at the family dinner and you need to describe your job to your grandmother, and, attention, in only one minute.

EMMA: One minute?

MARYNA: Yes. What would you say?

EMMA: Ah, okay. Tough one. All right. I would say, “Grandma, listen. I’m going to tell you what I do.” So, I accompany women that are in different states of vulnerability and precarity. Through my programme, this means that it’s women that have medical pathologies like cancer, who are victims of domestic violence, women who are in migratory backgrounds, et cetera. And so what I do is I work with over 40 different nonprofits in France to make projects and help accompany over 24,000 women a year through projects that are in beauty and wellness care, so that we can really use these programmes as levers of reconstruction and recovery for those women.

MARYNA: If I were your grandmother, I would be really impressed. That’s a really great answer.

EMMA: That’s me.

MAX: Amazing. And obviously you’re based here in Paris, in France, but is that, like, a worldwide initiative?

EMMA: Yeah, so it is, actually. I’m focused a lot on the France scope, but the program is international. It’s in so many different countries. It’s in India, it’s in Mexico, it’s in Vietnam, it’s all over.

MAX: The reason I ask about worldwide is because you’ve got quite a worldwide background yourself, haven’t you? French, Portuguese, but grew up in the States, is that it?

EMMA: Oh, you got it. You got it perfect.

MAX: I’ve done my research. I’ve done my research.

EMMA: I love it.

MAX: And now, if we’re going to hone in a bit on your role itself: you started at La Roche-Posay doing sustainability and then branched out into Luxury. Could you give us a bit of a rundown of what you’ve done in that time? Break it down a bit for us.

EMMA: Yeah, for sure. So, I did start at La Roche-Posay. I started out in sustainability, so my internship was amazing because it’s so rare to have and be in a role where you can do environmental impact and social impact as well, because I worked on the La Roche-Posay Foundation, and I loved every second of it. So, the team, the work. I wanted to absolutely keep going. So I found another internship in the Luxury division, still in sustainability.

MARYNA: Of course.

EMMA: And then this time, I worked on so many different topics, from sustainability communications. I did digital decarbonisation, refills, Scope 3 emissions. So I really loved it as well.

MAX: Well, I have to say, you’ve scored some serious points with me because I’m a La Roche-Posay man myself.

EMMA: No! Max, oh my god, we’re gonna be doing high-fives all interview.

MARYNA: You know what? Me too. La Roche-Posay baby.

EMMA: La Roche-Posay baby.

MAX: Look at us. Look at us.

EMMA: There we go.

MAX: Brilliant. And it sounds like you’ve done some amazing work over the years. But, of course, everything’s not plain sailing, and the other side of it is the failures. I’ve come to realise that one amazing thing about L’Oréal is that you do have that blanket to fail, and you are trusted. You know, we care, we dare. Could you maybe tell us about a time that you did actually fail and how you bounced back from that?

EMMA: Yeah, for sure. Definitely. I think that there are, again, like you said, when you’re starting out a job, whether it’s a new internship or a graduate program or your first job, you’re going to fail. It’s kind of inevitable, but you’re not really failing. What you’re doing is just learning. You’re learning how a company works. You’re learning how your team works, how your team thinks about a problem, how the solutions are. So failing is just regrouping, and kind of regrouping together as well. And I think that being in a team and in an environment like the ones that I’ve been in before are so healthy because, when you go to your manager with a problem or something isn’t working, how do we fix it. They’re like, “Okay, great. Tell me about it. Tell me what your solutions are. How can I help you succeed?” And so that’s really what it is. Failing is learning, and I think you learn so much more when you fail. And failing sucks. It’s not easy. It’s not enjoyable. We’ve all done it, and we’ve all kind of felt it.

MAX: Trust me, I’ve been there many times before. Don’t get that wrong.

MARYNA: He’s an expert.

MAX: Exactly, exactly. I have a little cheeky saying.

EMMA: Not us, though.

MAX: Come on, guys. I’ve still got the job. I have got a little saying which I always remind myself, which I’ll share with you guys now, in those moments of failure when it’s happened again, he’s done it again.

MAX: You either win or you learn.

EMMA & MARYNA: Ah, okay. It’s a Max quote here.

MAX: We’ll get that in quotation marks.

EMMA: We’ll get T-shirts.

MAX: Brilliant. Brilliant. That’s the marketing man in me, anyway.

MARYNA: Marketing man.

[Laughter]

MAX: And you also mentioned, when you were talking about that, the really amazing teams and people you’ve worked with. And your network at L’Oréal is super important. I remember being told on my first day, you know, it’s a really amazing place and a pivotal place to grow your network. For someone who’s just joined the business, what would be your advice to them on how they can grow their network within L’Oréal, and even maybe outside?

EMMA: Yeah. I think that, first of all, having a network and really fostering it is something that’s so important and that we don’t necessarily think about. We kind of think about the people that we meet are just kind of always going to be there and maintain it, but that’s not really how it works. You need to maintain your connections like you would maintain a friendship. And you need to just kind of be there and learn about what they’re doing. And I think that that’s so true for L’Oréal. And I don’t know if it happened, if it was the same for when you guys got there, but I remember my first week on the internship, they said, “Oh yeah, why don’t you go grab a FIT with this person?” And I started, I was looking at them.

EMMA: I see some scepticism here.

MAX: I can’t say it’s made it over to the UK yet, so you’re going to have to break it down for me.

EMMA: It didn’t cross the Channel.

EMMA: Okay. So, no, a FIT is basically where you’re really interested about someone, about what they’re doing, about their background, what they’ve done in the past. And so you just kind of email them, Teams them, being like, “Hey, listen, I’m really interested in what you’re doing, your projects, the brand that you work for. Would you mind just, like, having a coffee and just talking to me about it?” And it’s so encouraged at L’Oréal, which shocked me because, in my previous experiences, this might not necessarily be the first thing that you think about doing. And it can be anyone. It could be, potentially, you know, like a brand manager. It could be someone that’s, like, your N+5. But it’s so normal that, if you want to go talk to them, talk to them. And it’s not weird at all. They’re there to share, and they’re happy to share their experiences, what they work on.

MAX: So, you’ve given me some great advice there, and I’ve got a little surprise for you in return. If you just give me one moment.

MARYNA: Oh my gosh!

EMMA: What does this mean?

MAX: My French is not great, guys.

MARYNA: Especially for you. Qui ne tente rien n’a rien.

EMMA: Ah, tu l’as dit parfaitement (you said it perfectly)!

EMMA: So basically, it translates to, “If you don’t try anything, you don’t get anything.” And so that’s actually a really special quote for me.

MAX: We’d maybe say, “If you don’t shoot, you don’t score.” If you don’t buy a ticket, you don’t win the raffle.

EMMA: I like the translation. I like the sports reference. I love it.

[Laughter]

MARYNA: And how do you use this philosophy in your work life?

EMMA: I definitely use it quite a lot because, whether it’s rethinking a different project, whether it’s having an idea and just pitching it to my boss and being like, “Hey, I know this isn’t necessarily the way that we’ve done this before. It’s completely new. But what would you think about XYZ?” And then, again, my incredible teams that I’ve had in the past are so supportive, like, “Wait, okay, yeah. Go for it. Try it. See what it is.” And I think that that’s so much a part of L’Oréal. It’s, you know, “Let’s try it. Let’s just see.” And we can try it, and if it fails, then we learn. And, you know, if it works, then that’s it. As you said, you win or you learn.

MAX: Emma, it’s been amazing talking to you today. Before we do wrap up, we do just have one more question each, okay? So get your thinking hat on.

EMMA: I’m ready. I’m ready.

MAX: What is the best L’Oréal story that you love to tell your friends? It can be a happy one, a funny one, anything. Share it with us.

EMMA: All right. Ooh, anything.

MAX: Anything.

EMMA: A story that I love to tell is when I first got to L’Oréal. I was so nervous. I didn’t even have my computer yet. Fresh start. And so I was following everyone around with my little notebook, and my N+2, I was kind of in a room with him. And I asked him, you know, “How many years have you been here?”

EMMA: And he looks at me with, like, a little smile. He’s like, “I’ve been here a month and a half.” And he just starts telling me, he’s like, “You and I are actually the newest members of the team.” And instantly, I felt so much more “together” and “in it” with my team because I knew that, with them, I was going to learn with them, that I was going to grow with them, and that we were going to kind of do it together. And so I love telling that story because I think it’s so true about L’Oréal. We’re there to learn, and we change jobs so often, and we get to learn and be in so many different new positions and brands and countries. And that’s just, we’re there to learn and grow.

MARYNA: With whom would you love to grab a coffee in L’Oréal? You can pick whatever person you want.

MAX: Apart from us two I’m afraid, on this occasion.

EMMA: You guys were literally on the top of my list.

EMMA: I think Tamara Gervais is someone that I would love to go grab coffee with.

EMMA: I haven’t seen her in a very long time, but she’s someone who really inspires me in everything that she does, whether it’s, you know, in her personal life or a professional one. And no, she’s just amazing. I recommend that you guys grab a FIT with her as well.

MAX: That’s what I’m gonna do, grab a FIT with her, perfect.

MARYNA: Thank you, Emma. It was really great to have you with us today.

EMMA: Thank you so much for having me today.

MARYNA: Thank you. And now it’s your turn, guys. Tell us in the comments what you would love to know about L’Oréal, and see you in the next episode.

[Music]