Tech is everywhere — Ankita’s path to BeautyTech!
Behind all the products and marketing, there is one powerhouse making it all work seamlessly: The Information Technology (IT) Teams at L’Oréal. While we include tech in everything we do, it’s not just about technology; it’s also about how you work with it to bring a company of 86,000 people together. Through new tools, systems, and developing new ways of working, the people of IT are a crucial part of the work we do at L’Oréal. One of these people is Ankita. Ankita tells about her path to L’Oréal and her unexpected surprises of working in the beauty industry.
Tell us what you’re doing at L’Oréal
I am currently working on the Digital IT team based out of Hudson Yards, New York. I help out with organizing L’Oréal’s consumer data, supporting the third party tagging on brand sites, and many other ecommerce data related tasks.
Were you always aiming to work in the Beauty Industry?
Well actually, no! As a junior in college, I was looking for an interesting internship opportunity that involved tech. After taking quite a few data science and statistics courses, I was looking for something that would allow me to handle data on a large scale. I heard about L’Oréal coming to my university campus, and there I learned more about L’Oréal as a company, how much tech was actually involved and the scale that it operates at… Once I learned this, I applied for their summer tech internship. It wasn’t necessarily the beauty industry that I was applying for, it was the amount of tech-related jobs at L’Oréal that inspired me.
There are a lot of tech companies, why L’Oréal?
Well, once I learned about how much tech-related work that L’Oréal was doing, I also learned that L’Oréal has almost 10% more women in their IT/tech field than the industry standard. Tech is a very male-dominated field so learning that L’Oréal valued and championed diversity was something that really stood out to me when researching other companies and ultimately is what inspired me to apply for an internship with L’Oréal. I was honoured to be selected as an intern for the summer of 2018 and once I had completed my internship I knew I would love to return to the company. Soon after, I was hired as an analyst for the Management Trainee Program and soon after that, I started with the Digital IT team at Hudson Yards in New York in August of 2019.
Tell us a bit more about IT at L’Oréal!
L’Oréal IT does a great job at allowing employees, and especially new hires and interns, to work on projects they are passionate about and are genuinely curious about. They foster a huge amount of creativity and really allow employees to push the boundaries and try new things. Also the culture of the whole company; specifically, the emphasis on learning and personal growth is incredible.
I had the misconception that a large company would have a rigid work life, with hard deadlines and strict reporting. This was a misconception that was quickly proved wrong after the first couple weeks of my internship — Ankita
How are you and your team contributing to the BeautyTech transformation?
We are working to constantly stay updated on the current climate of the tech and data science world, the Digital IT team is gaining insight into new tools and practices used in the modern-day tech industry. This insight will help with the overall BeautyTech transformation as it will allow L’Oréal to gain the expertise to compete in the competitive tech industry, as well as find areas of improvement within the company using technology.
Since you ended up in the beauty industry unexpectedly, what is one thing you would tell your younger self?
Do not let your major, your field of study, or your course work define what you learn and your career path. Many university students feel as though they are pushed towards a certain field of work or certain path after graduation based on their major. I would inform my younger self about this misconception. There are lots of opportunities, in my case internships, to learn about topics that interest you that may have not been covered in your university course work. In the same light, I would tell my younger self, do not let your university major define what careers you seek out after graduation. Companies are constantly looking for employees with different backgrounds and different skill sets to help their company grow.
Do not let your major, your field of study, or your course work define what you learn and your career path — Ankita
What is a song that you could never get tired of hearing?
Dancing in the Moonlight by Toploader.
What would you tell future candidates about applying to L’Oréal?
You do not have to work at a “classically thought of” tech company to immerse yourself in new technology. Many companies are searching for individuals who are interested in applying new technology to their existing IT teams. In the same light, when speaking with various IT teams, do not let the current tools/languages the team uses possibly discourage you; even if you are not familiar with some of the tools/languages the team may have mentioned, they will be eager to hear your novel solution to the problem.
You do not have to work at a “classically thought of” tech company to immerse yourself in new technology. Many companies are searching for individuals who are interested in applying new technology to their existing IT teams. In the same light, when speaking with various IT teams, do not let the current tools/languages the team uses possibly discourage you; even if you are not familiar with some of the tools/languages the team may have mentioned, they will be eager to hear your novel solution to the problem.
Are you interested in building the future of BeautyTech? Join one of our L’Oréal teams today!
