Pros
- Good salary for a Grad Scheme - Perks allow you to leave an extravagant lifestyle - Opportunity to live and work abroad - Opportunity to work with global brands in an impressive portfolio for a large multinational
Cons
Make sure when applying for the CBL Graduate Program that your decision is an informed one. This might seem to be the dream job at first, and the lifestyle some people on the program live is certainly very extravagant for a job straight out of university (depending on where you are placed), but the reality is it doesn’t equip you well enough with skills you can use moving forward. The jump from Brand Ambassador to any other position in the company is a very difficult one. The Graduate Brand Ambassador role certainly does not properly equip you for progression within Chivas Brothers – the retention rate reflects this. Graduates after 2 or 3 years on the program were losing out on permanent positions due to lack of concrete marketing experience; the sad reality is that interns of 6 months actually do have more. Unless you wanted to remain in the country you had been placed in on a permanent basis the options are very slim. Even if you are really switched on to this from the beginning and try to earn as much marketing experience as possible over the 2 or 3 years, it simply isn’t enough to help you going forward. When in market you really are left to your own devices with little to no communication with the Graduate Development Team and the Brand Team. Any issues you have with the local team are not dealt with by the global team, so if you get unlucky with a placement in a difficult country or with a difficult local team, you need to deal with it on your own and this can really affect your experience. The Graduate Development Teams in other areas of the business create video montages showcasing the highlights of departing Graduate Brand Ambassadors and thanking them for their work. Unfortunately no such initiative exists in Chivas Brothers, where graduates are barely acknowledged at the end of their tenure - whether it be 1, 2 or 3 years. This leaves you feeling unbelievably undervalued. If you would like a career in marketing and are seeking an Assistant Brand Manager position, my advice would be to look for an Internship or Graduate Placement within a marketing team, and save yourself 3 years. However if you want to travel, live a party lifestyle and live abroad, and be paid (pretty well) for it, then this could be the job for you.