Making Your Way in a Company

Abstract

You’ve worked hard in school and now you find yourself starting your career in industry. The beautiful thing about food science is that you can come from a variety of disciplines with one common thread, an interest in food. Unfortunately, that is precisely the challenge I have trying to describe a typical job in the food industry to you. Food science is a catch-all for engineering, biotechnology, chemistry, material science, microbiology, and law among other things. This diversity allows food scientists to fit in a company in a variety of positions within quality and regulatory and research and development (R&D). No matter where you work, government or industry, large or small company, you will require interpersonal skills and technical excellence in order to succeed. In general, the demands of a full-time job require skills that are not taught in college and how well you handle the demands of the job strongly influence one’s personal sense of accomplishment and life balance. It is critical to build in external input to maintain perspective and clearly see the next steps in your career. Here are some things to consider as you start out in your career.