Cargill
Jennifer Djupedal, 2010
Prior to my internship, I had very little knowledge of Cargill as a company. I knew the “basic facts and figures” but did not know anything about the structure of the company or the everyday tasks expected of employees. This internship expanded my knowledge of both of these areas.
I shared an office with Global Mobility’s tax expert, Sigrid. She was extremely generous with her time and, whenever I had a question, would give a detailed answer complete with examples, if necessary. Sigrid explained the structure of Cargill to me; she showed me a chart that lists the seven platforms of Cargill and the various Business Units (BUs) within each platform. For example, Martin – my supervisor in Mechelen, is the HR manager of the starches and sweeteners BU under the Food Ingredients System (FIS) platform. She also explained various tax rules regarding international assignments (for example: double taxation and reimbursement), each time creating a diagram on her white board to help me understand the concepts.
I met with the financial controller of Cargill in Europe for a short one-on-one meeting. He made me feel right at home and spent over 40 minutes talking to me about the financial sector of Cargill. He showed me a PowerPoint describing, in detail, what the various BUs make and where the production plants are in Europe. In addition, he showed me internal documents detailing the percentages of Cargill’s gross investments in each region.
I also had the opportunity to sit in on (via video conference) the presentation from Cargill’s CFO in corporate center in Minneapolis regarding Cargill’s position in the market during this economic slump. I am studying both Psychology and Economics and, during this presentation, I really felt that my background in econ helped me to understand the various graphs of both the market as well as Cargill’s past economic behavior and the projections for the future. It is cool to see theories or principles that I have learned in textbooks used in “real life.”
I have also learned a great deal about Cargill’s HR department. From my everyday work, I have gotten a glimpse of the complexities of HR and Global Mobility. Global Mobility, the Cargill team assigned to assist with the movement of employee’s across borders, has an enormous responsibility. These small teams located in Minneapolis, Cobham and Singapore work together with home and host country HR management to monitor international assignees and ensure, among other things, that the necessary approval has been granted, immigration documents and work permits are in order and that an employee abides by all tax laws in every applicable country. I had lunch with the HR director of the FIS platform who explained her job responsibilities as well as the inner workings of embedded and shared services Human Resources.
From my Psychology course “industrial and organizational psychology,” I learned about different evaluation methods used in various companies. Cargill uses its own evaluation system, PMP – Performance Management Progress. Although I did not use the PMP ratings of the employees in my charts comparing market zone data that I prepared for my supervisor, it was interesting for me to look at the ratings anyway. My I/O psych textbook described the perfect scenario: high performers get high salaries. I was, therefore, expecting the employees with high PMP ratings “exceeds expectations” or “exceeds most expectations” to have the highest salaries. This was not the case. Many of the highest performing employees had salaries that were in the bottom quadrant of the market and some of the lowest performing employees (“meeting some expectations”) had salaries in the highest quadrant of the market. My supervisor offered several explanations for this inconsistency: 1. The employee may have performed well initially but has now gone ‘stale’ (employers can’t lower a salary but they can freeze it if performance is poor). 2. The employee had a high salary coming in to the job (from, for example, a specialty overseas assignment) and is overcompensated for the current job. 3. The high achiever has a junior ranking and, therefore, currently has a relatively low salary but it should increase (if the economy perks up) over the next few years.
Although there is still much more for me to know, this internship has given me a good understanding of Cargill as well as an inside glance of and hands-on experience in the field of HR.
As I stated before, I have truly enjoyed this experience. I am still amazed at how well my co-workers treated me as well as how they immediately included me in their work lives. I sat with them at lunch, was invited to their new year’s party, and even worked out in the company gym with my “neighbors” on my floor. While working, I was always treated as an equal. Never once did I feel like I was an intern – I felt like a valued member of the employed Cargill HR team.
In addition, I have enjoyed seeing the concepts about which I have learned in textbooks used in “real life.” This was one of my main goals for this internship – and it has been achieved.
I also enjoyed the international nature of my internship. My office was located in the Flemish (Dutch) speaking part of Belgium. Although Dutch is the native language of most of my colleagues, most speak English and French fluently and are competent in German as well. I shared an office with the tax expert who would, on a daily basis, discussed complex tax laws in French, Dutch and English. On my hall alone, I had colleagues who were from: Jordan, Turkey, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Britain, America and Denmark. For my project I called HR managers stationed in Turkey, Poland, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. It’s amazing to think that such an international firm started in the heart of the American Midwest!
In conclusion, this internship has taught me about Cargill as a company as well as the field of business, specifically HR. From this internship, I am very much interested in pursuing a career in international business. I highly recommend this internship for anyone interested in pursuing a career in HR and/or international business.
Contact the Career Services Office for more information on this internship.