What are the careers in food?
Hi Paul,
Your username implies that are you especially interested in or involved with food industry careers
What is your interest...are you looking for a job or have a job to offer or just enjoy taking about it?
Well... I will agree that people can go to a school and get a degree to break into the food safety and quality field but some of us drag ourselves up the manufacturing ladder through other means like I did.
Though I will also agree that it's very hard because most quality manager positions require at least some sort of degree.
For example I left the US Navy, got a job in a DVD factory as a technician, left there got a job at a pasta factory in the warehouse, was able to get from the warehouse into processing (making the pasta), impressed the Quality Manager, was able to get a job in the lab, received HACCP certification from that company, was able to get a job at a yogurt plant as a Quality Coordinator in charge of the SQF system, was able to get a job as a Quality Manager at a flour mill.
All of that happened in the span of about 7 years and if I had missed any of those transitions or had not received that initial HACCP certification I would never had made it this far.
I think most quality/food safety people are home grown.
I got out of the Navy, got a job at a temp agency which led me to working in the front office of a bakery, which got me working on call in production, which got me working weekends in sanitation, which got me full time in sanitation which got me, 13 years later, the Sanitation Manager job. Now, 9 years and a couple of jobs later I wear many hats and am wiser and more experienced for it.
Marshall
Some of us went to school for food science, got out, and saw that there are essentially 3 tracks for food scientists in the manufacturing world:
Production grunt where you start in some sort of line position (often a line lead after a train-in period), then move to a supervisor/manager/director/VP/COO path.
R&D lackey where you start as a lab tech and work your way up through various ranks until you are super R&D person (VP, "head of innovation" or some other novel title)
QA nerd. Start as a lab tech or line checking person, and progress much like the production grunt.
That's the jobs and the progression.
We don't talk about sales or marketing because That Way Lies Madness.
Some of us went to school for food science, got out, and saw that there are essentially 3 tracks for food scientists in the manufacturing world:
Production grunt where you start in some sort of line position (often a line lead after a train-in period), then move to a supervisor/manager/director/VP/COO path.
R&D lackey where you start as a lab tech and work your way up through various ranks until you are super R&D person (VP, "head of innovation" or some other novel title)
QA nerd. Start as a lab tech or line checking person, and progress much like the production grunt.
That's the jobs and the progression.
We don't talk about sales or marketing because That Way Lies Madness.
Agreed. Sales (full body shiver) Writing the checks that production has to cash since forever.
"Theoretical maximum run rate as provided by the equipment manufacturer? Sure I'll use that as my projected run rate when I quote this project!"
"Why CAN'T we use (new allergens or high risk ingredients) in our existing production lines?"
"I know that we've tried to run (product) using (ingredient) in the past and have had nothing but failures, but I have SUCH AN OPPORTUNITY and want to try it again without any capital investment to get the right equipment so we can be successful!"
"Why can't my client say "cures cancer, makes everyone want to have sex with you, and reverses aging by 20 years" on their package?
"So what if we're Kosher and Halal certified? I REALLY think this "Real Bacon" product will sell like hotcakes!"
Sales and marketing...