Full-time Recruiting is Here Already! - with General Mills

(by Derek Herbst, Booth ’04)

May is almost here, summer is around the corner, and your internships begin in just a few weeks. It must be time for full-time recruiting. Huh? Really? Well, yes, at least for marketing at General Mills. I’m a Marketing Manager at General Mills, as well as the Recruiting Team lead, and I want to make sure everyone knows about our Fast Track recruiting program. (The job posting will open up next week for all 1st year students!)

Before I get into the details, here’s a little background. Unfortunately, General Mills didn’t have an internship spot this past year for Booth. We have had an internship spot in years past, but for the last couple of years and looking forward, we are focusing our efforts on our Fast Track program. So what is Fast Track? It’s a unique program that culminates in the late summer. We identify high potential candidates during their 1st year and then invite them to interview for a full-time position over the summer. Fast Trackers are flown up to Minneapolis for a day of interviews and then can potentially walk back on campus with a full-time offer in hand.

This is a pretty cool opportunity because if you have an internship and you get a full-time offer from that, you could have two offers in hand before you start classes next September. You might not need to bother with any full-time recruiting next fall.

Below are some more details of the program and the recruiting process. We hope you are interested and we wish you the best of luck!

How many Fast Track spots will be available to Booth students?
At this point, we expect to invite at least one to two Booth students to Minneapolis for Fast Track. Last year we invited three students, with Sharon Duchin receiving (and accepting) an offer!

What’s the process or next steps?
There will be a job posting on the Booth system beginning next week, starting Monday 4/26. All interested students should submit a resume and cover letter. Deadline for all resumes will be Friday, May 7th. (To find the job posting, you should be able to simply logon to GTS and search for the posting under full-time position opportunities.)

From there we will select a number of students to interview over the phone in mid to late May. After the round of phone interviews, we will extend invitations to at least 1 – 2 students to come up for a weekend in the summer for a day of interviews at the General Mills campus. Currently, we are targeting mid-September for the final interviews.

Why are final interviews so late in the summer, especially if the process begins now?
We recognize that most students have summer internships, which means that that is their #1 summer focus. We need to begin the process now, but wait until the end of the summer for final interviews because by that time most internships have ended, and students can refocus on other things like General Mills!

How do I find out more information – either about General Mills or its Fast Track Program?
Feel free to send me an email (Derek.Herbst@genmills.com) or reach out to any of the other marketing alums you might know at General Mills. Also, Sharon Duchin (’10) is also a great resource. She will be joining General Mills in the summer and received her offer through the Fast Track program.