In the beginning....

Hi Friends,

I am writing this post from the great city of Indianapolis, IN where I am spending this summer working for Dow AgroSciences in Sales. My first day on the job was Monday, May 16th as we spent the entire week in the classroom for training. I consider my first "official" day to have been this past Monday when I got to spend the week doing things similar to what I will be doing all summer long. Each day was very different as I traveled with a different sales rep in my district each day. In the beginning, I was assigned a mentor who will serve somewhat like a coach to me throughout my internship. I was also assigned three additional sales rep's whom I will be working for and with every week. In addition, my actual boss is the District Sales Manager for the Northern Crops Division, Mrs. Nikki Hall. I will be the first to admit that she can be very intimidating at times! It is clear to me that she is most definitely a task-oriented leader. While relationships are of great importance to her, she is highly focused on achieving the task at hand. She manages 15 Sales Rep’s and a sales plan for each, so naturally, she is somewhat forced to be extremely task oriented.

I actually had the opportunity to work this Saturday as Nikki presented me the invitation early in the week. We had the privilege to host individuals from Romania, Turkey, and South Africa who Dow brought in for the Indy 500 Race. When Nikki asked me what had been the highlight of the week it caught me a little off guard. After giving it a few seconds of thought, I immediately thought of the opportunity to get to observe all 4 of my sales rep’s different personalities and style of selling. One good example of this is my mentor (Jeff) who has worked for the company for 15 years has a strong customer base already established. The other three reps are fairly young, so it seems as if they have to work a little bit harder to initially gain that same customer base that Jeff has.

Dow AgroSciences Intern training is unlike anything I have ever experienced before. I felt extremely overwhelmed with the amount of information I was presented, and I was honestly a little worried that I might not be able to fully comprehend everything expected. This past week actually getting to be out and about, I have realized just how much I have truly learned. On Wednesday, I had the choice to get off work early at about 1pm, or I could go with our Trainee (Christy) to a farm to spend the afternoon learning about equipment, planting, and weeds. This job has been a dream job for me for quite some time, so going into it, I promised myself I would always go above and beyond. With that in mind, you can probably guess the option that I chose… going to the farm. Not only did I learn a tremendous amount there, hopefully I gained respect from those that I am working with. I have constantly strived to be on toes at all times and really work as hard as I possibly can. With the week of training, and this past week together, I have worked close to 120 hours… WHEW!

In addition, being away from home has been quite a learning experience as well. I have already read four books and am just about to start my 5th this evening. Living alone, I have lots of time to reflect and really prepare myself for each day ahead. I have loved every minute on the job and can’t wait until I actually get to begin my intern project. With the continuous rain that the MidWest is facing, many farmers have just recently been able to plant their corn, if they have even planted at all. Obviously, this is not good for them, but it is also delaying me a little as well. In the mean time, I am completing ride-alongs with my reps meeting retailers, distributors’, and other people I am going to work with this summer.

Blessings,
Macy