Job Satisfaction at Fonterra

Learning, lectures and research project

Felt like I was needed within the team. Very BAU role which would otherwise require a full time equivalent. Lots of exposure to how manufacturing and quality etc work. Also lots of interaction with external vendors.

One of the core purposes of the graduate program is to gain an excellent technical understanding of the business while working to complete a masters degree. We must ensure that we are continuously learning and working towards completing the degree.

For the last year, my work has changed dramatically day-to-day. I enjoy the variety, but that comes with uncertainty and insecurity. It's been good to get a wide exposure around the business.

My role involves three distinct parts. 1. Placements: This involves working on different Fonterra sites across the country at the beginning of the year doing some shift work and learning about the processing plants and products, completing assignments along the way. 2. Learning: During the middle of the year, the technical graduates work at the Fonterra Research and Development Center where we receive lectures on all things dairy and complete tests and assignments as well as complete experiments in the pilot plant to put that learning into practice. 3. The last part of the year is spent on a research project which contributes to a masters in dairy science. All parts of the program are set up for us to learn through teaching and experience. This gives us ample opportunity to set ourselves up well for the business.

In the technical graduate program it is my job to learn as much as I can about how Fonterra's factories operate, the science and technology behind the production of our products and to complete research projects to help develop and bring value to the business. This consists of 4 factory placements lasting 3, 3, 3 & 6 weeks each. During this time, we are expected to shadow operators, meet with the various teams round site to understand their roles, these including environmental, FSQ, H&S, maintenance etc. We then spend 12 weeks at the research and development center completing lectures, labs and assignments learning about the science and technology of milk as well as modules on other business components.

To complete tasks towards my masters.

This has recently changed but prior to the change I was answering emails for a couple of inboxes, doing lots of little admin jobs for people, supporting projects so engaging with lots of stakeholders.

Lots of information and skill learning. Day to day responsibilities is dependent on how far int the program: Placements: going around different manufacturing sites to learn the processes behind powders, proteins, cheese and milk fat products. Winter course: Learning detailed Infromation about the different business units with Fonterra, and getting a baseline understanding of it all. Includes assignments and test. Research Project: Taking the lead in a FGTP level research project, includes the charter, project schedule, experimental design, report writing and presenting

In my role, I manage the orderbook for several of our in-market international teams including those in Hong Kong, Malasia and Singapore. This involves adding to and editing orders as well as providing support to these teams. It's a significant responsibility, and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to take on meaningful work as a graduate, especially when compared to more basic tasks that I've hear graduates at other firms might receive.

This varies from team to team, as a Data & AI grad you get to be involved in meaningful large-scale projects, and you get exposure to a lot of different business units and domains (finance, sales and marketing, and IT).

Our role is mainly to learn - of which we get plenty of opportunities to do so. As I start to transition into completing my own research project, I am happy with my current output.

Factory placements - shadowing operators FRDC - learning over winter course Masters project placements - based with Farm Source OFE Environmental team modeling on farm GHG emissions of embedded feed

Currently, very self-driven but this has changed throughout the year being a FGTP.

My current rotation is Sales and Operations Planning and I have some BAU work which is a nice pace of change compared to my first rotation. Day-to-day I send out of stock notifications and presentations for managers to fill in as well as lead some meetings around capacity planning. Currently early in the rotation so will be some time before provided additional responsibilities.

Project work involving statistical analysis, project management, economic research, working with multiple stakeholders

Changes a lot as I'm a grad, but recently was doing production planning for fresh milk

Decarbonization of our scope 1 and 2 emissions i.e. manufacturing (after farm and before supply chain). Finding and developing short and long term decarb projects to reduce our energy use and then fuel switch to net zero alternative fuels.

Lots of BAU work - report updating, data, - mainly a reactive role dealing with concerns from market about risk of backlog and dealing with late orders.

As a graduate we are responsible to create opportunities. This gives me the freedom to chase work which excites me and I feel passionate about. It also means I can grow my connections across the business and learn a lot. On the average day I create daily excel reports for my team to develop my tech skills, I then have meetings to support my own projects as well as sit in on other project meeting to see where I can contribute. Then I tend to have a few hours for admin and project work.