02 Feb The Ultimate Ag Internship
Travel. Video. Agriculture.
Seem like components for the ultimate agricultural internship?
I believe they are.
Although I have been in the ag industry my entire life, I still am finding out about new internship and career opportunities that I never knew existed.
When you’re in college, you’re expected to choose the optimal career path, but never given a map of all available paths. This leads to the problem we have today: agribusiness employers are concerned that they can’t find qualified employees while college students are struggling to find rewarding career paths to pursue.
I believe that part of this disconnect is simple communication. The employers believe they are communicating effectively by posting their openings and attending a few career fairs. Meanwhile, students are doing online research and tapping into their social networks all to come up short.
What’s the answer? Storytelling.
Agribusinesses need to meet potential employees where they are and effectively tell their story. This “story” refers to who the company is, what customers they serve, and what career and internship opportunities they offer.
More importantly, they need to tell that story in the language of their target audience, students in colleges of agriculture.
So who better to do this for them than current college students studying agriculture?
That’s why at AgGrad we have created “The Ultimate Ag Internship”.
This will be a 10 week summer internship for 1 or 2 interns to travel around to partnering agribusinesses. In 1-3 days the interns will learn about the business, who they serve, and what internship and career opportunities they offer.
To relay that story to the masses, The Ultimate Ag Interns will publish a weekly vlog (video blog) about their journey. If you’re wondering what we mean by a “vlog” – check out this example by our friend (and internship candidate judge) Matthew Sligar of RiceFarmingTV. Also, they will be communicating extensively via all AgGrad social media channels geared toward students of colleges of agriculture.
Upon completion the Ultimate Ag Interns will have gathered a trove of valuable video, images, and knowledge of the incredible opportunities that exist in agribusiness. They will also have presented this information in an engaging way to THOUSANDS of students and young professionals around the country.
Partnering agribusinesses will receive significant exposure that will position them to hire top interns and entry-level employees. Each weekly vlog will direct viewers to a webpage where they can sign up to be contacted whenever the sponsoring employer has a future opening.
