Hannah's rotations within the company

Hanna’s first rotation in her graduate programme was in the business development department in Danish Crown Beef, where she did marketing and sustainability related projects. The second rotation was in the Europe department in Danish Crown Foods, where she did projects related to marketing and assortments, e.g., assessing which products are performing well or which ones should maybe be delisted.

Hannah also was part of different bigger projects with other countries, looking at E-commerce e.g.

Working in the food industry, Hannah found a lot of complexity behind how the product gets on the supermarket shelf. That is something that really surprised her: How many processes and tasks are actually involved in creating one product.

 

Project manager and maybe a future leader

Getting knowledge about project management appealed to her. “You get training in project management, and as a graduate you usually work on projects, so that is important to me.”

Hannah has been involved in many different projects that she would not have got an insight into otherwise.

“Right now, I am working on supply for example, so with production but also in investments with machinery which is finance a little bit. These are all things that I would not have thought that I would work on, so I think it is quite exciting. I like to learn new things and to be challenged. I find that quite rewarding and motivating.”

“There is also a leadership programme in Danish Crown. We also get leadership training by reflecting on our own and our own leaders’ leadership style as well as by training how leaders get feedback or behave in certain situations, e.g.

Be self-confident and focus on learning new things

The Danish Crown graduate programme has been a great experience for Hannah, and she recommends it to others who are having the same kind of expectations about their first position.

“You can see the entire value chain which I think is very interesting and it’s good knowledge to have alongside an international rotation which I found exciting.”

“The most important things that I learned is to be quite flexible and to be very self-confident about any kind of projects that come my way. In the beginning you may think that you can’t do it because you do not know anything about it, but in time you learn more, and you get better at it and usually people are happy to help and share their knowledge. So, learn not to be afraid about something that you know nothing about in the beginning. I think you can always figure it out somehow. It is just about how to structure the process behind and to be curious and open about learning something new.”

 

What to consider if you're thinking about applying for a graduate programme

“It is very important to get a good understanding of what a graduate programme entails, what it is about, and what kind of courses you will get through it. It is very important to get a good understanding of this in the recruitment process, e.g.”

As there are both general and specialised graduate programmes, Hannah also emphasises the importance of figuring out what you would like to gain from it.

"In general, if you are interested in a graduate programme, I think it is very important to be very curious and open minded – to be up for the challenge, basically. There will be many things that you have never heard of before or have never tried, so it is sometimes challenging."

"As far as the recruitment process goes; just apply if you think it is interesting, be yourself, and in the end, it has to be a good match from both sides“.

After ending the graduate programme, Hannah’s employment as a graduate ended, and she had to start looking for a new job. It didn’t take long, though, and she is now working as a project specialist at Danish Crown.

She has loved how the past two years have developed her in so many ways, and she is certain that she will continue developing herself in the years to come at Danish Crown.