OHEIB 6th Annual Student Meet & Greet
The 6th Annual OHEIB Student Meet & Greet was held on January 23rd, 2007 at Unilever Canada. About 20 students, largely from Ryerson, attended.
As always we had a great panel of speakers. Here is a brief summary of their personal advice and professional adventures.
Bridget Wilson, host of the meeting, talked about Unilever, a global company that sells food and health products in over 100 countries. Celebrating 15 years with the company, Bridget works on well-known food brands such as Becel, Knorr, Hellmann’s, Lipton’s and many more. The company mission statement is “to add vitality to consumers lives”.
Clare Jones discussed her career, from freelance to full-time to freelancing again. Her interests in marketing courses at Ryerson (rather than her first degree, Honours Biology from Western) lead her to marketing jobs with Manchu Wok, People’s Jewellers and back to Manchu Wok. A turning point for Clare was having 2 children. She wanted the flexibility freelance work offered. A typical day in a freelancer’s life varies. Clare develops recipes, does food styling, works as a media spokesperson, works with food companies on a contractual basis and presents cooking demonstration at various trade and consumer shows.
Clare sited creativity, people skills, self-discipline, organization and the ability to multi-task as useful skills. She also noted that taking on jobs you might not particularly enjoy can lead to other opportunities. Some of the down-sides to freelancing are the schlepping, the insecurity of work load as well as not having benefits (medical, etc.) a full-time position provides. Her advice - keep an open mind, develop contacts, network, update your knowledge and skills by taking courses, attending conferences, and volunteer to gain experience.
Amy Micallef graduated from Ryerson in 1999. For five years, she worked in the Consumer Response Centre at Kraft Canada, until the department was outsourced. Amy recently completed a contract at Princess Margaret Hospital in Nutrition Research in the Department of Epidemiology and Stats. This particular research project was to determine the relationship of a low fat diet and breast cancer, with Dr. Boyd. Amy entered data from a 3 day recall of the 5,000 participants. Working with R.D.’s, her position required someone with a food background to provide accuracy, metric conversions, insight and experience. Amy commented that in a workplace,” it is important to be a team-player, be flexible and go with the flow”. An administrative assistant was side-lined due to a car accident, so the responsibility of organizing a thank-you party for the 2,000 Toronto participants was given to Amy.
Amy is presently working with R.D.’s in York Region on health education and food security. Some of Amy’s advice: every skill leads to another job and apply for jobs even if you don’t have all the requirements requested. Experience often supersedes letters after your name.
Ilona Maziarczyk recently (8 weeks on the job) began working at Kraft Canada in Regulatory Affairs (on a mat leave).
After seventeen years work experience in a different field (a degree in architecture), Ilona was ready for a career change and attended Ryerson, graduating in 2005. She applied twice for an internship but was not accepted. Landing this job at Kraft has been her “Cinderella story”: from the basement floor of a hospital as a diet clerk to a private office on the executive floor of the second largest global food company. Ilona works with a food scientist, a microbiologist and many R.D.’s, with Masters Degrees. The job is challenging and has a steep learning curve, but she is very excited and thoroughly enjoying it.
Her position consists of being responsible for both Regulatory work and nutritional assessment of several categories (i.e. Spoonables: Peanut Butter, sauces, mayonnaise; Pourables (i.e. dressings) and Dry Desserts (i.e. Jell-o, puddings and powdered beverages)). Regulatory compliance involves the review of raw ingredients for adherence to many regulations (i.e. Food and Drug, Process Products, Codex). The next stage is the review of new and updated product formula innovations for their compliance to the Consumer Packaging & Labelling Act. A third area of responsibility is the development of the mandatory nutrition label and ingredient line of these categories, including the analysis of potential and relevant nutritional claims allowed under the law. Emerging issues are discussed with the lawyers at Kraft and the interpretation of the regulations means there is never a dull day at work. There are teams of people involved with each type of product development and this translates into many meetings, e-mails and telephone conversations to move a product from conception to market. The key to this position is to question and keep asking questions; “grey areas” are the norm.
Ilona’s advice: apply for jobs even if you don’t have all the requirements requested and keep up your associations and networking. Ilona heard about the job at Kraft through OHEIB job postings. Ilona offered two recommendations. Join Toastmasters International (Google search for a group near you). This organization will help develop your skills of public speaking, which translates into increased confidence and competence in a job interview. Prior to developing your resume, pick up a copy of Great Resumes and Interviews Start Here (available at the Centre for Student Development and Counselling, Ryerson U.). Give yourself a couple of months to fill out this document; it is well worth the effort to assist in understanding yourself.
Helen Hatton’s personal and work history is extensive and varied, but in true Helen fashion, she described it as “a chequered past”. Shortly after graduating from Florida State University, Helen was off to New York, where her first job was working for General Electric at the New York World’s Fair. Next, it was on to London to work at Harrods’s Department Store demonstrating washing machines. After a year, she retuned to New York and worked at McCall’s Magazine as the Equipment Assistant Editor. Following that, Helen was Public Relations Home Economist for Reynolds, then Director of Consumer Services for Fairmont Foods Company, jobs that included considerable touring of the US as their spokespersons.
Helen started her freelance career and worked for many years for both American and Canadian clients after moving to Toronto in 1982. Helen with husband Ron wrote food articles for Wine Tiding Magazine for 6 years. When wine educator Tony Aspler moved on, Helen and Ron were asked to write the Gourmet Food column for his website and they continue to do so. After, Helen talked about her extensive career (in more depth than above), she shared with the students a long list of the things she has leaned along the long road. Thanks Helen for a fun and inspirational talk!
Thanks to Kathleen Mackintosh and Sonia Dudnic for organizing a very successful meeting. And thanks to Bridget Wilson for hosting the event at Unilever Canada.