Cargill Commodity Marketing Internship in Texas Helps Confirm Career Path 

Sarah Tucker (Commodity Marketing; Mentone, IN.) decided to get out of the Midwest for a summer by accepting an internship with Cargill Animal Nutrition in Amarillo, Texas. When deciding what to do for the summer before her senior year, Sarah decided to do a summer internship to gain more experience and aid in deciding what position she would be interested in pursuing after graduation. “Deciding what position to take after graduation is a huge decision, so I wanted to use internship experience to help me make a more confident decision on what company or position I want to pursue.” Sarah also wanted to move to somewhere vastly different than Indiana for the summer to help her decide where she would like to end up post-graduation.  

As a commodity trading intern for Cargill, Sarah got to experience a variety of aspects of the business as she did both logistics and merchandising for feed plants in the Midwest and Southeast. The first half of her summer was spent on the logistics side of the business. She managed bulk logistics for Cargill’s Poinciana, FL plant ensuring that they had all the ingredients needed to produce their feed and keep their plant running. The second half of her summer was spent merchandising for three plants in Illinois, Missouri, and Mississippi. Here she oversaw buying wheat midds for these plants, and she participated in a trading challenge with other interns where they were trading December corn futures on behalf of Cargill Animal Nutrition. By being in this position throughout the summer, she confirmed that she wants to pursue commodity marketing as a career after graduation. She really enjoyed Cargill itself and may even want to experience merchandising in a different sector of their company from Animal Nutrition.  

Sarah’s largest takeaway from her experience with Cargill was getting to experience doing the job she would do if she were hired full time with the company. “This internship is special in that it allows you to know what you would do as a full-time employee before accepting an offer. Some internships do not give you that opportunity to really take on the responsibilities that full time employees have so I have a good understanding of what my first year would look like if I were to be offered and accept a position.” Not only did she get hands on experience in the industry and learn more ingredients used in animal feeds and how they are merchandised, but she also learned a lot about herself because the internship was challenging with high expectations for success. Sarah’s favorite memory from the summer was going to the intern forum in Minneapolis, MN at Cargill headquarters. “It was very special to be able to meet other interns and connect with so many people who have the same interests as me.” 

Sarah mentioned she would recommend this position to anyone interested in animal nutrition and economics because this internship does an excellent job of combining the two. “This internship also serves as a good opportunity to get into Cargill Animal Nutrition and explore the different opportunities as we spend a lot of time learning about all the various positions available, from merchandising to pricing to formulation. This internship is challenging and pushes you to constantly learn and grow, but the professional development opportunities are amazing.”