Career Pathway: Food marketing

Start by making an appointment with the Zhang Career Center, which can assist you in discovering your career interests and values. The food marketing industry includes employees who tend to be conventional, enterprising and investigative. They value achievement, working conditions and support according to O*Net. Find out if your work preferences match careers in food marketing by taking the Focus2 assessment.

What is food marketing?

Technical skills are part of the proficiencies that are required for a job and may be developed in your major coursework. These skills include experience with ERP and data mining software, Microsoft Excel, Adobe Acrobat, market research, data analysis, category management, systems analytics and strategic sourcing. 

Interpersonal skills enable you to succeed and are often developed outside of the classroom. Skills such as critical thinking, complex problem solving, social perceptiveness, decision making, public speaking, passion and energy are desired.

What careers involve these food marketing skills?

There are many different ways to acquire an internship, online or in person. Visiting the Internship Catalog and the Career Outcomes Report can help you learn about the companies that have previously employed food marketing students.

Handshake is WMU’s employment website. All students should set up an account and publish a resume. Resumes made public by the student are searchable by employers.

Students use their Handshake accounts to view internship and full-time job opportunities posted by employers and sign up for on-campus interviews. For more information, visit the Zhang Career Center.

Food Marketing student groups include Ad Club, American Marketing Association and Food Marketing Association. Other groups include Business Association of Mentors, DECA at WMU, Delta Sigma Pi, Leadership and Business Strategy, Phi Chi Theta and Women's Business Network.

Events supporting the food marketing major include:

• Marketing Career Night
• Sales and Food Marketing Career Night
• Food Marketing Conference
• Business Career Day

The Zhang Career Center at the Haworth College of Business empowers learners to launch successful business careers by engaging them in innovative programming focused on professional readiness, while developing partnerships with global, regional and local leaders who hire students. As pioneers in career readiness programs and experts in customer service, staff members in the career center strive to meet the needs of all students and employers.

Career readiness competencies include:

• Career and self-development
• Communication
• Critical thinking
• Equity and inclusion
• Leadership
• Professionalism
• Teamwork
• Technology

Visit the NACE competencies online to learn more.