Former ArtPrize piece, "Rain," by Lynda Cole hangs in the connector area of the new Gordon Food Service headquarters at 1300 Gezon Parkway SW in Wyoming. Employees moved into the new building in October 2012. Photo taken Wednesday, Oct. 31.
WYOMING, MI -- Land an internship at Gordon Food Service, and chances are a job offer won’t be far behind.
For the last two years, the Wyoming-based food distributor has hired 60 percent of its interns for full-time positions.
Most of the company’s 35 to 40 interns work during the summer.
The majority work at the company’s Wyoming headquarters, primarily in the departments of marketing, information systems and finance or accounting.
Odds are better for snagging an internship in information systems since the company gets about half the applications for those positions than it does for marketing and finance, said Janice Koopman, the company’s intern coordinator.
She is accepting applications through mid-January, and interviews will follow with offers made to students by mid-February. The search is geared to sophomores and juniors.
“We recruit from all the Michigan schools but the bulk from the West Michigan area,” said Koopman. “We’ve had great success with all the different colleges in the area.”
One of the West Michigan’s largest companies, Gordon Food Service has estimated annual sales of $8.6 billion and about 13,000 employees. The privately-owned firm is North America's largest family-owned and managed food service distributor in addition to operating more than 140 Marketplace retail stores across eight states.
One of the perks of working for the food distributor are the lunches and sampling of new dishes developed at the company’s corporate kitchen.
“Our interns aren’t just here to do grunt work, we are trying to groom them so they understand what is required of them,” said Andy Maier, the company’s marketing communications manager.
Gordon Food Service's 2012 interns at Feeding America where they took part in a service project.
Koopman says the paid internship goes beyond work to include face time with senior leadership, intern social activities and even community service projects.
Interns meet every other week as a group, and take part in lunch meetings with senior management and directors and even members of the Gordon family to learn about different aspects of the company.
The interns also wrap up their internships with presentations to the senior managers of their teams.
The program has evolved in the last three years as a more effective way to attract and retain a new generation of talent.
“It has grown not only in size but caliber and importance,” said Koopman. “It gives interns valuable experience in a West Michigan business that has a reach in so many places.”
The food distributor has one of the highest intern to full-time employee conversion rate of any West Michigan company, hiring 60 percent of its college interns over the past two years.
“I think it speaks to Gordon Food Service as a company, the quality of the intern experience we are able to provide,” said Koopman. “We have a good reputation of treating employees very well. I think the students see that when they arrive.”
Gordon Food Service is one of several companies that organize the Intern Olympics, which brings interns from West Michigan employers including Steelcase, Meijer, Perrigo, Spectrum Health, Wolverine World Wide and Bissell together for a day in June to network with each other and get to know Grand Rapids.
For the last two years, the gathering has been held at Grand Valley State University’s downtown campus.
“Our interns just rave about that program,” said Maier of the Intern Olympics. “They get really fired up.”
Like other intern recruiters, Koopman recommends college students begin the process with their college or university’s career service offices.
“My advice is to utilize those services to develop the best resume possible,” said Koopman. “Make sure it’s accurate, well laid out and really tells the story of who they are and what they have done.”
Maier adds that intern applicants should do their homework on Gordon Food Service, and understand the company’s mission and culture.
Koopman says intern applicants should know that the company is a broadline food distributor with customers from Florida to Canada.
She also suggests that intern candidates take a look at the company’s cornerstone values featured on its website and throughout its newly-built Wyoming headquarters.
“I really appreciate when (applicants) know about the cornerstone values and how those are lived out through our organization and everyday work,” Koopman said.
Applicants should understand what a broadline distributor is, Maier said.
“We don’t manufacture, we distribute,” said Maier. “Our customers are institutions, independent and chain restaurants, health care institutions from senior centers to hospital, and educational institutions from K-12 to colleges and universities.”
Koopman says that while students may be light on work experience, classroom work that deals with real-life scenarios can be good preparation for an internship.
“Often I have students who tell me about those experiences and what they learn from them,” Koopman said.
She encourages students to take an active role in case studies or semester-long projects offered in their classes.
“Students can really speak in-depth on those projects and how they progressed,” Koopman said.
Speaking French is a plus at Gordon Food Service because the company does provide finance and marketing support for its Canadian operations.
Students can apply for internships on the company's website.
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