FOR thousands of college graduates actively looking for employment every year, to work for top companies that provide financial stability, job security, rich organizational culture and career growth opportunities is an achievement. Mondelez Philippines, the company behind household names like Cheez Whiz, Tang, Oreo and Toblerone, provides them just that through its Graduate Trainee (GT) Program.
Diametrically different from their contemporaries who have yet to find their place in the sun, Mondelez Philippines’s latest batch of graduate trainees employed under the company’s Sales force are well aware that dream jobs are hard to come by. They sharpened their competitive edge by preparing for their first job interview even years before graduation. University of the Philippines’s (UP) Business Administration graduate Ralph Carlo Ramos, for instance, planned his career path accordingly, filtering the companies he wished to work for.
“I wanted a multinational company involved in Fast Moving Consumer Goods [FMCG] and something with a graduate trainee program. I came across Mondelez Philippines in my research for caliber programs and I was intrigued because the name was not known to me then, but rather the brands it sells! It was a snacking powerhouse I wanted to be a part of.”
UP Business Economics Major Eduardo de Guzman Jr., meanwhile, has this to say: “It is good to intern in many industries. I was still a student when I began researching long and hard for the perfect multinational FMCG company I wanted to work for. It takes time to plan your future outside of school and you have to be proactive.”
Ramos considered himself lucky to be chosen as an intern for the Tang brand in 2016 because it enabled him to understand its corporate culture. “I think Mondelez Philippines lives up to its reputation as a joyful place to work in. At my first internship prior to Mondelez Philippines. the setting was very corporate and the employees were professionally mature. In Mondelez Philippines, they expect you to be mature, yes, but they also expect you to grow. Mondelez makes sure there is room for growth in the organization.”
“What I find amazing in Mondelez Philippines is that even if I was still a student-intern back then, they entrusted me to become a part of a big project,” San Beda College marketing management graduate Katricia Milla, meanwhile, said. “In the corporate world, there are no textbooks. You have to create and follow your own processes to resolve issues. In school, you are graded right-minus-wrong. In the corporate world, there will be wrongs but there will be things that will not work. You may make mistakes but you are expected to learn from them. You can apply what you think is correct but it can fail because you didn’t think it through. Mondelez Philippines taught me to think things through.”
An immersive internship
Shiela Pangilinan, Mondelez HR business lead, said, “Mondelez Philippines is an equal-opportunity employer. We take pride in our diverse and highly talented work force. Our main goal is to not only to ensure the growth of our employees but also to make Mondelez Philippines a great place to work.”
Hiring highly competent and performance-driven employees is one way Mondelez believes it will meet these goals, so it also values free thinking. Regardless of experience levels, all Mondelez’s employees are expected to contribute ideas and try new ways to solve problems. “We also look for the employee’s capacity of adaptation and dealing with ambiguity. Presenting a solution that deals with a real business need is key,” Pangilinan said.
The art of selling yourself
“It was hard to get in Mondelez Philippines. Proving to have the high potential to become an employee and even a leader in the company will definitely have a profound pressure on you,” Miguel Rafael Mangabat, who graduated magna cum laude at the Meridian International College, vouched. “It helps to have prior good internship experience in sales or marketing because it requires a certain way of thinking to analyze the case.”
Milla related, on the other hand, that there were actually three of them who applied to Mondelez Philippines from her school. “I thought I was the least likely to be accepted because they have higher honors and better credentials than me. But I thought to myself, ‘How much do I want this? How badly do I want to work for Mondelez Philippines?”
With an indomitable faith in herself, Milla decided to market herself.
“When you come to a Mondelez Philippines interview, you have to be ready with your historical experience. I also made sure that they will not just rely on what is written on my resume. I want them to see me as what I am capable of doing now, not the person I was in college. I really pushed myself to come out with great ideas to show them what I can do. I know I have to show them how much I wanted to be hired.”
Mondelez brand of coaching
“WHAT I like best in Mondelez Philippines is the coaching. It’s a constant learning experience in Sales. I remember my supervisor telling me, ‘All problems are the same in Sales. It is just that they evolve into a different problem, which you can still resolve in another solution,” said de Guzman.
“Mondelez Philippines is very people-oriented and very nurturing. We may no longer be in school but our managers still looked after us. And if they think you are not touching base with them often enough, they will take it upon themselves to contact you,” Ramos added. “I was barely six months on the program when I was deployed to Mindanao, my first trip ever. Imagine my surprise when one of the HR managers called, ‘Hi, just checking in, how are you doing so far?’”
Mondelez Philippines believes in investing in nurturing the country’s local talents. “By building world-class capabilities and providing meaningful career experiences, we create a great place to work for our people—the guardians of an unmatched portfolio of iconic brands with a global footprint in the snacking industry,” Pangilinan said. “This investment has paid off, enabling us to have a sustainable pipeline of talent that will ensure the continued growth of our business and our impact on communities.”