Careers Advice

• Big plans aim to raise appeal of careers in food and drink

  INDUSTRY IS WORKING TOWARDS A CLEAR FRAMEWORK OF PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Psychometric testing in interviews

  Employers often use psychometric testing to vet potential employees and help them understand a little more about your personality and ability to fit into the role they are offering – and this type of testing is becoming increasing popular.

• Negotiating the best starting salary

  Understandably, many people find discussing salaries uncomfortable and embarrassing during an interview. However, most interviewers expect some bartering and, if it motivates you to put more into the job, it is worthwhile for both the applicant and the employer.

• Do's and don'ts for developing a CV

  A Curriculum Vitae is a self-marketing tool and getting an interview can depend on how good your CV is. You will need to consider what to include, how much detail is needed and how to make your CV stand out from all the others.

• Creating rapport in an interview

  Rapport is the connection between two people; the spoken and unspoken words that say ‘we are on the same page’. In an interview situation you can employ numerous techniques to maximize the rapport between yourself and your interviewer.

• Creating an alluring covering letter

  The main aim of a covering letter is to encourage recruiters to read your CV. However, it needs to do a lot more than say, 'here is my CV!'. In short, it is the biggest chance you have to sell yourself.

• Procurement

  The real dealers   Good procurement people are worth their weight in gold and are key to keeping a company in profit. Gail Hunt reports  The 2009 Purchasing & Supply Rewards research from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply (CIPS) and Croner Reward shows that purchasing professionals trump salaries for equivalent roles in sectors including marketing, finance, IT and HR. Indeed, a 3.3% average increase across the board has been reported, with senior and middle-ranking managers more

• Engineering

  Men of many parts With the increased reliance on automation, today’s food manufacturing engineers have to be multi-skilled multi-taskers. John Dunn reports one of the fallacies about the food manufacturing industry is that it has never been very engineering orientated. Well, in many ways, perhaps it still isn’t. But away from lines of operators popping cherries on top of buns or sorting sausage rolls into boxes, there is often a lot of ‘plant’. And here it is pure engineering – mechanical, ch

• Supply Chain

  Good connections   Ambition, realism and flexibility are just a few of the qualities of good logistics managers. Gail Hunt reports   Building a truly responsive supply chain should be the Holy Grail for every company and anyone who works in this area plays a pivotal part in a company’s success, especially in today’s business climate. So says Hugh Williams, md of supply chain specialist Hughenden Consultancy, who believes the supply chain role can change a company at its very core but that

• Operations and Production

  People power   Technical knowledge isn’t enough to be a successful operations manager, you need great interpersonal skills too. Michelle Knott reports   Operations is a job of two halves, according to Graham Clark, senior lecturer in operations management at Cranfield University’s business school. On the one hand, for middle managers at least, there’s an expectation that they should demonstrate a high level of technical  competence in the process they’re managing. On the other, they should

• Supply Chain

  CHRIS FENTON -WINCANTONGENERAL MANAGER FOR THE HEINZ ACCOUNT   Chris Fenton took his last exam for his international transport degree at Cardiff University in the morning and joined supply chain specialist Wincanton that afternoon. This wasn’t just amazing luck, but was the result of Fenton working for Wincanton during a placement year of his degree when he worked as a team member at Masterfoods in 1996. This saw him driving fork lift trucks, picking products and being a full member of a shi

• Production

  JOHN ORR - NESTLÉPRODUCTION MANAGER   John Orr took a masters in manufacturing and electrical engineering with a diploma in business management at Strathclyde University. Now 32, he is production manager for the Nescafé packing department at Nestlé’s Hayes factory in Middlesex, responsible for a team of 40 people. “We get the coffee in bulk from manufacturing, put it into jars, label it, pack it, put it on a pallet and send it out to our distribution centre.”   What they didn’t tell him at u

• Operations

  DAVID SEECKTS - PREMIER FOODS FACTORY GENERAL MANAGER   After starting out in engineering, David Seeckts switched careers and found his true vocation in operations thanks to a sideways move into shift management for Pedigree Petfoods. Twelve years on and he’s the factory general manager at Premier Foods Worksop, producing 96,000t a year of products such as Sharwood’s sauces, Bisto Gravy and OXO Cubes.   Any factory manager must juggle dozens of different jobs, but those in the food industry

• Development

  NADENE SIMPSON-STILL - PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT MANAGER FOX'S BISCUITS, PART OF NORTHERN FOOODS   “The fact that Fox’s product development is not in its own little silo, so you follow the product from concept to the supermarket shelf, makes the role both challenging and satisfying,” says Simpson-Still. “There’s a process development team working alongside us, but we’re involved all the way through.”   What makes it interesting is that there’s an overlap with finance, planning, category managemen

• Technical

  DARREN GEDGE - PINNEYS OF SCOTLAND, PART OF THE FINDUS GROUPTECHNICAL DIRECTOR   Being technical director can mean helping to source the best raw materials, says Gedge. “As a partner to Marks & Spencer, we have to work with the retailer’s approved list of suppliers. Because of weather-related problems in the Orkneys, I’m currently having to get another supplier approved – and approved at the highest level.”   The four specific streams a technical director will become involved in are: the env

• Site Management

  ANDREW PEARSON - LAKE DISTRICT CHEESE COMPANY SITE MANAGER   Andrew Pearson, site manager at the Lake District Cheese Company, is finishing the third module of a Professional Certificate in Dairy Technology at Reaseheath College, Cheshire. Before joining First Milk, Pearson previously worked as operations manager for packaging company DS Smith and plant manager for plasterboard company British Gypsum, where he developed expertise in world class manufacturing techniques.   “Historically the

• More About Us

  http://Jobs.Foodmanufacture.co.uk is owned by William Reed Business Media, a leading business publisher,  serving the UK Food & Drink industry and publishers of The Grocer magazine. Other magazine titles in the group include Restaurant, Food Manufacture, Morning Advertiser, Off Licence News, British Baker, Meat Trade Journal and Convenience Store. It's wonderful to have such a tradition in print, and to complement this we now have the kind of technology that allows us to use all our experience a

• Here's who to contact

  Find out what they do and how to get in touch. Datamonitor Business analysis company www.datamonitor.com 0207 675 7000 euroinfo@datamonitor.com IGD The industry's think tank; produces research reports and food chain statistics www.igd.com 01923 857141 igd@igd.com Leatherhead Food International Food research association; provides technical support and information www.leatherheadfood.com 01372 376761 help@leatherheadfood.com Mintel Researches trends, new products, consumer attitudes and behavi