Alumni Profiles: A Day in the Life
Two young School of Business alumni recently shared with BusinessWeek Online how a typical day in their life might go after receiving their degree from UW-Madison. Melissa Paulson, BBA ’05, works for General Mills as the newly appointed business planning associate for the Publix team, while Kevin Weadick, MBA ’02, is the distribution center inventory manager at W.W. Grainger.
While being employed by the fifth-largest food manufacturer in the country, Paulson contends that her work is not just about eating cookies. In her role, she promotes new product lines and establishes business forecasts to enhance the General Mills relationship with Publix, a grocery chain primarily in the south-eastern United States. She has also been in charge of publishing the new bi-annual Consumer Sales magazine, a corporate publication that highlights best practices, new tools and consumer insight.
When speaking of her time at UW-Madison, Paulson said her business background “helped me develop necessary analytical, organizational and communication skills.” Paulson also credited the on-campus recruitment process for helping her land the job at General Mills, saying campus recruitment “is probably the easiest way to get a foot in the door.”
Kevin Weadick joined the Leadership Development Program at W.W. Grainger in 2002. After starting out in the Madison, Wis. branch, he moved to corporate headquarters in Lake Forest, Ill., to work on an internal supply chain consulting project. He is currently responsible for managing customer service and inventory levels in Grainger’s nine distribution centers throughout the U.S. Grainger is North America’s leading distributor of facilities-maintenance supplies such as lighting, motors, tools, safety and janitorial and sanitation products.
Weadick explained to BusinessWeek Online that his biggest challenge has been trying to address the professional development needs of a staff of 18 while focusing on regular day-to-day responsibilities. While there are challenges, he also said “What I love about my job is that I interact with virtually every functional area of business – from sales and marketing to distribution operations. I truly get to see across the organization.”
In reference to his education, Weadick expressed the value of courses relating to human-capital management. “I don't think you can ever learn enough about how to get the most from your team.”
You can read the profiles of Kevin Weadick and Melissa Paulson at BusinessWeek Online.