When you ask Angela Fehr Enriquez, an operations technician at Bonduelle, why you should consider working in Ontario’s food and beverage processing industry, her answer is simple.
“It helps you understand not only where your food comes from, but it’s also knowing that the job that you’re doing directly impacts you, your family, and those that you care about,” she says. “We all consume food every day and just to see a little bit of where it comes from is so interesting. From my experience, there are endless opportunities.”
She would know. She started working at the Bonduelle’s Strathroy, Ont. facility in 2015 as a co-op student. With the support of the company, she worked her way up to where she is today.
“One thing that’s really important is communicating with your supervisors and managers that you do want to continue to grow and develop. They do work with you to find opportunities that suit your skills and help you grow those skills that you don’t necessarily have but may need for other opportunities in different positions that are available,” says Fehr Enriquez. “They’ll give you little projects that you can work on to show off your skills and see if it comes to something more permanent.”
Do you need any formal training to work in the food and beverage processing industry?
Another great thing about working in the food and beverage processing industry is there is room to grow even if you start from a more entry-level position or don’t have any formal post-secondary education.
“From my experience, so many people in a lot of these roles here are people who worked from being in an hourly position who had a high school diploma, who maybe was the class clown, or who maybe was a the C-grade student who just skimped by,” says Fehr Enriquez. “But that isn’t any indicator of what sort of success you will or won’t have. Working in the food and beverage industry, you see so many people from so many different walks of life working here. We’re all making an impact in a similar way.”
Learn more about Angela’s career path and her advice for those looking to get into the industry below:
Also, learn more about the career journeys of Angela’s colleagues Michelle Papineau and Adam Fontain.
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