Meet our AGCO Summer 2018 Interns

AGCO Corporation is excited to be hosting around 20 interns in our corporate headquarters in Duluth, Georgia for the summer of 2018. The interns are working in six different areas including: finance, human resources, quality, communications, strategy & integration, and information technology. They are impressive representatives of their schools and communities, and are making direct impacts on AGCO as a company. Over the course of their internship, they will complete a cumulative project about their work and impact over the summer, which will be presented to their managers as well as upper level company management. Keep scrolling to meet five of our interns at AGCO corporate headquarters in Duluth, Georgia this summer!

Blake Crowder

Blake Crowder is from Chicago and is currently a junior at the University of Missouri studying finance. His program highly recommends that each student completes an internship before graduating in order to gain experience and explore interests within the finance field. Crowder learned about the AGCO internship program through his father, who began working for AGCO Parts in Batavia, Illinois a few years ago.

Crowder is an intern in the global finance department at AGCO and has been working on several projects since starting in mid-May. He usually focuses on one project per week and is also happy to be using skills from school daily in his work at AGCO. “Continuing the growth of those skills is something that AGCO has been able to provide for me,” Crowder said.

Recently, he and co-intern Hunter Clem proposed a new arrangement to the system used by the finance department in the United Kingdom that also showed how the old and new systems would flow together to suit the formatting changes.

“I think it’s really valuable that I can have the experience and knowledge to talk overseas to someone else and have that connection,” Crowder said. He also noted that he “really likes how AGCO gives interns the opportunity to implement their projects.”

Crowder said that having the opportunity and the visibility for his projects to be seen by the management is something he really values.

He emphasizes the positive working environment at AGCO as a driving factor of incorporating interns into the fold of the company.

“Everyone I’ve talked to really has enjoyed working [at AGCO], always has a smile on their face and always excited to be here from 8-5,” he said. “I think it carries over to us interns too. If they have a good attitude, then we are going to have a good attitude working in the office as well.”

Yun Jeon

Yun Jeon was born in South Korea and grew up in Lawrenceville, Georgia. In the fall, she will be a junior at Georgia Tech studying computer science. Jeon found the position at AGCO while she was searching for an internship in the business sector where she could perhaps apply her computer science knowledge without solely coding.

“[The business aspect of the internship] really interested me because I’m not a very hardcore coder, so the AGCO internship attracted me more than the other internships,” Jeon said.

Jeon is interning in the information technology department and is working on reviewing and editing business intelligence and reporting tools reports for dealers so that their portal reflects helpful information. Jeon said that fixing reports can be time-consuming and appreciates that she and her co-intern Trevin Metcalf can collaborate.

“I didn’t realize that computer science could require this much teamwork. Every aspect of what I do requires teamwork” Jeon said. “[At school] you can’t look at other people’s code, that’d be cheating. Here, you have to look at the other person’s code to find new ways to solve [problems].”

Jeon’s process involves interacting with dealers to get feedback on her work, and she says it’s rewarding to see her impact. “Never had an internship where I could use my skills and feel like an actual employee.” She said. “Here I feel like I’m making a difference in the company and can see my results.”

Teamwork is a practical skill that will also help Jeon after she finishes college, as she will be beginning a four year commitment to military service in the Air Force as part of the Reserve Officer Training Corps program she is part of at Georgia Tech. She also thinks that intern speaker events with experienced company employees will be helpful when she explores careers after her military commitment.

Jacob Madaus-Brueck

Jacob Madaus-Brueck was born and raised in Germany and moved to the United States to start college at the University of Miami. He is currently a rising senior studying political science with a minor in business law. He is completing an abbreviated internship over the summer in order to prepare for the LSAT exam. He is hoping to start law school after graduating. Madaus-Brueck found out about the opportunity at AGCO through a family friend.

Madaus-Brueck is interning in corporate communications and has been working on a few smaller projects. Because he is doing a shorter-term program, he will not have a final cumulative project like the other interns and is instead focusing his energy on smaller projects.

One of the projects he has been working on is building a purpose statement for AGCO. His proposal is currently under review. Madaus-Brueck recently created abbreviations for almost 200 of AGCO’s global sites and also works on AGCO’s Salesforce Social Studio.

“This internship here serves as a good basis for other internships,” Madaus-Brueck said. He appreciates the various business technologies used at AGCO and thinks it makes communication easier and helps him build business skills.

“[The program] is well set up and I think [AGCO] takes good care of the interns,” he said. He notes that interns are given good opportunities to explore the local area and interact with company leaders through key speaker presentations.

Furthermore, Madaus-Brueck feels that interdepartmental interactions have alerted him to a corporate outlet for the law degree he hopes to achieve, and is considering that as an option rather than working at a law firm.

Madaus-Brueck concludes that his internship “has been a very good experience,” because of the skills development and exploration opportunities available to interns at AGCO.

Sally Pan

Sally Pan is a rising sophomore at Brown University studying applied math and economics and is a Johns Creek, Georgia native. After her first year of college, she hoped to find an internship close to home so that she could see her family, and she heard about the AGCO internship program through a connection in the North America finance department.

Pan is interning in the strategy and integration department. With her internship, she’s been able to practice and further develop critical thinking skills by organizing, modeling, and presenting data in models.

Pan likes Vice President of Global Strategy and Integration Karsten Pedersen’s description of the strategy and integration department as an “internal consulting wing.” The project-based work that Pan does at AGCO is similar to the work she participated in as a member of a consulting group at Brown, and she likes being able to look for ways to help AGCO in its efficiency and processes.

The strategy and integration team is a tight knit group, as shown by the fact that Pan has had the opportunity to work directly with her manager and a global vice president on projects, and Pan feels that this closeness is essential to her success and growth as an intern at AGCO.

“Everyone is really open and really warm, which is especially nice as an intern when you’re trying to learn,” Pan said. “[People] are willing to give you projects to work on and teach you how to do things. It’s nice to actually be able to make a contribution to what [AGCO] is doing.”

Pan hopes to take her skills back to school with her as she continues to explore possible career outlets for her field of study.

Kishore Periappu

Kishore Periappu is from India and is currently a second-year grad student at the University of Florida in industrial and systems engineering. He studied mechanical engineering for his bachelor’s degree. Periappu had heard of AGCO previously and discovered the AGCO internship among a series of manufacturing sector internships.

Periappu is interning in the quality department, where he focuses on the quality of suppliers. Some of his projects focus on monitoring costs incurred by items that don’t meet set standards and tracking what costs are associated with the varying quality of some goods.

Though his work ties in well with his undergraduate and graduate studies, Periappu says “It’s really nice to learn a lot of new things that we don’t learn in school” as well. During his internship, he’s been able to get to know Microsoft Excel as well as industry-specific software like Apex, which he uses to analyze supplies’ quality.

Periappu said that the AGCO internship program is “a great platform to learn a number of things and [explore] what you really want to do. Because it’s a wide platform you get to learn a variety of things.” He highlighted that his department in particular worked with suppliers as well as internal departments, providing a wide range of experience.

“I’m growing a lot professionally and as a person,” he said, noting that he has needed to grow from being a student to adjust to corporate work. Periappu likes the flexible schedule for his work day and also appreciates that the transition to life at AGCO was rather easy to navigate because the company takes good care of interns.

“It’s perfect for right now,” Periappu said.

Joy Baumgarten, Global Talent Acquisition Manager, helps coordinate the internship program. She said that the AGCO internship experience is “mutually beneficial” and a “win-win” to both the company and the interns.

“Interns get experience in the real world and can put college content to the test. At the same time, we as a company get access to new ideas,” she said.

Baumgarten’s words reflect the intern’s comments. As Baumgarten said, the interns are doing work that will directly impact the company, whether tangibly in cutting costs or by changing up a consistently held mindset, and they know it. The hands-on intern experience at AGCO allows students to develop skills that they can apply in school and to their own professional careers.

“Interns help us rethink things that we’ve been doing a specific way,” Baumgarten said. “[They] help us get things done that we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.”

Learn more about entry level careers at AGCO.

Written by: Olivia Truesdale

Olivia Truesdale is a human resources intern at AGCO corporate headquarters in Duluth. She is from Rochester, Minnesota and is studying Korean and Spanish at Scripps College in Claremont, California.