What is the MKC Job Shadow Program?
The MKC Job Shadow Program is designed to give students a chance to experience MKC and the careers we have available. Open to students ages 16 and up from high school, trade school or college, participants will be paired with an employee and learn what happens each day in their role to help our member owners be successful. There is truly something new and different to see each and every day. Students will learn what path the employee took to be where they are today and leave with a better understand of possible career opportunities at MKC.
Grain Operations
What are grain operations?
Grain ends up in the human food chain and is the life blood of agriculture in Kansas. Grain comes from the field to our locations, and it is the responsibility of our grain division to get it to the right part of the elevator and keep it clean and safe until it leaves the elevator to enter our food chain.
Who might be interested?
If you like: machinery and learning how things work, welding or working with your hands, working at a quick pace, doing something different every day, solving problems and being outside.
Things you could see:
- Trucks dumping and loading
- Mixing and blending of grain
- Loading and unloading an elevator or bunker
- Building a bunker
- Moving grain from one location to another
- Hard work coming together to keep our food supply safe
Communications
What is the communications department?
Communications is vital in sharing MKC’s mission and story to our customers, employees and communities where we live and work. Our communications department works in multiple facets of communication including print, digital and social. The department produces employee and customer newsletters, creates content for our social media platforms, captures photos and videos and more.
Who might be interested?
If you like: layout and design, writing, working with social media, photography, videography and creating publications.
Things you could see:
- How to work on a team in a professional setting
- Managing social media
- Using Adobe creative software
- Putting together videos
- Taking photos
- Building publications
Agronomy Operations
What are agronomy operations?
Grain is produced in the most efficient manner if the seed planted was in good health, has the nutrients it needs and can live in an environment free of weeds and pests. Our agronomy group works to provide the farmer with high quality seed, utilization of technology to apply fertilizer and nutrients the seed needs to grow and minimize damage done by weeds and pest through spraying.
Who might be interested?
If you like working at a quick pace, paying attention to details, seeing how crops grow, doing something different every day, solving problems, working with customers and being outside.
Things you could see:
- Seed being treated before planting
- Working with the farmer owner to solve problems
- Mixing and loading of crop protection chemicals
Grain Accounting
What is Grain Accounting?
Grain accounting is the process of tracking and assigning a price to the grain from the producers’ field, into the elevator and out into the marketplace where it is processed into the food we eat and fuel for our cars. It is the responsibility of the grain accounting team to account for the value and movement of the grain, which includes paying the producer for grain, paying the truck driver or railroad to move the grain and accounting for the money we receive when we sell the grain. We use all this information to create monthly financial statements that show how the money traveled throughout the month.
Who might be interested?
If you like: problem solving, critical thinking, working with numbers, working on detailed processes, and working in a team environment
Things you could see:
- The different functionality of how we track daily grain movement in our grain accounting software
- How we price grain and pay producers for their crops
- The weekly process of paying our freight haulers for grain shipped to our vendors
- Processing money received from vendors for grain shipped out of our elevators
- Various rail accounting processes
- Various analysis and reporting processes that provide information to our locations
Information Technology
What is Information Technology?
Information Technology is the use of computers to store, retrieve, transmit and manipulate data or information. The components of IT include hardware (infrastructure), software, telecommunications, data and processes. As one of the leading cooperatives in Kansas, MKC strives to be the leader in our use of technology. The MKC IT team provides technological solutions for employees and customers.
Here are some examples of the solutions we provide and support:
- Hardware solutions from computers, to mobile devices, to the infrastructure they operate on and connect through
- Software and mobile applications for entering and processing data
- Websites/applications for displaying information and connecting with people
- Dashboards for analyzing and visualizing data
- Process improvement and analysis
- Research and development of new technologies
Who might be interested?
If you like computers, gaming, mobile apps, new technology devices, problem solving, learning new things and working on a team you might enjoy information technology.
Things you might experience:
- Creating/Updating websites and apps
- Technical Project management
- Remote employee troubleshooting
- Systems/Network infrastructure management
- Working with the employee support desk
Interested In Participating In The MKC Job Shadow Program?
Please complete the form. Once submitted, an MKC representative will contact you to move forward with the experience.
Please note: You must print, sign, and bring the Job Shadow Waiver with you to the job shadow. If you are under the age of 18, the waiver must also be signed by a parent or guardian.
Click the text below to download the waiver.