Jillian Aviles '26 North America Foodservice (NAF) Sales Intern

Jillian Aviles '26 (Business Management) was a North America Foodservice (NAF) Sales Intern at General Mills in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

General Mills, Inc. (GMI) handled all housing and relocation for the interns. They used a relocation/housing company that found housing for all of the interns, sent out roommate surveys, etc. Most of the interns ended up in an apartment building about 15 minutes driving from the office. I lived with one roommate who was assigned to live with me based off of our responses to the roommate surveys sent to us. The interns still had to pay for housing for the summer, but we paid a discounted rate. The company also gave each intern a relocation stipend for moving according to their distance from Minneapolis. One challenge was that I did not have a car this summer. I had to rely on my roommate and other interns, but that was only a cause for worry at the very beginning. 

What was the process for getting this internship, job, or summer experience? 

I found out about this internship opportunity at the fall Eller Diversity Mixer and Eller Expo. I met a representative from General Mills at the mixer who then introduced me to the GMI Head Recruiter at the Eller Expo. I chatted with them and gave them my resume. Later that night after the Expo, I got a call from another representative asking if I was free to interview the next day. After my first round of in-person interviews, I was invited to the second round of virtual interviews (held on Microsoft Teams). After completing my interviews, I waited about 1.5 months to hear back from them that I got the offer. So, it was a process that lasted from about early September to early November. 

What was your favorite part of the experience?

My favorite part of the experience was actually going through product trainings. I love baking and it's one of the reasons I was interested in interning at General Mills. During the second or third week of the internship, they put the interns through a product training they called "Culinary University". It was a 6 hour training led by the Culinary Team and Account Executives to teach us about the products they sell, how they work, what they taste like, how they could be used, what problems they could solve for customers, and what type of customers are most likely to want or use which products. We basically made biscuits, croissants, brownies, and pizzas all day which was a blast!

If you worked on a big project, please describe it below:

Each NAF Sales intern was assigned a different project to complete over the course of the summer. My manager/intern lead worked in Sales Operations and was the lead of their internal customer service team. This team acted as the "one-stop-shop" for anyone in the segment who needed help finding answers to questions and navigating the organization. My project for the summer centered around this Sales Operations/internal customer service team. My primary question to answer was: Could I figure out a way to improve "the efficiency, accuracy, and timeliness" of this internal customer service team with the use of "AI or technology solutions"? To answer this question, I conducted multiple cross-functional interviews with NAF’s Field Sales, Sales Enablement, and Digital & Technology teams; analyzed processes to identify inefficiencies and areas that could benefit from improvement; and performed in-depth research of potential solutions. During the final week of the internship, I gave a ten-minute presentation showcasing my final ideas in front of NAF’s Senior Leadership Team and other important stakeholders.

What advice do you have for other students looking for a similar experience, or advice for future students to be successful?

My major piece of advice for other students would be going to career fairs and making connections/networking as early as possible, whether or not you're currently looking for an opportunity. I have been attending the career fairs hosted by Eller since my spring semester of my Freshman year at the University of Arizona, in order to make connections and practice conversing and interacting with potential future employers. I also think it's extremely important to try and intern or work for companies that do work that actually aligns with your interests or what you want to do. I absolutely love all things food and always imagined myself working in the food industry in some way or capacity, so I always narrowed down the companies I wanted to intern for, work for, or talk to according to whether they were centered around food or foodservice.