Howdy,

I will be a Senior this coming Fall, and will graduate in May 2016. I started as a mechanical engineering major and like many..switched my major (had a 3.0 at the time). I currently have a 3.86 in AgEco and a 4.0 major GPA.. I am currently an intern on the reporting team (use SAS daily) at GM Financial. I applied to easily over 50 internships, many of them on hireaggies.com, but only received 3 interviews.

I was trying to decide between a regular Economics degree or Agricultural Economics ( I have since tried to transfer into Mays twice with >3.6 GPA both times, rejected both times). I ended up picking AgEco because I heard from many that A&M's regular Economics degree is very theoretical, and I wanted something that was applied. I feel many companies just do not understand what AgEco really is, so they just look over the resume without reading any further. Yes there are some classes in the AgEco track that are quite different than the regular Economics track.. but I feel the degree has changed since the student-base is much more "city folk" than it has been before. I have debated changing my degree to regular economics, but it is too late. I have taken out two be-on-time loans, and well.. I need to "be on time". My family does not have the funds to help out with school, so I have worked every year so far to finance about 85% of my education (2 be-on-time loans are the other 15%). Due to this, I cannot immediately go after a masters degree.. I DO plan on taking the GMAT this winter since the scores are good for 5 years, and then going to get my MBA at a top business school in the next 4-5 years.

I believe I am very good at numbers and an extremely quick learner. After college I am interested in a few industries: o&g (obviously), banking, consumer goods. Honestly I am so young and haven't had a ton of exposure to many industries that it can be hard to say what industry I am truly interested in-- I am VERY interested in procurement/supply chain jobs.

I would love to hear what the community here has to say about all of this.

Also, I currently live in the DFW area (Lewisville/FM/HV with my parents) and would love to work in DFW/Houston

If you would like to reach out to me, my email is cole.coen at yahoo dot com

Thanks and Gig' Em!

note: I had the wrong email address on here for a bit.. fixed now

I graduated with an agecon degree in spring of '13.

You are correct, some companies will ask questions about what an AG Eco degree really is. I found it easiest to tell them it was more like an AG business degree since they only differ by around 20 hours or so if I remember right, rather than compare it to a regular economics degree which I know less about and only took 3 or 4 Econ classes versus numerous ageco and agbusiness ones.

It goes without saying O&G will likely be tough to get in to right now, but once oil picks back up again I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities for you there, it just might be awhile. If you are interested in procurement type jobs you may look into Labatt food services, I think they have offices in the three big Texas cities and I remember them recruiting the department pretty hard at one time and having buyer/procurement positions.

The great thing about the degree is how wide open it is, there is a ton of very different fields you can go into with that degree. From banking, accounting/payables type stuff, sales, marketing, etc. there is a ton of ways you go and make a career out of it. Good luck with the search, I didn't have a set direction I wanted to go at graduation either so take your time and find something you truly enjoy.

Thank you for the feedback. I am actually very interested in procurement at PepsiCo.

If I may ask, what do you do now?

I do agricultural commodity marketing, both cash sale of crops and trades in the commodity futures market. I really enjoy it and it's always interesting because the markets are always changing, it wasn't my first job right out of A&M.

Regarding industries, I find that there are good and bad companies in every industry. If you're thinking of yourself as a business generalist, look for good companies, not particular industries. Once you have companies targeted, remember that 80% of how you feel about your job will be due to your manager.

I don't have much advice on AgEc, other than knowing a couple very successful people with that degree from A&M, but I do know a little something about Labatt.

It is a really good place to work for 1-2 years to get some good first job experience, but keep in mind that turnover in their purchasing department is huge. I know several former Labatt buyers, and aside from a couple guys who have been there for decades just about every buyer is miserable and quits pretty quickly.

Ditto for IT, and last I heard, for marketing as well. The accountants seem pretty happy though.

Farm Credit Administration....