I am starting my third week here with AgCareers.com in the Farms.com branch office out of Ames, IA on the campus of Iowa State Univeristy in Research Park. I have been exposed to a number of initiatives within the company, as well as contributed personal input on the status of my current and ongoing projects at a recent staff meetingreporting directly to the President of AgCareers.com. Looking closer in to my daily work, after finishing training I was able to really nail down on some of the projects assigned. I have since completed a Competitive Pricing Analysis for our company to benchmark our standards against that of our competitors of major job boards as well as similar niche job boards. I also am currently writing and have writen articles to be featured in our e-newletter delivered via email across North America to our subscribers. In addition, I reached out and individually called all of the past attendees of the 2011 North American Ag HR Roundtable (an anual event AgCareers.com hosts to promote further education and resources to Ag-based HR associates across North America) to remind them of the upcoming deadline for earlybird registration for the 2012 North American Food and Ag HR Roundtable and offer support in any concers or questions they may have. I am also in the beginning stages compling data to report in the Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Enrollment and Employment Outlook that AgCareers.com developed and reports on the status of enrollment and employment of our postsecondary agriculture students. Clearly I have been kept busy and can't wait to take advantage of further experiences that will be presented throughout the summer.

     Tomorrow I will be touring a couple hog farms in the central Iowa area. I can't wait to check out the similarities and differences of what we have in central Illinois!

Pictured below is my supervisor, Erika Osmundson, myself, and Bonnie Johnson.

-Mark McKown