Meet Emma Kirby, Junior Sales Executive

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Meet Emma from the Australia Sales team

My name is Emma Kirby and I started as a Junior Sales Executive (JSE) in 2021. Joining the business amid the COVID-19 pandemic was an interesting experience filled with new learnings, challenges and growth. Ahead of joining the JSE program I had several years’ experience in retail and operations, as well as a four-year university education in Business and Arts. Despite majoring in Communications and Marketing, the Junior Sales Executive program was a great fit for the global business experience I was searching for.

What was your overall experience as a graduate with MDLZ?

The JSE program is unique in the sense it offers a two-year plan that exposes graduates to multiple facets of the Sales function at Mondelez. I started my journey with two months in the field team working across corporate, independent and impulse customers activating our iconic brands like Cadbury, Oreo and The Natural Confectionary Company.

Next, I moved into HQ in the Category and Pricing team and later the Seasonal & Discounted Department Stores (DDS) Accounts team working with customers Coles, Woolworths and Big W. The exposure from both the CP&A and Accounts team gave me opportunities to participate in real roles that supported the wider sales function. The cross functional engagement I gained working with Finance, Marketing and Supply allowed for an end to end understanding of how a winning global business operates.

As I finished my time in the graduate program I had a really strong sense of the business, how functional teams operate, process as well as a better formed professional identity. Moving into my full-time role in the Seasonal team, the graduate program set me up with the capability and confidence to enter this next phase of my career with capability and potential.

What were the key learnings, highlights and growth for you, and what skills did you learn?

Key learning from the JSE program include:

• A sense of my professional identity and where I want to aim in my career path. The ability to be challenged in different roles and teams throughout the program gave me a sense of my passions, interests and areas for growth.
• The complexity of this global business – how all the efforts from the wider team stack to create enormous outcomes that are globally recognised through our industry and beyond.
• Highlight was being able to present to the senior leadership team a pitch of ideas for introducing modern and innovative ideas to how the workplace will look into the future.
• Another highlight is the mentor and buddy program. My mentor is senior in the Sales team and my buddy is based in our NZ office. The support and guidance I have received as part of these relationships has been integral and extremely valuable. Also, this provided a real sense on inclusion and team as part a large business.
• Skills I learnt during my time include technical and competency-based skills, business acumen, leadership, project management, sales communication, and working cross functionally with a number of different peers.

What is current position and what advice would you give to someone considering a graduate position with MDLZ?

My current role is a National Account Executive in the Seasonal team. I work on Coles, Woolworths, Kmart, Big W, Independents and PnC customer accounts. My advice would be to grasp this opportunity as it offers an inclusive, well developed graduate program that is unique to any other I have heard of. This business wants to see graduates succeed and grow as valuable assets into this business. The team is not shy to provide opportunities to those who are hungry for growth and learning.