European graduate program

Jos 

Finance
Amsterdam, The Netherlands 

At the moment, I am responsible for the financial reporting of the protein plant in Amsterdam. This plant produces a wide array of products with applications in the bakery and meat sectors. My direct responsibility is related to profit and loss reporting to the controller, as well as balance sheet management. Daily tasks consist of a combination of financial accounting and management accounting. 

The major part of the financial accounting takes place during month-end reporting. During the month your main focus will be management accounting. This relates to accounts receivable management, projects like customer analysis, hedging foreign exchange exposure, as well as analyzing and improving business processes. Furthermore, there is a lot of interaction between the Financial, Commercial, and Logistics departments. You rely on information from these departments on a daily basis. The fun part about this is that your colleagues from other departments look at the daily business from another point of view. 

Just a few weeks after you start your training, people expect you to live up to their expectations — answering all their questions and solving their problems. Taking initiative is key to developing yourself within Cargill. Secondly, the company has a very flat hierarchy. You can ask everybody anything and the atmosphere is relatively informal. 

When my training is over, I would like to grow into the function of controller within the Grain & Oilseeds Supply Chain business.