Industrial engineering major Lillian McCloud spend the summer of 2024 working an internship for Frito-Lay.
This past summer, I had the opportunity to work for Frito-Lay as a supply chain and engineering intern at their corporate headquarters in Dallas, Texas. As an industrial engineering student with manufacturing experience, I was excited to be able to see the supply chain from a larger scope while working in a corporate role.
For my assignment, I worked on the corporate reliability team. The team supports all of Frito-Lay’s North American production facilities through maintenance and reliability resources, with the goal of ensuring equipment is available when needed to create products. While in this role, I worked to bring existing reliability tools to sites that did not have them implemented yet.
I was able to collaborate with individuals at a variety of plants, on different teams at headquarters, and even travel to a production site where I learned about troubleshooting as a team when equipment goes down. It was especially valuable to learn about the variety of opportunities available to industrial engineers, as we could go into manufacturing, engineering, supply chain, or other fields.
I was able to get this internship through attending career fairs at school, particularly the engineering expo. I made sure to research Frito-Lay before the expo so I knew about their products, jobs, and had questions prepared to ask recruiters. At the expo, I was able to talk with recruiters about what makes Frito-Lay a great place to work and projects they have worked on. After the expo, I continued to interact with the company and eventually interviewed for and accepted my internship. While all job searches look different, I benefited greatly from the opportunity to connect with a recruiter in person and ask questions about their experiences.