Miller Brewing Co.
Location: Milwaukee
Employees: 6,000
Number of interns: 50
Length of internship: 12 weeks
Internship program created: 2001
What it does: Miller is the second largest brewery in the United States, with seven breweries scattered across the country. Now a part of SABMiller, it controls 18 percent of the U.S. beer market.
Description of internship: Internships are available in sales, corporate affairs, strategy, finance, information systems, marketing, procurement, national accounts and supply chain. Each intern attends a one-week orientation and is assigned to a self-managed project at the beginning of the summer. In addition, there is quite a bit of team interaction. Sales interns, for example, get to observe focus groups and attend trade shows. Presenting a successful final project often leads to full-time employment -- 69 percent of Miller's interns received full-time offers last year. (paid)
Notable perks:It wouldn't be a brewing company without opportunities to kick back and crack open a cold one. Miller hosts two social or networking events per week, including sports games and brewery tours. Some are open to the interns' family and friends. Besides their involvement in the office, interns can participate in an intern committee that can involve publishing a newsletter, managing intramural sports teams, or organizing community-service trips. Many employees also participate in an informal Brew Crew Network that provides mentoring for trainees. To encourage mingling, each intern is given $100 to use towards social outings with the crew. Milwaukee interns luck out -- Friday happy hours serve free beer.
Why interns? For the company, recruiting imaginative minds early on gives them a head start in their annual hiring process. "Miller knows that talented, motivated, performance-driven people are a competitive advantage in our industry," university relations manager Shannon Mulvihill says.
