Anyone have insight on General Mills FLDP?

Hi all,

Currently an incoming senior at a semi-target school. Right now I am interning at a Fortune 100 Aero/Def company in an FP&A and operations finance hybrid role. Work is not bad but I have to work with a lot of engineers on a daily basis and I am not a fan of the way they do carry out things since its very go by the books/not creative. Because of this I am most likely not going to return back to the same company since I want to work aside more creative people (i.e: sales/marketing).

One of the few companies that recruit at my school that fit the bill (aside from P&G) that I don't happen to know much about is General Mills. I remember I was invited to interview for their Financial Analyst internship program this past fall but I declined because it conflicted with an interview at my top choice company which I never got an offer from. This fall I am hoping to apply again and interview for it if I am invited once more. With this I was wondering how is General Mills FLDP overall as a brand name program, quality of rotations, quality as Pre-MBA work experience/MBA feeder quality, etc.

Any help/insight/feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

Brand name is strong.

Here are some rotations to give you an idea: http://www.generalmills.com/~/media/Recruiting_Files/1-2_Areas_of_Inter…

It's hard to say how it is as an MBA feeder, but usually if you perform in the top of your class, do well on GMAT, and have a strong academic history, you should have a shot at top MBAs. Of course, top MBA programs are a shitshow to get into.

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

Sorry to hear your current exp is not to your liking I too am having similar experience (big oil F20 working with engineers) that I am not fancying much now. If you decide to go ahead and apply to General Mills I think you're making a great choice. The brand name is very strong being that they are a leading CPG company. Recruiters came to my school and I got the chance to chat with them about the program. From what I understand its an awesome rotational program. Their rotations literally cover all aspects of finance (from plain Jane financial reporting to sexy M&A stuff) with opportunities for international rotation as well (which is encouraged) as opposed to some other programs (refer to D Ms link above for more info which gives a good overview).

As far as MBA opportunities I have read around not only on here but reddit as well (I think) that its a pretty big feeder to top MBA programs. To give you an idea, of the two recruiters that came to my school, one went to HBS and the other Kellogg prior to returning back to General Mills. If you do a Linkdin search you'll see quite a few people that went through the FLDP went to some great schools: HBS, Booth, and Darden just to name a few. Then again like DM mentioned above top MBAs are a super crapshoot and the people that went to the top school were more than likely superstars in the program. Nonetheless, I would say go ahead and apply again!

P.S: To those reading this and know more about the program or maybe actually went through it/going through it, feel free to correct me if I got some facts wrong especially about the feeder portion since these were just from observations and research!

 

Generally what had been said above is correct, although there are only a few rare international opportunities at the analyst level.

The company is driven by marketing so you'll have the chance to work on products with people from top mba's but it's also a manufacturing company so you'll have rotations where supply chain and r&d people are your partners.

Each year 10-12 people go to school from finance. Probably 3-6 go top 5 and the rest local part time or top 15. Gmi hires a ton of marketing mba's from top schools so the relationship is great.

 

It's a really great program and the FLDP people get some interesting rotations and HQ is badass. If you get to work on Big G cereal the floor in the Bell Tower has all of their flagship cereals and free milk.. I know several people that went through the FLDP at Gen Mills and went to HBS or GSB and landed roles at MBB.

My only words of caution are three things:

  1. Minneapolis is a cool city, but honestly the winter is completely awful. Last year it was -60 degree windchill
  2. People stay there A LONG time. I met a few senior analyst who were around for over 15 years. Promotions are a little difficult to come by because the company and work is interesting so no one wants to leave.
  3. THIS IS A HUGE ONE and why I didn't go back. The company culture is very midwestern or "Minnesota nice". People are passive aggressive and are afraid of offending people or coming off as rude. So they have hidden expectations, but no real feedback. If you are a type A East coast individual you may have a really hard time.

But the hours are fantastic and you can leave and come in at almost anytime you want.

 

Yeah, not marketing or brand development, just the Finance LDP. What do you guys think? Their brochure has an ex FLDP guy who's at HBS right now, but I'm wondering if that's just an outlier or if General Mills brand is looked favorably upon by top M7 MBA.

 
hamm0:
I know of 2 GM people in MBA programs - 1 was supply chain and the other sales. 1 is at Booth and the other is at HBS.

Just random data points.

Thank you! I actually did some LinkedIn search and did see quite a few GM people at M7 MBA' programs The fact that Gen Mills' marketing careers are coveted by top MBAs probably help boost their brand name.

 

General Mills is a feeder to top MBA programs. People go to top schools from a variety of functions (sales, marketing, finance, supply chain, r&d). Each year GMI sends at least a dozen people to schools like Kellogg, Wharton, HBS, etc. This number may seem small given the size of the company but that's mostly based on selection bias. People tend to be very happy there and take advantage of tuition reimbursement to attend PT programs in the Twin Cities area (mainly U of MN though). The name carries a lot of weight not only in b-school admissions but also in recruiting.

 
ReluctantMBA:
General Mills is a feeder to top MBA programs. People go to top schools from a variety of functions (sales, marketing, finance, supply chain, r&d). Each year GMI sends at least a dozen people to schools like Kellogg, Wharton, HBS, etc. This number may seem small given the size of the company but that's mostly based on selection bias. People tend to be very happy there and take advantage of tuition reimbursement to attend PT programs in the Twin Cities area (mainly U of MN though). The name carries a lot of weight not only in b-school admissions but also in recruiting.

Thank you! I heard General Mills is an awesome company with great work life balance so I, myself might even end up falling in love with the area and give up my dreams of HBS ->McKinsey. Ha

 
ReluctantMBA:
General Mills is a feeder to top MBA programs. People go to top schools from a variety of functions (sales, marketing, finance, supply chain, r&d). Each year GMI sends at least a dozen people to schools like Kellogg, Wharton, HBS, etc. This number may seem small given the size of the company but that's mostly based on selection bias. People tend to be very happy there and take advantage of tuition reimbursement to attend PT programs in the Twin Cities area (mainly U of MN though). The name carries a lot of weight not only in b-school admissions but also in recruiting.

Also, with everything else being equal, what do you think is a better work experience to get into top MBA programs? Gen Mills FLDP for 3 years, or IBD analyst at top MM/BB bank for 3 years? I've heard F500 FLDP might be better because there are a glut of Wall St. people applying to MBA.

 

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