EARLY CAREERS- Launch your career. Grow your impact. Lead the future.
The Manager in Training (MIT) Program at Wayne-Sanderson Farms (WSF) is a structured 12-month training program designed to cultivate early talent into future leaders within the company. Throughout the program, participants will develop critical leadership skills necessary to thrive in dynamic and challenging environments. Early talent must possess skills related to the program competencies and a college degree.
Candidate Requirements:
- College degree required (associate, bachelors, graduate) OR completed college degree by MIT start date.
- Must be able to relocate within company geographic footprint.
What an MIT Should Expect to Develop:
- Courage and Resiliency: Build the strength to face challenges head-on and recover quickly from setbacks.
- Interpersonal Savvy: Enhance the ability to interact effectively with others, understanding diverse perspectives, and building strong relationships.
- Conflict Management: Learn to navigate and resolve conflicts in a constructive and professional manner.
- Accountability: Cultivate a sense of ownership and responsibility for decisions, actions, and outcomes.
- Action-Oriented Leadership: Develop a proactive approach to leadership, driving results through decisive and timely actions.
- High Learning Agility: Adapt quickly to new information, environments, and challenges, demonstrating a continuous learning mindset.
What an MIT Should Expect During Program:
- Clear Pathway to Leadership: A structured and transparent pathway to leadership roles within the organization.
- Well-Rounded Development: Opportunities for comprehensive growth, including skills development, leadership training, and cross-functional experience.
- Mentorship and Exposure: Access to mentorship, hands-on training, and opportunities to interact with and learn from senior leadership, providing valuable insights and guidance.
- Structured Rotation Schedule: Rotations including plant operations, live production, and relevant business functions.
Responsibilities and Tasks:
- Learn the day-to-day operations by working under the supervision of functional managers or mentors and through direct, hands-on experience in all assigned departments to develop an understanding of departmental operations, processes, procedures and performance standards; apply learned skills in daily interactions with employees, vendors, customers, etc.
- Learn and understand the requirements of both internal and external customers, using information and feedback to improve products and services.
- Identify opportunities for improvement, including underlying root cause, suggest solutions and work with various departments to implement a creative solution to permanently remedy issues.
- Partner with experienced leadership to lead and direct the day-to-day activities of frontline associates.
- Make principled decisions in daily interactions with peers, subordinates and management by learning, understanding and applying the LEAP philosophy.
- Learn and understand the Company’s vision and objectives to create meaningful and measurable personal and subordinate goals
- Follow and ensure others follow all safety initiatives helping to maintain a zero-accident culture.
- Perform additional relevant duties as assigned.
Physical & Safety Requirements:
- Follow departmental and company safety policies and programs.
- Wear required protective equipment in all areas where mandatory.
- Ability to travel throughout facilities both indoors and out.
- Ability to work in a wet, cold, hot, humid, and/or dusty environment.
- Occasionally lift up to 40 lbs.
- Ability to work unusual shifts (holidays, weekends and extended) as needed to meet production requirement.
We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
Skills Required
- College degree (associate, bachelor, or graduate) completed by program start
- Willingness and ability to relocate within company geographic footprint
- Ability to work unusual shifts including holidays, weekends, and extended hours as needed
- Follow and enforce departmental and company safety policies; wear required PPE
- Ability to work in wet, cold, hot, humid, and/or dusty environments
- Occasionally lift up to 40 lbs
- Ability to travel throughout facilities (indoor/outdoor) as required
- Demonstrated leadership competencies: resilience, interpersonal skills, conflict management, accountability, action-orientation, and learning agility
Wayne-Sanderson Farms Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Wayne-Sanderson Farms and has not been reviewed or approved by Wayne-Sanderson Farms.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is often characterized as fair or competitive for the local area, especially for entry-level plant roles. Overtime opportunities and shift premiums can materially improve take-home pay where available.
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Affordable Benefits — Benefits are frequently described as affordable, with health and dental coverage viewed as a relative strength of the overall package. The breadth of options is often positioned as a meaningful offset to the baseline wage for many roles.
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Retirement Support — The retirement program is positioned as a standout feature, with automatic enrollment and a dollar-for-dollar match on the first 4% of pay. External recognition of the plan’s design reinforces perceptions of a strong retirement offering.
Wayne-Sanderson Farms Insights
What We Do
Wayne-Sanderson Farms is an industry leader and the nation’s third-largest poultry producer, serving customers, consumers and communities with integrity, leadership and responsible farm, workplace and business practices. With a diverse portfolio of products, a strong operating culture and an industry-leading workforce of more than 26,000 people, Wayne-Sanderson Farms owns and operates 23 fresh and further-processing facilities across Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Texas. Wayne-Sanderson Farms produces affordable, high-quality poultry products for retail, foodservice, restaurant, industrial and institutional segments under the brand names of WAYNE FARMS® fresh and prepared chicken; SANDERSON FARMS® fresh chicken; COVINGTON FARMS® fresh and frozen chicken; PLATINUM HARVEST® premium fresh chicken; CHEF’S CRAFT® gourmet chicken; and NAKED TRUTH® premium chicken. For more information. visit our website at http://www.waynesandersonfarms.com
