Student establishes an internship with Grainger!

Ryan Van Derra, Marketing Major

William W. Grainger founded the company in 1927, originally Grainger sold only motors. Since then Grainger has expanded their product line to more than 900,000 products and growing. Making Grainger one of the largest business to business distribution centers in the Nation. There are more than 600 Grainger branches in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, India, China, and Panama. I am currently employed in the Appleton branch, one of ten branches in Wisconsin.

My experience at Grainger began in March of 2011. I found a job posting on the internet and applied. After a few interviews I was finally hired and became a part of the Grainger team.  I began as a customer sales associate, which involves communicating Grainger’s product to customers in attempt to help them find their desired product, as well as go after additional sales

After a few months of working with Grainger my manager and I started looking into establishing an internship that would benefit both myself and the company. We settled on more responsibilities within the customer sales associate role such as inventory management and price adjustments. In addition to that, I also took on an accounts manager role. In that position I will be responsible for managing existing accounts, and also working on establishing new accounts.  

A few of my favorite things about working at Grainger include the constant customer interaction. It has really helped me to develop my communication skills as well as expand on my personal network. I am constantly meeting new people and learning new things. My internship at Grainger has really helped me to become more independent, and my confidence is growing.

Grainger is a great company; I have already learned so many new things and acquired many skills that would be hard to come by in a class room. I am excited to continue my progress and meet more people. I can definitely see myself working at a company such as Grainger in the future.