Behind the Scenes: What It’s Like To Intern At Econo-Pak

At Econo-Pak, interns don’t just watch from the sidelines, they help shape the business. In this episode, we sit down with Dylan Olson, who joined as an intern and quickly became a valuable part of the team. From building data dashboards executives use daily to sitting in on high-level meetings, Dylan shares what it’s really like to intern at a mid-sized company like Econo-Pak where your work truly makes an impact.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Why interns at Econo-Pak are trusted with real-life projects that make a lasting impact
• How Dylan built Power BI dashboards, an attainment tracker, and a truckload capacity calculator that the team still uses today
• The unique benefits of interning at a mid-sized company like Econo-Pak  vs. a large corporation
• How presenting to executives builds confidence and communication skills
• Dylan’s best advice for future interns

EPISODE BREAKDOWN
00:00 - 2:29 Dylan's Internship Journey
2:30 - 5:44 Dylan's Data Projects and Tools
5:45 - 9:14 Benefits of Being an Intern at Econo-Pak
9:15 - 12:30 Learning and Growth Opportunities at Econo-Pak
12:31 - 12:44 Dylan's Advice for Future Interns 

Econo-Pak is your source for contract food packaging and contract food manufacturing services for all dry food products. Our highly-automated facility of 200+ machines and 800+ production workers is set up to help you scale your product into new markets.

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Transcript

SARAH
Welcome to the Econopac Contract Food Packaging Podcast. I'm Sarah and I'm here with Mike Mead and Dylan Olson to talk about Dylan's internship experience. Welcome Dylan.

DYLAN
Thank you. Thank you guys for having me. I appreciate it.

MIKE
Definitely.

SARAH
So we would love to hear, learn a little more about what you did here at Econo-Pak during your internship.

DYLAN
Yeah, so I mostly worked on Power BI reports for you, guys. It’s centralized production and financial data that covered performance and efficiencies for the company. I also worked on a couple other projects like attainment tracker and a truckload capacity calculator.

MIKE
Nice.

SARAH
So mainly working in statistics.

DYLAN
Yeah, data analysis, data visualization.

MIKE
Yeah. That's great. Obviously, I want to dive a little bit deeper into some of those different areas. But what made you choose Econo-Pak  as a spot for your internship?

DYLAN
Yeah, so there were a couple reasons why I chose Econopac. One of the main things that I think of is it’s a mid-sized company, and that's very attractive to me, especially because you guys are growing exponentially from what I've seen through the data while I've been here the past couple of months. That's very attractive to me, especially because as an intern you get a certain experience like, as an example, I was talking to you before with JP Morgan, if you were to go to someplace like that, a larger corporation, you don't get the same experience as if you're at a midsize company like this, where you get direct access to C-suite executives and high end personnel, and it's extremely valuable to me and my experience.

MIKE
Yeah, definitely. And yeah, you've had the opportunity to work very closely with, like you said, the C-suite executives in the company to try to create these documents that you've been working on all summer and, you know, and helping develop that. So that's very interesting. And I'm glad you had that access because I think it's extremely important to come into a company that will grant you that access and have that opportunity to learn from as you explore what your career path is going to yield.

DYLAN
Yeah, I completely agree. And it's also a part of the effect that I can make on the company. Because if you're at a larger company, you're most likely just going to be doing coffee runs or something very simple and mundane. But here, I can actually make an impact and do things important to my career. And it's very valuable to me.

MIKE
Yeah, and that you've absolutely done.

SARAH
How did you feel sitting with the executives and showing them your project for the first time?

DYLAN
I was very nervous, of course, doing that for the first time. I'm probably not the best at presenting. So I was very worried about that, but once you get comfortable with everyone, you guys are very tight knit around here, and I absolutely love that. You guys have a very good community of people. And that was another thing that attracted me to you, guys, is that as soon as I walked in, it just felt very inviting and welcoming. And that was one of the things that once I came up, once I got comfortable, you know, it felt very natural.

MIKE
Yeah, I remember meeting you for the first time we had our meeting. It was myself, our CEO, a COO, I think our director of operations, CFO—we're all sitting down and getting to meet with you and talking about your internship and wanting to make it very impactful. It was extremely important for myself to make sure that we gave you a proper project to work on. And it would be a real life experience. And we would be able to utilize that information and then help not only you, but you're also helping us at the same time, and kind of see what your vision of the company looks like, through your lens. And  it was really cool.  I'm glad that we were able to create a project that was attractive and interesting to you to work on, and then you were able to have the access to the information you need in order to be successful with that.

SARAH
I think it's worth noting too, you had said that you felt you weren't a great presenter, but I heard feedback that you did a great job at it. And in fact, that you kind of captured the attention of the entire room. So yeah, just know that.

MIKE
That is absolutely true. And that's a great point to bring up. When you presented, actually, when we met you for the first time, it was somewhat of an interview in a sense, for your internship. I thought you handled yourself really well. And you're very confident about what you want to do with your career. And it was how do we fit that into our organization? And how does it benefit both parties? But then when you worked on your project, I think you came with very good questions. And then you ran with that to develop. I think all of us from  the executive level were very, very impressed with the way that you presented all of the different dashboards and the data sets that you put together for us to use as reference points for our business. And I can tell you firsthand that every day, that's one of the first things I do is I open up the dashboard that you built and I use that data information to kind of set the tone for not only my day, my week, my month, but it's also making me really think ahead on like, where do we need to be as a company? And we've always had access to those data points and we utilize that. The way that you were able to put it into one cohesive place was very impressive. So definitely will pay you that compliment.

DYLAN
Yeah, I appreciate that.

SARAH
So can we learn a little bit about what you learned here?

DYLAN
Yeah, so I've definitely learned a lot while I've been here in the past couple of months. I mean, one thing is definitely just the exposure, getting the exposure to all the different departments here and seeing how everything works super well together. Like you guys, like I said, you guys are very tight knit and getting this big picture of how business operates on this medium-sized scale really helps me a lot, and just getting used to businesses and seeing what it's really like. And I think you guys do it very well, especially, like John's podcast, I was researching before this. I think you put it very well. He was saying that, successful businesses, they'll have one thing in common. That's just the tight knit community. And that's one thing you guys have. And that's one thing I've learned while I've been here is that that's very important. And having those open doors and being able to go in and ask questions with people. That's one of the main things that I love about here, is that I don't have to be afraid to go to someone and learn something new.

MIKE
Now we want to encourage that type of environment for everybody. And as we bring new people into the organization, it's extremely important for everybody to have access. Not only to software and data and things like that, but also people. Just having access to people and having people want to make time for you and be approachable is extremely important. So I'm glad that you had that as part of your experience.

DYLAN
You can also break it down into technical skills that I've learned and soft skills that I've learned. Like technically, I've learned a lot with Power BI and data visualization and analytics just while I've been working here  because that's something you don't necessarily learn in school or use in school, but it's very relevant with business and actually utilizing visualization tools like that while I've been here.

Thankfully, you  let me do that. And soft skills as well. Just getting very comfortable with executives and, like I said, personnel, getting used to that and being adaptable. ‘Cause you guys are very fast paced. It's extremely helpful just to me in general, moving forward.

SARAH
Yeah. And also having a professional countenance and learning how to speak the business lingo. Like you definitely seem like you've picked up on those skills as well.

DYLAN
Yeah, exactly. Agree.

SARAH
All right. So tell us some memorable experiences you've had while at Econopac.

DYLAN
So when I first came here, I believe this was my first month here. I luckily got to sit in a meeting with you, our vice president, Ed, our COO, our CEO, PJ, and our project manager, Johnny, with a pricing meeting. And I luckily got to sit on that and that was very enlightening to see what a professional meeting was actually like. Cause I'm not really used to that. I was kind of nervous going into that, seeing what it would have been like, what you guys would talk about a meeting. So it was very enlightening to do that. And also just the people, meeting everyone here, the memories just made along the way with just meeting everyone. That's probably one the most valuable things I'll take away from this.

SARAH
That's awesome. I remember I sat in that meeting as well. And I remember PJ pulling you in, the CEO, and him asking you questions about the pricing and just what your thoughts were, which number one, I think that's so cool that he's so personable like that as the executive in the company, but also that you were actually able to give some really good feedback. So.

MIKE
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, no, it's been a memorable thing just in general, just getting a chance to work with you and really see the way that you're looking at our company. And you know, I kind of said that previously in this conversation, but I think it's worth bringing up. It's just nice to be able to get that refreshing look. And then the dashboards and the way that you pull data together to give that different visuals was really, really cool. It's very impressive.

DYLAN
Thank you.

SARAH
Yeah, I think we've established that you're an excellent intern. So for future interns, what advice would you have for them?

DYLAN
I would definitely suggest not being afraid of asking questions and going to people for help because that's I would say probably what most people struggle with, just relying only on themselves and being afraid to go to someone when they don't know really what to do. But once you break that barrier and you get to actually talk to people, it really helps and allows you to progress much faster than if you weren't to.

MIKE
Yeah, that's great advice.

SARAH
Yeah. I think it ties into, to some, one of the most dangerous things you could do while working is making assumptions and asking those questions, make sure that you're double checking with somebody else to make sure that you're not making assumptions. So it's great.

DYLAN
Yeah, I agree. That's totally relevant to data as well. Just data validation. That's incredibly important to what I do. So that was something I had to get very used to, just going to people, bothering them constantly.

MIKE
Yeah, no bother. I was always impressed with the questions you had and I thought you made sure that you came in with a very specific question. We would deliver an answer to get you the results that you need so that you could go back and continue to work. And that's extremely important to the way any operation should run. Yeah, that's great. Do you want to talk a little bit about your next steps in your collegiate career?

DYLAN
Yeah, so before I came here, I graduated from Sussex County Community College, as you know, and three associates degrees, one in mathematics, one in business administration and one in science. And now I'm transferring in the fall to New Jersey Institute of Technology, where I'll be pursuing a Bachelor's in Mathematical Sciences with a concentration in Applied Statistics. And I'll continue to work here as an intern. I'm at school, just a very light schedule, but I'll continue to do that, stay updated, continue to see you guys whenever I can.

MIKE
Yeah, we're excited that you're going to continue to work with us and stay connected and join us on some virtual meetings and also still be connected to data so that when you do have those breaks in your college time, you can come back here and continue to work with us and continue to develop. Really excited to see where your path leads. Very, very impressed with everything you've brought to the table. And it's going to be really, really interesting to follow your journey. So I'm happy to stay connected.

Thank you. It was great to be a part of you guys, even if it was very short.

MIKE
Yeah. Thank you.

SARAH
Thanks, Dylan.