AG careers.com.

Welcome to what we hope will be the first annual Agribusiness Employer Guide. Thanks to our relationship with AgriMarketing magazine, we are able to bring you a resource that will help explore the many wonderful employers within our industry. Learn more about these organizations and a number of other tips to guide your career path and help you prepare for the job search process.

Often times, society believes that an agriculture job entails working on a farm somewhere in rural America. While this is an important part of agriculture and does result in a number of career opportunities, there are so many additional job opportunities that people don't realize. One of the most exciting experiences of being president of AgCareers.com has been witnessing the increased variety of jobs that our industry has to offer, from sales to engineering and finance to research. The site has jobs in rural areas, small towns and large metropolitan areas, such as San Francisco and New York.

If we look at the numbers over the next four to five years the country's 500 biggest companies anticipate losing half of their senior management to retirement. This is a loss of approximately 77 million baby boomers. This creates even greater constraints for industries that are growing and expanding, such as agriculture is doing. However, for young professionals, this creates a wealth of opportunities and the ability to be choosey.

With the increased competition from outside industries and their ability to recruit from agriculture schools to fulfill their needs, the only way agriculture employers can resolve their recruiting issues is to become proactive and strategic.

This resource guide includes profiles on 17 of the top agribusiness organizations in our industry that cover a wide variety of the industry sectors. If you are looking for a job or considering a degree in an agriculture program, we are confident that this guide will help to reassure you that there are great job opportunities and great organizations to work for.

For further details on career opportunities that are available in the agriculture industry, visit AgCareers.com at www.AgCareers.com. Good luck in your future endeavors and if we can be of assistance to you in your search, please do not hesitate to contact an AgCareers.com staff member.

Sincerely,

Eric Spell, President AgCareers.com