Associate Packaging Engineer
Education: B.S. in Packaging Science, Michigan State University, May 2007
What diversity means to me: Diversity isn’t just ethnicity, but also frame of mind and age group.
When Eric Dickason showed up at Campbell for the first day of his internship, he was shocked to find the company had given him his own desk and telephone—he had expected to be locked up in a lab all day. Two years after the start of that internship, Dickason has made a home for himself at Campbell. He may be just a year out of school, but he sees himself with the company for the long run.
You’re 24 years old and responsible for telling your senior colleagues what to do—how has that been? Being young and getting people to believe in me and trust my opinions can be a challenge. I’m working with people who have 20 or 30 years experience and they have this kid asking them to do things a certain way. I can definitely put myself in their shoes and understand how that would be difficult. I’m proud of how I’ve learned to build relationships here and consider it a blessing to gain people’s trust.
Has the job met your expectations? It’s exceeded them. I thought I’d be cooped up in a lab all day. I didn’t expect any traveling, and I’ve been out of state every week this year—frequent flier miles are my best friend! I definitely didn’t consider myself an entrepreneur either, but I do now. You need business savvy to get others to help you. That’s a skill I learned at Campbell, not in school. They don’t teach corporate behavior in college!
What initially attracted you to Campbell? I get to support the everyday business of Campbell. I wanted to work with different materials from glass to plastic to metal and span the entire spectrum of the packaging development process, and I got to do that here. There’s an innovation at Campbell that really grabbed me, too.
Is the company diverse? Yes. Many corporations will have a variety of ethnicities, but you can’t just hire different races and say you’re diverse. I think at Campbell, it’s the mixture of people with different ideas that makes it truly diverse—people from different places and different generations in particular. Diverse people coming together for a common goal is great.
Where do you see yourself in five years? I definitely see myself still with Campbell. A lot of people don’t want to box themselves in like that, but I see myself getting promoted and climbing the ranks here. The experience you gain by staying with one company for an extended period of time is great. If you’re constantly moving, what are you really learning? I see myself becoming an expert in what I do, and I think I can do that best focused on what I’m doing at Campbell.