Careers in Agriculture

A recently completed study projects that the number of job openings in the food and agricultural sciences will exceed the number of qualified graduates every year from 2000 until 2005. Many of these positions will be in areas that support the marketing and distribution of agricultural commodities as well as in the production sector of agribusiness operations.

• Thirty-two percent of these openings will be for scientists and engineers, including biochemists, entomologists, geneticists, plant scientists, and veterinarians.
• Another 28 percent of openings will be in marketing, merchandising, and sales, with job titles such as commodity broker, market analyst, and export sales manager.
• Thirteen percent of openings are projected to be in management and finance, including jobs such as loan officer, financial analyst, and research economist.
• There are many more jobs available in communication, education, social sciences, and agricultural production

To view the full results of this study conducted jointly by the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service of the US Department of Agriculture and other partners, visit Employment Opportunities for College Graduates in the Food and Agricultural Sciences. After reading the above information, it becomes obvious that agriculture today encompasses much more than the production of crops and livestock.

As an experiential method of investigating possible career paths in agriculture, our students are encouraged to seek out internships during their college careers. For some examples of typical internships in which recent students have participated, or for profiles of recent graduates and the types of jobs or post-graduate educational avenues they've pursued, click on the appropriate link:

• recent internships
• profiles of recent graduates

Lastly, there are a large number of search engines available on the web that focus on agricultural careers. A short list of potentially useful sites for specific agricultural-related careers information:

• Ag Center
• Ag Jobs USA
• AgriCareers, Inc.
• Bestard Agricultural Placements
• Department of Agriculture Agency job search
• EquiMax
• Equine careers brochure originally published by the American Horse Council
• EquiStaff
• Farms.com
• FFA.org's Careers database
• Hansen Agri-Placement
• United States Federal Government official job site
• USDA student opportunities, internships and scholarships

Check out Truman's Career Center for more information.