For students

Internship semester

At DMK, students have the opportunity to combine their theoretical knowledge with discipline-specific work experience in an internship semester. In one of our three- to six-month student internships, you can familiarise yourself with one of our factories, work on exciting projects and deepen your knowledge.

Final-year project

You’re close to the end of your degree and would like to complete it with a Diplom, bachelor's or master's project that is not only academically sound but also practical? You’ve come to the right place.

You can do an internship to support a project that forms part of your degree in a wide choice of departments. Naturally, your topic should help to advance the world of milk to some extent.

You can send in your application at any time of year. You’re welcome to propose a topic that enthuses you. However, you can of course also develop a proposal together with one of our specialist departments. We’ll support you equally either way. Please send your application to bewerbung@dmk.de.

Get acquainted with professional fields, gather practical experience.

For many students, gathering practical experience is just as much part of their studies as theoretical academic knowledge. The DMK Group helps them to get acquainted close up with the various professions in the company. For example, we offer internships during studies.

Tips on your application

You’d like to apply for an internship with us? We’re delighted to hear it. Here are a few tips to ensure your application makes a good impression.

Cover letter and application

Please let us know at least three months before your preferred starting date

what department you are interested in,
what dates you can be available,
what special knowledge you have.

In addition, we naturally need your contact details (name, telephone number, e-mail address etc.).

CV

Please send us your CV in tabular form, typed or keyed. The CV should contain your personal details and document your school education and what you will be doing until you start your planned apprenticeship. If possible, it should leave no gaps. It must also be signed if you are sending it by post. For an online-application, you need your CV in digital format, preferably as a PDF.

Certificates and information about study programme

We request students and final-year students to include the following additional material:

current certificates (e.g. intermediate exam certificates (Vordiplom)/interim reference)
your student registration
if appropriate, the requirements for an internship set by your educational institution (if the internship is a compulsory part of your studies)

We would like to offer as many applicants as possible an internship. Unfortunately, it is not always possible, and we therefore ask for your understanding of that fact.

We as an employer

Career at DMK

As the largest milk processing company, the DMK Group employs several thousand people. A big responsibility that we want to live up to every day.

Job advertisements

Current positions

We have the right job for you: Find all open job offers from DMK here. We look forward to receiving your application!

Initiative application

Apply speculatively here

Now go to our applicant portal and apply speculatively.

Reports

Testimonials from our students

Masterstudent

Marketing/Sales International

Internship Process Development

Experience story: Anja Kappler, Master's student in Research & Development

Surname, First name: Kappler, Anja
Age: 26 years
Degree(s): Ecotrophology (B.Sc.), Food Science (M.Sc.)

Current position:
I'm currently completing a Master's degree project in the process development section of the Research and Development department at DMK in Zeven – to be more exact at the Milk Innovation Center (MIC), DMK's centre of competence for product, process and technology development. Once I graduate I will be working here as a junior developer for international fresh dairy products.

Duties:
At the moment I'm busy working on my Master's dissertation. I'm analysing the characteristics and application of new functional milk powders, particularly for the Asian market which is becoming increasingly important in the dairy industry. For this purpose, I'm working closely with colleagues from the research departments and production at the different DMK locations.

A lot of my work is done in the lab or at the Technical Centre. I carry out various analyses and manufacture dairy products on a semi-industrial scale there.

While writing my Master's dissertation I've always had enough freedom to search for appropriate literature at the University and keep myself up to date with the science. As a junior product developer I'll be developing fresh dairy products for the international market in future – I'm already looking forward to that very much.

The thing I like most about my job is that it is incredibly varied and exciting. I can work with a lot of different products from baby food to fresh cream cheese, and they all make very different and individual demands on me as a developer. Added to that is the strong link between my work and the technological processes that are always being developed further at DMK. It helps that the Milk Innovation Center in Zeven is directly opposite the production site. That means you can always discuss and agree on issues ad hoc with colleagues and have a direct line to the practical side.

Your personal career at DMK:
I started around six months ago with a Master's degree project at DMK and will have a permanent job as a junior product developer for international fresh dairy products once I graduate.

How long have you been working with DMK and how did you find out about the company?
I've been working with DMK at the MIC since April 2014. I was familiar with the company already through work contacts in the food manufacturing industry and then rediscovered it when I was looking for a subject for my Master's dissertation.

Why do you like DMK as an employer?
Research and Development at DMK has come on enormously in the past few years and is still growing. For a career starter, that means you get the opportunity to play an active part in shaping this area of the company in the future. You can see a fairly traditional dairy company developing into an international and innovative food manufacturing company live, and make your mark on it with your own ideas.

What do you particularly like about DMK/what does DMK mean to you?
As a Master's student, I was totally integrated at DMK from the first day on and was allowed to take direct responsibility for my own project. In a lot of companies, you have to complete an internship before the dissertation project. At DMK, however, I was able to start on the Master's dissertation project immediately. It was like jumping in at the deep end to start with, but the confidence the company placed in me motivated me immensely and provided reinforcement for me to carry out my plans. I particularly like the atmosphere in the individual teams. When problems arise people help each other and there is absolutely no question of a dog-eat-dog mentality.

What is particularly important to you in a job?
It is particularly important to me to have the right working atmosphere in the team, and also in the company as a whole. Another important criterion for an employer is the will to work together on identifying the employees' potential and using and developing it accordingly. Because in the long run that's the only way to take everybody forward.

What has been your best experience at DMK so far?
There's no doubt about that: it was the fact that I had the privilege of signing a contract for a permanent job in Research and Development before even finishing my Master's degree project.

Experience story: Kyle Lewis, intern in Marketing/Sales International

Surname, First name: Lewis, Kyle
Age: 27 years
Degree(s): International Relations (M.A.)
Current position: Intern with Marketing/Sales International

Your personal career at DMK:
I was offered a six-month internship in the Marketing/Sales International department, which I was very happy to accept. So far it's been a great experience and I'm already looking forward to the next few months and what's still to come. My original background is totally different from marketing and sales – I did my Master's degree on the International Relations Programme. For this reason, I have very much enjoyed the introduction to the creative and demanding marketing world and have already learnt a host of new things. The combination of English and German was also a major advantage for me, because it gives me the best possible outfit for my professional future later on.

How long have you been working with DMK and how did you find out about the company?
I've been working as an intern in the Marketing/Sales International department since February. I didn't find DMK as an employer for myself at all, so to speak. DMK representatives gave a speech about the group at the Career Event at Jacobs University, my university, last autumn. I was inspired by the presentation and it showed me the many facets of a company that I really hadn't previously heard much about. It wasn't only the presentation by the various managers that impressed me so much, but also personal conversations with Martin Ehrhardt, the Head of Marketing/Sales International, and Barbara Siegert, the Head of the Innovation Management department. We discussed a lot of interesting topics and agreed to talk about a possible internship in the New Year, which we then did. And now here I am.

Why do you like DMK as an employer?
The thing I liked best immediately at DMK was the corporate culture – it's very positive and friendly. Everyone's willing to lend you an ear and is interested in your personal input into a project, regardless of your job title. I can only recommend DMK as an employer and I hope that the collaboration between DMK and Jacobs will continue in the future. Because a lot of entry-level opportunities are offered here for potential employees with different academic qualifications (business, natural sciences and social sciences as well) and cultural roots. The company is growing more and more and you notice that it respects its interesting and multi-faceted employees.

What is particularly important to you in a job?
To me, the most important thing about a job is to get on well with my colleagues and to be given the feeling that every opinion counts. Of course, challenges are important too so that you can prove yourself over and over again and be motivated to improve all the time.

What has been your best experience at DMK so far?
By far my best experience at DMK was the moment when I met the international marketing team and the fact that I have had the privilege of learning so much from them. I was really integrated into everything and got insights into a lot of different projects. I'm taking these learnings away with me and will feel reinforced for the future regardless of what job may await me.

Experience Story: Mareike Hunold, intern with Process Development

Surname, First name: Hunold, Mareike
Age: 25 Jahre
Degree(s): Food Technology (B.Sc.), Food Technology (M.Sc.), specialisation: product design, Master's dissertation on food process engineering
Current position: My current job consists of assessing the long-term stability of evaporated milk and monitoring experiments in production and at the Technical Centre in the Milk Innovation Centre (MIC) in Zeven. I find it exciting to combine different influencing parameters and to tinker around to find out which settings lead to optimised stability. I also really enjoy working with the well-appointed technical equipment and interacting with my colleagues from product and packaging development.

Your personal career at DMK:
As part of my Master's degree I'm currently completing a six-month internship in the process development section at DMK. As of September this year I'll be starting as a junior developer, also in process development. I'm looking forward to it very much.

How long have you been working with DMK and how did you find out about the company?
I've been doing an internship with DMK since March 2014. Because I worked in a dairy while I was still at school, DMK - or at that time, Nordmilch - has always been a familiar concept and a company that interested me. The name also plays a major role in dairy industry journals and MILRAM brand products have always been part of my daily life. So the decision to join DMK was very easy for me and the choice of applying for an internship here was already made.

Why do you like DMK as an employer?
I particularly like DMK as an employer because I had a lot of liberty during my internship to pursue my own ideas. I was able to work independently and also to take some responsibility even at that stage. Naturally the confidence placed in me by my boss and my whole team gives a lot of reinforcement.

What do you particularly like about DMK/what does DMK mean to you?
I like the fact that DMK allowed me to take time during my internship project to look around other sites and find out information about other projects. I'm happy to have got such a broad perspective on the entire company. What's more, I wasn't treated as cheap labour, which unfortunately still happens in a lot of other internships. I've had personal experience of the DMK vision and in particular the core value "fair".Even at the start of the internship I had the feeling that people were looking out suitable opportunities for me to join the company after that period was over. It really did turn out that way and I'll be able to stay with DMK as a junior developer.

What is particularly important to you in your job?
A pleasant working environment and nice colleagues who complement one another and support each other in difficult situations are particularly important to me. The work in process development is varied, and I also enjoyed the combination of practical work at the MIC and sitting at my desk analysing the experiments and doing research. In summary, variety of tasks and also a friendly corporate culture are the particular factors that are very important to me.

What has been your best experience at DMK so far?
At the end of my internship I was allowed to plan a cross-project experiment on my own and carry it out independently at the MIC – that was definitely my best experience so far at DMK. During this experiment, I substituted filtration for the evaporation process in the manufacture of evaporated milk. I'm glad that I'll be able to go on working in the area of filtration after my internship.

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