Samuel Bryson: From Intern to Product Manager

At H.B. Fuller, we know that innovation and leadership require investing in people and developing their talents. As such, our mission is to recruit the best and brightest and provide new generations with unique opportunities for growth and learning. We promote promising students seeking to contribute meaningful work in their area of interest, whether they practice science, business management, or any role that can help us compete and raise the bar for what it means to succeed.

Summer interns make invaluable contributions to our business as a whole and to the greater fields in which they work. Samuel Bryson learned what it means to contribute great work when he started as an Analytical intern at the Willow Lake office and lab. His work lets him explore different roles, decide where he fits best, and do what he enjoys most.

Building on Achievement

Samuel's experience as an intern showed him that hard work pays dividends. After his three-month internship in the summer of 2018, he committed to a full-time rotational role and spent five months in R&D, five months in sourcing, three months in product line management and marketing, two months in supply chain, and three months in the Blue Ash facility for process improvement where he did the work he's most proud of: "By finding a way to reduce the post-batch water adjustments on multiple, high-volume bulks, I was able to open capacity by roughly 400,000 lbs. per year if demand stays close to constant for those bulks."

Samuel's role as an intern taught him how to handle instrumentation and analytical method development … skills he uses today in developing data infrastructure and assigning product strategies to conduct continuous product line rationalization exercises. He now works as a member of the product line management group for Hygiene, Health and Consumable Adhesives (HHC) at H.B. Fuller as a product manager, leading the way to find the potential value in the product lines of HHC that boost the company's standing. He's learned to see the bigger picture of business processes and how his role helps move us forward.

His work as a product manager enables him to have insights into the market, and a trend he observes is how product line managers' activity will develop more and more to support the business on the pricing journey. In that effort, he finds ways to differentiate H.B. Fuller products that will drive the campaign to achieve the greatest customer value and search for ways to drive pricing excellence. He coordinates building strategies with his marketing colleagues for every product SKU with sales in the global HHC business unit (for a total of 10,000 SKUs).

Life in the Twin Cities

In his off hours, you'll find Samuel taking in the culture in the area, hiking, rock climbing, riding his motorcycle, and visiting the many breweries around the Twin Cities. Overall, he reports that his experience working for us has been extremely positive, and he cites his managers for the strides he makes in advancing his knowledge and experience. His managers provide him with the tools he needs to succeed, always backing him up as he progresses in his career.

Interning with H.B. Fuller

Samuel shares that he looks forward to his future at H.B. Fuller and is ready for more challenges. His start as an intern has created the opportunity to advance, and it encouraged him to learn and grow early in his career. He says, "The internship experience was phenomenal. I was given multiple, meaningful projects that allowed me to problem-solve and collaborate with others in the analytical group. I gained exposure to a massive variety of roles, and I am happy to be a part of a new team that is building something new and exciting."

H.B. Fuller is a global leader in adhesives, and we set our sights on driving trends and innovation in the market. Internships are a critical component of our long-term hiring strategy. We believe that your unique skills, passion, and personality can positively impact our business and company culture. To learn more about summer internships at H.B. Fuller, watch this video and read more about how our internships work and what you can expect when you work with us.