Pivot Bio Interns 2022: Seeking Talent

My name is Marissa Lawry and I have spent the summer interning with the Pivot Bio Talent Acquisition/Recruiting team.

While I am not from a traditional family farm background, I grew up riding and showing horses in Westfield, Indiana. This was my introduction to agriculture and what sparked my desire to make a career within the industry.

This past May, I graduated with a degree in Agricultural Business from Iowa State University. Something I am extremely passionate about is educating the general public about agriculture and advocating on the industry's behalf. The chasm between what consumers know about farming practices and the reality is dangerous for everyone. Having open and respectful dialogues about issues and fears benefits everyone!

One of the primary projects I have within my role on the Talent Acquisition/Recruiting team is continuous reconciliation of the Finance Headcount Spreadsheet to our Greenhouse Recruiting data. The objective here is to maintain currency between the two so that we forecast better for future headcount additions. I have also had the pleasure to assist in sourcing candidates for roles we are having trouble filling, and doing data analytics on the results we receive from these sourcing efforts. Other continuous works in progress include helping to build out both our SOPs and career fairs schedule for this recruiting season.

Pivot Bio is pioneering a new way of sustainability that I think will help agronomic farming practices be seen in a more positive light with the decreased need for synthetic applications. My father is also a biochemist, so it is fulfilling for me to work in a company that is rooted both in science and agriculture. I also found my passion for Human Resources at my prior internship, so the opportunity to have a focus on recruitment was appealing to me.

Some of my favorite key learnings have come from listening to scientific presentations and learning more of the nuts and bolts of how our microbes and the process works. My dad "talked science" with me from a young age so it's exciting to play a small part in these extraordinary processes. I had the opportunity to travel with some members of my team to both the Berkeley and Hayward locations recently and getting to meet some of the scientific folks and see their facilities was a highlight for me.