‘I Love My Job’: Collaborative People, Engaging Customers, and The Support You Need To Grow

Welcome to I Love My Job, the series where we hear from women who really love their jobs. In this edition, we sat down with Michelle King, the Area President at US Foods for their Southwest Area.

This position is the latest stop in King’s career of growth at the company, which includes previous roles as the Area President in New MexTex and 10 years as the SVP of Replenishment at their corporate office in Chicago.

If you’re wondering what’s kept her at US Foods for so long, King emphasizes two key things:

1. “Number one is the people,” she shares. “We have wonderful people that work at US Foods... And the ability to network with, meet, and then continue to learn and get better from everyone in the organization is one thing I love the best.”

2. “The second thing is our ability to work with and interact with our customers,” continues King. “Everyone rallying behind helping our customers makes every single day.”

In the video below, King shares more about why she loves working at US Foods. We also provide lightly edited highlights from the video discussion in the following article.

In case you have trouble watching this video, please click here to watch it on YouTube.

What’s a project you’re working on that you find really exciting? 

It’s exciting being in a new role and moving to Phoenix. On the personal side, we will be relocating our family, and, on the professional side, I get to be part of a new team and gain additional responsibilities with this new role. This is exciting because I get to meet new people, interact with new customers, and continue to refine our processes to really help US Foods be the best it can be every day.

How would you describe the culture at US Foods? 

I would describe the culture as collaborative and engaging. We have worked really hard in the 12 years that I've been with the company to continue to define and refine our culture every day.

We have five cultural beliefs that everyone in the company has rallied around and we use in our day-to-day conversations, as well as our recognition of all our employees up and down the organization.

How does US Foods support you? 

I feel supported at US Foods in a number of ways. 

1. We have wonderful health and welfare benefits. Our HR teams work really hard to support all of our employees every day.

2. We have set up employee resource groups (ERGs) in the past number of years. And it's great to say that we’re currently standing at 10 employee resource groups. A number of years ago, I was a founding member of our Women in Network group, which we call WIN. This was an opportunity for senior-level women to form the group from the ground up and get groups of women together to mentor, have conversations, help with discussions (like work-life balance, advancing your career, setting up an individual development plan, and all of those opportunities that you use as you network). [In WIN, employees get access to] people to use as resources, along with the many things that our company offers us every day.

What advice would you give to other women looking to work at US Foods?

First, I would say come join us. It's a great company, and we'd be glad to have you. My advice would be to use LinkedIn.

A number of US Foods employees are very active on LinkedIn. Not only do our recruiters help us fill our open positions, but the function leaders and the leaders across the company also use LinkedIn every day. We make sure that we're out there sharing open roles, the benefits of these roles, the exciting opportunities we have, what a wonderful company US Foods is, and how supportive our culture is. This introduction should tell you that the number of people willing to help and answer your questions is just a small sample of what it’s like to work at US Foods.

Fairygodboss is proud to work with US Foods. Find a job there today!

Check out other posts in the ‘I Love My Job’ series:

• ‘I Love My Job’: ‘Building a Place Where Our Associates Can Flourish’ as a President & ERG Sponsor

• ‘I Love My Job’: Great Mentors, a Diverse and Inclusive Culture, and a Wide Range of Benefits

• ‘I Love My Job’: A Culture Like a ‘Warm and Inviting Cup of Tea’ Where I Can Be My Authentic Self

• ‘I Love My Job’: ‘Your Voice Will Be Heard and You Will Make a Difference’ at My Company

• ‘I Love My Job’: Incredible People, Outstanding Benefits, Growth, and the Chance to Shape the Future