There’s nothing you can learn in a classroom that will fully prepare you for the action-packed job of a precision specialist. The most valuable lessons occur in the field. That’s the big takeaway I got from my conversation with Matt Schneider, who’s in his third year of an internship program with Wisconsin John Deere dealer Riesterer & Schnell.

“You’ll make mistakes, but you’ll learn from them, that’s just the way it is,” Schneider said during my recent “Day in the Cab” visit with him and his supervisor Trevor Balthazor, a digital product specialist who also came up through the ranks as a Riesterer & Schnell intern.  

Schneider, who grew up raising heifers on his family farm, is working toward earning a marketing degree at the Univ. of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. His goal is to work for the dealership full-time after graduation. When he’s not in the classroom, he’s either at the dealership or on a customer’s farm.

“I really like what Trevor gets to do every day,” he says. “Growing up, I knew animals weren’t my thing. The equipment side of the business is what I always wanted to get into.”

A family friend helped Schneider land a job shadowing opportunity with Riesterer & Schnell when he was still in high school. He started out in the shop, got hooked and has been working as an intern ever since.

“I wouldn’t trade that first year in the shop for anything,” he says. “There are things I wouldn’t have learned if I didn’t experience that. You also gain a lot of respect for what those techs are doing.

“Don’t be afraid to start in the shop, that’s my advice to others,” he adds. “I got comfortable with the inner workings of equipment in the shop. That helped me build credibility and now I can talk to customers about other aspects of their equipment, not just precision.”

Schneider gets to spend most of his days in the field with the precision team now, which is exactly where he wants to be. He likes how every day brings something different, especially during busy season.

“I enjoy the variety of what I’m doing,” he says. “I enjoy the sales portion of the job and getting to see precision technology in action. I’m not just showing up when things go wrong. I still put out fires, but it’s not every day.”

You would never guess Schneider is an intern unless he told you, as he was able to answer all my questions confidently about autonomy, AutoPath, customer buying trends and more. He also jumped right in with Balthazor like a seasoned pro when troubleshooting a problem for a customer. The internship program is clearly paying off for Schneider and the dealership as well.

I can’t wait to share more from my visit with Balthazor and Schneider in the upcoming winter edition of Precision Farming Dealer. Until then, happy Thanksgiving, go Buckeyes, and I hope to see you Jan. 5-6 in St. Louis for the Precision Farming Dealer Summit!