Packaging is an integral part of our daily lives, but folks not directly involved in the packaging industry might not realize how massive and complex it is. Globally, the industry is worth over $1.1 trillion USD and encompassed over 58,000 professionals in the United States in 2023.
The packaging industry is made up of professionals with an array of specialties—from technical packaging engineers to labeling and communications experts. Many find a home in the packaging industry as it involves components of design, sustainability, material science, consumer psychology, and more!
Since our founding in 2015, we have helped train thousands of professionals in the packaging industry with our online courses and certificates. Join us as we explore five tips that will help you get up to speed as a newcomer in the packaging industry!
1. Find Opportunities to Learn More About the Industry Everyday!
If you are new to the industry or even a salty veteran, it is essential to keep your finger on the pulse of the industry. You can do this in a number of ways and through numerous channels, but finding an approach that works for you and establishing a schedule to review trends will help grow your knowledge of the industry.
For example, you could follow an account, like our LinkedIn, that posts industry news, original content, and continued-learning opportunities. We also recommend checking out the following websites that cover stories from the packaging industry daily:
It is important to build your foundational knowledge of how the industry operates and learn its jargon, but it is also just as important to understand where the industry is headed and which trends are emerging. If you are less likely to find yourself browsing content and scrolling, you can opt to join a newsletter and get new updates delivered to your inbox in a weekly and monthly format.
2. Attend Industry Events to Network and Understand Trends
Aside from establishing a method to review industry news and trends, we recommend finding in-person (and online) events that are relevant to the niche market your company serves in the industry. As a $1.1 trillion USD industry, it is important to understand where your company’s packaging and/or services fall in the bigger picture—events and industry shows can help make this connection clear.
A Packaging Gateway article from January covers the packaging industry events happening around the globe this year. Here are some that took place in the US in 2024:
WestPack – California (February 6–8)
The Packaging Conference – Texas (February 12–14)
GreenBiz – Arizona (February 12–14)
Sustainability in Packaging US – Chicago (March 6–8)
Luxe Pack New York – New York City (May 8–9)
These events all serve different niches within the packaging industry, and many focus on sustainability and innovation. Here at the Packaging School, we host an annual event in Greenville, South Carolina that brings together hundreds of automotive packaging professionals called Automotive Packaging Summit.
3. Use LinkedIn to Explore and Engage with your Niche in the Industry
Another way to quickly grow your network within the packaging industry is to use LinkedIn and its many tools. The screenshot below shows the results of a quick search to gauge the amount of people on LinkedIn associated with the packaging industry . . . as you can see, there are over 1.2 MILLION accounts.
With over 1 million active accounts in the packaging industry, the opportunities for networking and growing your personal and business brand are endless. However, with such a large pool of professionals, it is essential to find and engage with your niche packaging market. For example, the search query “sustainable packaging” led to 21,000 associated accounts, a much more approachable number to sort through rather than the 1 million.
Another feature of LinkedIn that allows you to engage with an identified niche is “Groups.” For example, Packaging School has its own group where we engage with alumni and give members a platform to post news and insights related to the industry and professional development.
4. Find out How your Peers Arrived in the Packaging World (you might be surprised!)
Packaging is a multidisciplinary field, encompassing areas including design, materials science, engineering, marketing, supply chain management, and more. When you first enter the industry, we suggest you ask coworkers and peers about their career journey and how they ended up in packaging. These conversations are important early on as they can help you grasp the multidisciplinary nature of the industry and the unique roles that make up the $1 trillion USD industry.
For example, our Marketing lead came across the world of packaging through an undergraduate class his senior year that stressed the importance of branding and packaging. He had a prior interest in sustainable design, consumer behavior, and marketing and found packaging as a vessel to explore all these areas. With only a handful of packaging science undergraduate programs in the United States, it should be no surprise that the industry is made up of professionals from all backgrounds.
Even our small team here at the Packaging School has immense variation in terms of what we all studied in university:
Dr. Andrew Hurley – B.S. in Packaging Science | M.S. in Packaging Science | PhD in Rhetoric, Communication, and Information Design
Dr. Julie Suggs – B.S. in Chemistry | PhD in Food Science
Drew Felty – Bachelors of Business Administration with minor in Management Information Science | MBA
Bianca Hurley – B.S. in Packaging Engineering | M.S. in Packaging Science
Lars Nikolaus – BFA – Sculpture
Jamie Christian – BFA in Communications Design
Alli Keigley – Bachelors in English and Creative Writing
Anna Ogletree – Bachelors in Packaging Science, Graphics & Design Emphasis | M.S. in Food, Nutrition, & Culinary Sciences
Nick Reidl – Bachelor’s in Communication and Media Studies | MBA
Mitch Webster – BBA in Marketing | M.S. in Sustainability Management
5. Seek Continued Learning Opportunities that Work for your Schedule
Saving the most important tip for last, we highly recommend you take advantage of continued learning opportunities that work for your learning style and schedule. When starting a new career, time is not something many folks have in abundance—and that is where we come in. Our 100% online courses and certificates are designed in a microlearning format to enable you to upgrade your packaging IQ at your own pace.
One particular area we recommend you stay up to speed with is sustainable packaging design, measurement, and innovation. Gone are the days when a packaging designer just had to focus on producing a cost-effective, ergonomic package that protects the product. Today, a designer needs to prioritize packaging systems that reduce harm to terrestrial and aquatic life, have a lower carbon footprint, and do not pollute the environment at the end of its useful life. There is now pressure coming from multiple sources—from consumers to NGOs and governments, packaging-specific regulations like extended producer responsibility (EPR) and the European Union’s PPWD—to make responsible, environmentally conscious choices in packaging design.
Part of staying up to speed on the best practices of sustainable packaging design and innovation is mastering tools that effectively identify risks and opportunities associated with the environmental impact of your packaging designs. To help you do this, we created our 40-hour Certificate of Sustainable Packaging (CSP) program to not only expose you to the world of sustainable packaging, but also to teach you how to use a life cycle assessment (LCA) tool specifically designed for packaging.
Inspiration from Our Team
To end, we will leave you with some inspiration from our very own Dr. Julie Suggs (Academic Director at The Packaging School) and Dr. Andrew Hurley (Founder of The Packaging School).
Dr. Andrew Hurley says:
“Packaging is what connects the supply chain to product distribution. So, if you want to understand your company comprehensively (most do not) and give yourself a huge leg-up, understanding how (packaged) material arrives and how (packaged) finished goods exit will position you as a true go-to-resource and SME.”
Dr. Julie Suggs says:
“Whether you are starting a new career or looking to advance your current one in the packaging arena, the Packaging School can help you open doors within the industry. At the Packaging School, we believe that education is critical to growth, and online learning beyond traditional brick and mortar school walls is a great way to receive education in today’s world. One of my favorite quotes related to education is by W.B. Yeats: ‘Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.’”
Are you ready to light this fire in your life? Enroll in our Packaging Industry Newcomer’s Bundle! The bundle is available until June 31 and offers a great introduction to packaging through four online courses:
*A choice of one of our materials courses
