Posted by: | 9th Mar, 2011

Sauder – Branding YOU

Marketing is pervasive – it has always been present in some form or the other in our lives. When you look at the top executives, engineers, lawyers, architects – they’ve all used personal marketing (and of course persistence and intellectual brainpower) effectively to get themselves where they are today.

Proctor and Gamble receives over 100,000 applications a year – only 725 are hired on average. Goldman Sachs receives approximately 53000 applications a year; with 900 people hired on average (Data from Princeton Review’s “Best Entry-Level Jobs”. What does it take to become among the 0.725% or the 1.7% (respectively) that receive offers from two of the most prestigious corporations in the world? The same reason you choose to purchase products from a certain brand among the myriad of brands vying for your attention at the supermarket – branding.

Ever since I transferred to Sauder, I’ve been amazed by the services that Sauder provides to make its students as competitive as possible in the job market. First is COMM 299, in which you come out with a polished, effective resume and cover letter that highlights strengths and results and interview skills. Sauder also does a great job providing workshops (I’ve attended Careers in Night, Careers in China, etc) relevant to current student interests, co-op info sessions, industry mentorship programs, scholars programs, case competitions, conferences and job and involvement opportunities. Compared to my previous faculty, Sauder is doing a lot more to not only prepare students for the workplace, but also push them to succeed. The result – the average Sauder grad makes a starting salary of over $40,000 a year – above the current average income in Canada!

Of course how effective our personal branding is also depends on the individual, and their motivation, interests, and passion. But I know that no matter what option I choose, or where I end up, I will have Sauder to thank for helping my reach my dream career. It packages us students individually to present our best to the world, and also markets Sauder as a brand to the business community in Vancouver, nationally, and internationally. Even though Eastern Canada (with all the marketing and finance headquarters) have an advantage in location and business activity, Sauder’s performance in job placement is on par (and perhaps even better) than these schools.

Sauder Bcom Employment Statistics by Functional Area (From Annual Report 2010)

For more information: 2010 Annual Bcomm Report

McGill Desautels BCom Statistics - it fares slightly better on average


John Molson School of Business (Concordia University) - the salary averages are on par (or slightly lower) than Sauder

For its success in branding its business students, Sauder gets an A+ from me. Now if only other faculties can catch on, to make UBC a leader in job placement, student branding, and university prestige. (Then maybe the jokes about Arts students being homeless after they graduate will eventually stop …)

Responses

“Now if only other faculties can catch on, to make UBC a leader in job placement, student branding, and university prestige. (Then maybe the jokes about Arts students being homeless after they graduate will eventually stop”

Dude, what kind of elitism is this? What make you think other faculty is somehow inferior to Sauder?

And just for the record, we DID NOT get all those for free. I also would like to see some statistic regarding this: “Even though Eastern Canada (with all the marketing and finance headquarters) have an advantage in location and business activity, Sauder’s performance in job placement is on par (and perhaps even better) than these schools.”

Thanks for reading my blog and commenting. I’d like to address some of the concerns you voiced in your comment above and make some clarifications.

In response to your first question, I am in no way indicating that Sauder is superior to other faculties at UBC or encourage the jokes about Arts students that I hear frequently in Sauder (even made by some Commerce professors). I myself transferred to Sauder from the Faculty of Arts, and I just wanted to note the huge difference in career services and programs available to Sauder students compared to other faculties. We have our own career centre, workshops, industry training programs like the Capital Markets and Brand Management Mentorship programs, and a myriad of internship opportunities – since I started at Sauder, I’ve experienced and used these services with great success. I am aware that this comes with an initial monetary investment by us students – but the value I get from these services far outweigh these additional costs. This is compared to arts, where I felt there were not enough structured programs to support student careers – that is why I wish for better programs for these other faculties – because I have met wonderful and motivated students in Arts that can benefit greatly from added career services and programs.

For your benefit, I’ve added a portion of employment statistics from Sauder’s 2010 Annual Bcom Report, compared with Mcgill’s Desautel and Concordia’s John Molson School of Business. In additional to statistics, I’ve met many incredible inspiring Sauder students with bright futures who have used Sauder’s career services to get them where they are today. Additionally – the final report indicates that 46% of Sauder Grad’s jobs are faculty or Career Centre facilitated – that’s a significant percentage, I’d say.

I hope this clarifies any concerns/questions you had about my blog post. Thank you for pointing out how this post might appear elitist to certain blog readers, and allowing me to clarify and add more quantitative support.

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