Throughout COMM 296 I always tried to tie the more complex material back to one basic point – how can the firm best educate the consumer about a product offering in a rational and reasonable way? The course taught me a lot about marketing: my understanding of what the concept actually means extended beyond TV commercials and broadened to include market surveys, social media advertising, branding, and a host of other related terms. I really think that I came out of the course a better (and more well-rounded) business person. Even though I won’t be specializing in marketing this summer, I am confident that the skills I took away from the course will not be forgotten throughout the rest of my degree, and beyond.

COMM 296 taught me the fundamentals needed to analyse a company and understand how its marketing strategy in particular can contribute to its overall success or failure. It is true that the worth of a company can be measured by the sum of its parts; before I took the course I was discounting a firm’s marketing strategy (mostly out of ignorance), but now I have some tools to better understand its importance. This was aided by working with a team of unique individuals from a variety of perspectives; their different ways of thinking led to the development creative solutions that would have otherwise escaped me. I also continued to learn how to work in a team: gaining more experience managing group expectations, dividing up tasks, and even working with other’s schedules was an invaluable experience that I know I will use going forward.

If I had to take the course over, I would have asked more practical questions throughout class time. It is true that a lot of the material is theoretical, but I felt like Tamar’s real-world experience gave our class a unique advantage in understanding how the concepts are actually applied in industry.

So kids, listen up, ask questions, and enjoy every bit of COMM 296!

Most of us come to business school with one end goal in mind: to secure our dream job post-graduation. Along the way we attend thousands of hours of classes, participate in countless group projects, and hopefully read more than a couple of textbooks. However, at the end of it all, one of the most important pieces required to reach our goal is a brilliant cover letter. As the marketing blogsphere has spoken about, the cover letter is an art that has been mastered by some and destroyed by others. It is the epitome of self-marketing, and while different industries look for different presentation forms, an underlying “mix of confidence and candidness” is extremely important in achieving employment. Recently, Matthew Ross seemed to strike that perfect balance with his cover letter to the boutique investment firm Duff & Phelps. In the letter, Ross explained “I won’t waste your time inflating my credentials, throwing around exaggerated job titles or feeding you a line of crap about how my past experience and skill set align perfectly for an investment banking internship.” He certainly followed an unconventional train of thought as he spoke about his willingness to fetch coffee, shine shoes or pick up laundry.

Ross’s letter was sent to Duff & Phelps at 1:14PM. By 3PM on the same day, the letter had gone viral on Wall Street and a rival firm in Houston, Texas had called Ross to offer him an interview. All of this success begs the question, what do we need to do to realize comparable success with our own cover letters? While the answer to that is not so simple, it is clear that a genuine passion for the position and an ability to communicate that to the employer in an engaging and unique way is paramount. I am confident that our education at Sauder will help to develop, focus, and communicate our passion for business. And, if all else fails, a scented cover letter never hurts!