I stumbled across Edwin Tsang’s blog and instead of reading about the latest business scandal, I read a cleverly titled post called Get out. Edwin devoted the entire blog post to speaking about something incredibly relevant to people like myself: how do I find my first grown up job?

At school and in lectures, we learn a lot about business concepts, like how to find the optimal price of a good in a perfectly competitive market, or how to calculate marginal profits using derivatives. What we don’t learn is how to differentiate yourself from the other hundreds of Sauder students, receiving the same B.Com degree.

In his blog, Edwin mentioned how he fast tracked his way into a start-up company, offsetting his lack of experience with wage grants.  Applying for government wage grants is such a clever way to landing your first internship/job. In class, we covered an entire section of risk management and how companies make decisions depending on the risk associated it with it whether it be investments, marketing strategies, or new hires. Having a government wage grant allows you to break the first barrier of entering a company: working for “free”. Although you aren’t working for free, the company can hire you at no risk because your wage gets paid through a third party. This means the only thing the company is investing is time to train and teach you.

Finding creative shortcuts is what I firmly believe will land you your next job position. Much like what Edwin said, doing well in school only makes up so much of your resume. Everyone graduating Sauder will have the exact same B.Com degree as you. It is how you present yourself to the employer and how you minimize the risk of the employer hiring you that will fast track your resume to the top of the pile.