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September has arrived and there is a buzz in the air. Staff and faculty at the Beedie School of Business have enjoyed welcoming new and returning business students to our Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey campuses; students are getting acquainted with their class schedule and new classmates; and staff at the CMC are very excited to welcome employers to campus. If you would like to learn about ways to get involved in any one of the on-campus initiatives we support, last month's issue describes ways for you to build your brand and connect with our students.
In This Issue
Did You Know? Top Attributes of a Job/Employer
According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), 2011 Student Survey, graduating post-secondary students most value the following when considering potential jobs and employers:
- Opportunity for personal development
- Job Security
- Good insurance benefits
- Friendly co-workers
- High starting salary
- Chance to improve the community
- Recognition for performance
- Location close to home
- Opportunity for rapid advancement
- Diversity
NACE connects campus recruiting and career services professionals, and provides best practices, trends, research, professional development, and conferences. For more information on NACE, please visit http://www.naceweb.org
Our Students Want to Hear from You
Stay tuned each issue as we ask you, our employer partners, a commonly asked student question. We will then share select answers, along with your name, company and company logo (with your permission) with our student body.
This month's question:
What can a student do to really stand out and make a great impression with an employer at a networking event?
Please send your answers to Lisa Dalla Vecchia at lisa_dalla_vecchia@sfu.ca.
 You Be the Judge
The Beedie School of Business has a strong showing in national and international academic case competitions. Competitions provide students with exposure to real life issues and the opportunity to use their acquired academic knowledge when proposing practical solutions to these issues. Cases are anywhere from 3 - 40 hours long in deliberation and during this time, students review the issue, come up with a recommendation (including alternatives, implementation plan, financial considerations), and then deliver a presentation to a panel of judges.
In order to help prepare our students, we often look to industry professionals to serve as judges, by asking questions following a practice presentation. As an industry professional, your experience and insights are extremely valuable, because you view the world through a different lens from our students, and can ask those challenging questions. The commitment from you is time - time to review the case and then participate as a judge (half day).
If you're looking to share your experiences and expertise, and help with a student's personal and professional development, all while having fun with a highly engaged student group, then please consider being the next judge!
For more information, please contact Sam Thiara, Manager, Student Engagement and Recruitment, at 778.782.6833 or sthiara@sfu.ca.
 Suggested Reading
The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: the Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need by Daniel H. Pink
This BusinessWeek bestseller is a fun and fresh take on a career manual. It is written as a comic book and follows the main character as he struggles in an uninspiring job that was part of his college "plan" to get ahead. Along the way he discovers what it takes to find and build a rewarding career. The book offers some valuable insights and is based on solid career principles. It is a quick and entertaining read for anyone interested in career development and a great gift for high school or university students trying to figure out what's next.
This month's suggested reading was submitted by the CMC's very own Jessica Arratia, BBA Career Advisor. If you are reading/have read a great book that speaks to careers, personal/professional development, or recruitment, and would like to share your recommendation with our readers, please email a 50 - 100 word summary to Lisa Dalla Vecchia at lisa_dalla_vecchia@sfu.ca.
 Meet the CMC Staff
Robyn Behlke
Finance Career Advisor
How long have you been with the CMC?
Since July 2010. I can't believe a whole year has already gone by!
What does a typical day at the CMC look like?
Thankfully, there is no such thing as a typical day at the CMC. One day, I could be in back-to-back student coaching appointments, and the next, I could be hosting a corporate event for a bank or conducting student workshops on career-related topics.
What is your favourite part of the job?
I moved into this job to be able to really connect with students and make a difference in the lives of future business leaders. My favourite part of the job is helping students identify the best career choice for them or learning that they successfully secured the job of their dreams.
What has been your biggest thrill so far working with the CMC?
The opportunity to work with such a hard-working, engaged and fun team. There isn't a day that goes by that we don't laugh in the office! It makes a huge difference in job satisfaction when you look forward to coming to work every day because of the people you work with.
What do students typically ask you during a coaching session?
What career path should I choose? What are typical salaries of my chosen career path? How can I stand out from other candidates?
Focus on Finance
Robyn Behlke
Finance Career Advisor
The numbers don't lie - competition for jobs in the finance industry is fierce. For certain positions in Investment Banking, Capital Markets and Investment Management, recruiters and hiring managers receive and review upwards of 700 applications in order to find the most suitable candidates.
Many students at the SFU Beedie School of Business have a strong career interest in these areas of finance, and to meet their needs and help them gain a competitive edge during their internship and full-time job search, the CMC has introduced two new training programs.
In May, we partnered with MDA Training, a leading provider of leadership development and business skills, graduate, financial and technical skills training, to pilot an Investment Banking Prep Program to a select group of 25 undergraduate and graduate students. This intense three-day interactive program, consisting of workshops and practical exercises:
- Taught students how to valuate companies, perform asset allocations, and recognize the differences among financial instruments.
- Included a trading simulation which gave students a feel for what it is like to work on a major trading floor, as they worked in teams to buy and sell based on information provided by the facilitator.
- Tasked students with running a portfolio of funds over four quarters, and make decisions on what asset classes would outperform others at various points throughout the business cycle.
- Asked students to value a hypothetical company with an interest in being purchased. At the end the exercise, students formally presented their recommended bid price to the company's Board of Directors (the program's facilitator).
Participants of the Investment Banking Prep Program thought that the program complemented their coursework and gave them a better understanding of different finance career paths. Students shared that they felt the knowledge gained would help them when identifying the most suitable job opportunities post-graduation. Based on the overwhelming feedback from students, the CMC has decided to include this program as part of its standard programming each year.
In August, over 90 BBA students with an interest in securing a coveted new grad banking position in the fall finance recruit participated in a boot camp-style Finance Recruit Prep Program. The program took place over a two-week period at both the Burnaby and downtown Segal campuses, and consisted of four workshops. Topics included: an overview of a bank's organizational structure; new grad positions and hiring trends; what to expect during the recruitment process; an interactive networking session; how to create impactful resumes and cover letters; and how to succeed in the interview process.
In addition to new career-related programming introduced by the CMC, this fall, the Beedie School of Business is implementing an undergraduate student-run endowment fund, similar to the Student Investment Advisory Service (SIAS) fund currently managed by students in the Master of Financial Risk Management program. Over 20 undergraduate students were selected to manage this new $5M endowment fund. Upon completion of an investment management course this semester, students will begin managing the fund in early 2012.
More information about these exciting developments will follow so please stay tuned! In the interim, if you are interested in learning more about our undergraduate and graduate finance students, please contact Robyn Behlke at rbehlke@sfu.ca or 778.782.7858.
Meet Our Students!
We have featured many students since we re-launched the CMC newsletter last year. If there is a question that you would like to ask of students, but that you don't see answered within each student feature, please contact Lisa Dalla Vecchia at lmd11@sfu.ca.
Salina Siu, BBA
Concentrations: Marketing and Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Minor in Interactive Arts & Technology
Completion Date: Fall 2012
Area of interest: Marketing
Why did you decide to join the SFU Beedie School of Business and enroll in the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) program?
It's a family affair! My sister and cousins all studied business at SFU, so it was a natural choice for me to do the same. They had so many great things to say about their experiences that I never really considered any other school. I also loved the flexibility of the BBA program, allowing me to customize my degree to my interests and needs.
To read more about Salina, click here.
Bhupinder Shergill, MBA 2012
Academic Completion Date: August 2011
When Bhupinder Shergill made the decision to enroll in the MBA, she knew that by learning the foundational aspects of business administration, she would be strengthening her existing skill set. She chose the SFU Beedie School of Business because it offered students the opportunity to work and learn from individuals that came from diverse professional, educational and cultural backgrounds. Such a rich learning environment would allow future business leaders to operate from a more worldly perspective--critical in today's evolving global economy.
To read more about Bhupinder, click here.
Gold Stars
Business student lands worldly scholarship
Student grapples her way to business school success
Beedie School of Business in the News
Academic rankings put Beedie among elite class of global business schools
Tom Lawrence appointed as inaugural W.J. VanDusen Professor at Beedie School of Business
Become a Featured Employer
To share your recruitment experience at the Beedie School of Business and be a featured employer in our newsletter, please contact Lisa Dalla Vecchia at lmd11@sfu.ca.
We want to hear from you!
We would love to hear from you. If you have a story to share about SFU Beedie students or alumni, or your recruitment experiences on campus, or have any questions or comments, please email Lisa Dalla Vecchia at lmd11@sfu.ca.
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