Xerox is one of Canada’s top 100 employers for new graduate students but what exactly do they do? This question was asked as an ice breaker to kick off the Xerox office tour event held at Xerox’s Downtown Vancouver headquarters.
The focus of the event was to inform students who are close to graduation about the company operations and available career opportunities. Speakers included a Xerox Recruiter, the VP and GM of Western Canada Xerox, Director of Sales from a Xerox agency, as well as other managers within the company and agency.
Each employee in attendance passionately spoke about their experience with Xerox. We found three central themes from each employee’s story:
- Great Corporate Culture
- Competitive Environment
- Flexibility and Compensation
We learned that Xerox has an extensive interview process to screen and select candidates for their positions. Each successful candidate begins as an Account Executive and receives 1000 clients within a geographical area to support and foster strong relationships. After two years in an executive role, the career paths are endless with opportunities for vertical or horizontal growth within the company. Employees of Xerox are team players (most of them have actually played on a competitive/varsity sports team) and they share the same “work hard, play hard” motto.
It is evident the company cares about their employees with an extensive training process to begin their career, integrating a fun and competitive corporate culture, and the opportunity to be rewarded for their achievements (free trips). The office tour event was also a strong indication of that too as employees ensured they connected with each student who attended. Also included in the event was a handful of prizes for activity participants, free, swag bag, and a valuable intimate networking experience with employees and fellow business students.
For anyone who wishes to gain sales experience after graduation and is looking to start their career in business development/sales, Xerox seems like a fantastic place to begin. Attending a company tour helped us gain insight into what working at Xerox might be like. Getting an opportunity to look inside a company is a neat experience and is a great way to find out what interests you. We encourage other Beedie students to take advantage of occasions like these.
Anthony Derrick (left) and Angus Siu (right) are both in their fourth year at the Beedie School of Business, pursuing a BBA with concentrations in Marketing/Operations Management and Marketing/Operations Management/MIS respectively. Anthony previously finished an eight-month co-op term with the Vancouver Canucks in the Client Service department. Angus recently returned from a semester abroad in France studying at Grenoble Ecole de Management. Both Angus and Anthony have been involved in the Beedie community and are currently Business Writing Mentors.