While growing up on a farm in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., Andrea Mlinarevic didn’t spend all her time on the typical childhood activities of video games and TV, opting instead to run her own fruit stand.
Though this early venture introduced her to business basics like pricing and inventory, it was marketing her products’ unique selling points, such as the health benefits of fruit, that ultimately captured her imagination. “I was only 6 at the time, but I was already practising the four Ps of marketing: Product, Price, Promotion and Place. I grew to learn that marketing is what I truly enjoy, and it’s what I’m good at.”
Ms. Mlinarevic stuck with her passion and, a decade and a half later, earned a BBA with a marketing concentration from Brock University in 2010. That degree (combined with her previous experience marketing produce, no doubt) helped her land a job shortly after graduating as a marketing co-ordinator with NorCliff Farms, where it’s her job to raise awareness about new “super veggie” fiddleheads.
The path to employment isn’t as direct for every business grad, though. With tens of thousands of students graduating from 57 business schools across Canada each year and entry-level hiring levels still recovering from the recent economic downturn, it can be difficult to stand out with a standard business degree.
Claudia Labal majored in economics and management science during her B.Comm. degree at Ryerson University, but since graduating in 2008 she has worked as a custodian, an administrative assistant and a barista before landing her current job as a bank teller across the street from the coffee shop where she worked. “Everyone wants experience, but no one wants to give me a chance to learn. Where do I fit in?”
Given the quality of her post-secondary education, Ms. Labal says she’s disappointed at her lack of progress so far. “I never thought I would be at the bottom of the chain two years after graduating.”
But Ms. Labal isn’t alone. Termed “underemployment,” this phenomenon means that more grads than ever are tending bar or answering phones instead of working in jobs related to their degrees, mostly due to a stagnant job market and an oversupply of students in those fields.
A Canadian Policy Research Networks study released in 2008 revealed that Canada ranked highest in underemployment among the 16 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with 23.7 per cent of Canadians under the age of 25 feeling overqualified for their jobs.
To avoid joining the growing cohort of overqualified and un- or underemployed graduates, some university students are turning to sector-specific business programs that develop considerably more specialized expertise than the average business degree with a major such as accounting, human resources or finance.
Industries such as green business, sports marketing, and fashion management, just to name a few, are fast gaining popularity, while programs focusing on e-business, hospitality and tourism, and international business have become staples in many business schools.
These programs turn the idea of a business degree inside out – instead of forcing students to major in marketing or economics, for example, they learn about marketing and economics, as well as all other aspects of doing business in a particular industry or sector.
Rapid advances in technology and a trend toward niche business operations are forcing companies to hire people with specialized expertise, says Jason Hamilton, a recent B.Comm. graduate with a specialization in entrepreneurship from the University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business who now works as the director of marketing at a student travel company. “General isn’t as good any more. It’s one thing to hire someone who understands business, but if I need someone to create the best social media strategies, I’m going after someone who knows exactly how to do that.”
