Navigating the Post-Graduation Question

As a soon to be graduate, it’s almost comical how often you get asked: “What do you want to do once you finish school?”. In contrast to the simplicity of the question, arriving at a self-assured answer is, to put it mildly, challenging.

As students and young professionals in 2023, we are fortunate to have the luxury of more information and tools at our disposal while making early career decisions than any prior generation. With a quick Linkedin search, you can discover the size, industry, location, and mission of almost any organization. Furthermore, the nifty “Pages people also viewed” feature can lead you down a path to discovering employers you may not have otherwise considered. For example, last summer I worked for a peer-to-peer RV rental marketplace (RVEzy - shameless plug), and became fully immersed in an industry that I was completely unaware of a few months prior to entering it. With Linkedin and the many other job search tools at our disposal, the perfect opportunity, anywhere in the world, is only a few clicks away.

However, if you’re like me and are vulnerable to paralysis by over-analysis, this capability can also make it much more difficult to figure out your answer to that pesky post graduation question. The wealth of opportunities available through the internet can be truly overwhelming and difficult to navigate on your own. This is especially true if one of the variables you weigh more heavily in your ideal career calculus is social impact.

Breaking into Social Impact

Unlike pursuing a “traditional” career in accounting, finance, consulting, and the like, which most often, if not always, involves navigating a predictable, static landscape of highly visible student recruitment, established alumni networks, and long-standing employer-university relationships - breaking into the social impact space can be a far murkier path for commerce students to explore. Even still, I suspect that the biggest barrier preventing more students from taking advantage of the many exciting, impactful, and lucrative opportunities in social impact, is a lack of discourse among business students. To help spark some dialogue and perhaps send you down a new Linkedin rabbithole, I’ve compiled some noteworthy social impact organizations I’ve come across in my work at Boyden.

For the purposes of this article, let’s adopt a narrow definition of what it means to be a social impact firm. Each of the organizations listed below has a non-corporate structure (do not have traditional shareholders and operate instead using a truly stakeholder-oriented model), has a robust financial framework (an annual operating budget of greater than $30 million), and employs an impact-oriented approach (release a detailed annual impact report).

The International Institute of Sustainable Development

The IISD is a Winnipeg-based leading think-tank that focuses on advancing sustainable development worldwide. As a research organization, IISD engages in policy analysis, conducts studies, and provides practical solutions to address global challenges related to environmental protection, climate change, and social well-being. Their work spans across various sectors, from energy and resources to trade and investment, with a primary goal of shaping policies and practices that promote long-term sustainability and positive impacts on societies and ecosystems. If you are passionate about driving change through research and policy advocacy, IISD offers a dynamic and intellectually stimulating environment to make a meaningful impact on pressing global issues.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) is a crown corporation with a crucial role in promoting affordable housing and supporting the housing needs of Canadians. As the country's national housing agency, CMHC engages in various initiatives to address housing challenges, enhance access to affordable housing, and improve the housing conditions for vulnerable populations. The corporation also works on sustainable housing practices and urban development, contributing to the social well-being and economic prosperity of communities across Canada. For commerce graduates interested in the intersection of public policy, community development, and finance, CMHC offers an opportunity to be part of shaping housing solutions that directly impact people's lives and promote inclusive and sustainable communities.

MaRS Discovery District

A unique hybrid of an impact investing firm and a startup incubator, MaRS has a strong focus on fostering innovation and supporting entrepreneurs in driving social and economic change. Located in Toronto, MaRS acts as an innovation hub, bringing together a diverse community of startups, investors, scientists, and social innovators. The organization supports startups and ventures working on cutting-edge solutions in various fields, including healthcare, cleantech, and social innovation. MaRS provides mentorship, funding opportunities, and resources to help startups grow and scale their impact-driven businesses. MaRS is funded by a consortium of public and private sector organizations including: Microsoft, Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, HSBC and AstraZeneca. For students with an entrepreneurial spirit and a passion for making a difference through innovation, MaRS offers an exciting platform to connect with like-minded change-makers and contribute to the growth of impactful ventures that tackle some of society's most pressing challenges.

This is in no way an exhaustive, or even representative, exploration of the social impact landscape but is instead intended to ignite curiosity and encourage further exploration.

Signs of Change: Influencing the Narrative

Although careers in social impact remain outside of the mainstream narrative for many business schools (for example, at Wharton, just 1.8 percent of students accepted jobs in social impact, compared with 61 percent of students who went into financial services or consulting) there are signals of change.

Within my own university, the Ivey Social Impact Club is growing increasingly popular. Throughout the school year SIC hosts networking events, offers mentorship opportunities, and organizes a career conference. To illustrate the scale it has recently reached, last year its annual Roots Conference hosted speakers from McKinsey, LEGO Denmark, and most notably the founder of modern stakeholder theory, Dr. Edward Freeman. By facilitating engaging conversations, student-run clubs like SIC play a direct role in minimizing the awareness gap about careers in social impact.

Taking Action

In conclusion, I firmly believe that addressing the awareness gap surrounding social impact careers is not just a desirable endeavor but an essential one. The world of information and networking has undergone a remarkable transformation, presenting us with an unprecedented abundance of resources to explore meaningful career options.

However, despite the wealth of information at our fingertips, the visibility of opportunities at organizations like the IISD, CMHC, and MaRS, remains comparatively limited, resulting in an untapped potential for positive change. Through our collective determination we have the power to change the dialogue within business schools and contribute to a new generation of socially conscious professionals who see their careers as vehicles for positive change.

References

Gross, Jenny. “Business Schools Respond to a Flood of Interest in E.S.G.” The New York Times, 13 Nov. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/11/13/business/dealbook/business-schools-esg.html.