A+ Placement

Although Jerry Chiang arrived in Provo a few days early for the fall 2023 semester, he was also late. Job recruiting season was already heating up, and Chiang realized that finding a postgraduation job was just as important as finding the classrooms for his accounting courses.

Chiang’s first visit to the Business Career Center (BCC) at the BYU Marriott School of Business quickly turned into a job placement strategy session. With grit and lots of guidance, Chiang dove in. A few weeks later—before the fall leaves had even turned—Chiang had two job offers in hand. He accepted a position at Deloitte in San Francisco that will begin after he graduates with his master of accountancy degree in 2024.

“Everyone in the BCC has been so proactive,” Chiang says. “The main reason I have the job is because of the BCC.”

Chiang’s story is extraordinary—and at the same time, it’s typical. Every year about 500 unique companies come to BYU Marriott to hire in a process that’s intense, fast paced, and often very rewarding. Within three months of April 2023 convocation, 96 percent of the 1,434 graduates seeking full-time employment had jobs. In fact, the job placement rate has stretched upward of 90 percent for the past decade, even amid growing enrollment, a pandemic, and an ever-shifting job market.

How does BYU Marriott place nearly all of its students in good jobs at good companies year after year, often outperforming prestigious schools with much higher price tags? While the code may never be precisely cracked, three key factors play into the equation: a career center that stands by students, alumni who stand up for BYU, and graduates who stand out wherever they go.

Students at the Center

The BCC—with its 11 interview rooms, 20-seat conference table, and cupboard for stashing backpacks before students meet recruiters—is a place where deals are made and dreams come true. But 30 years ago, this space on the fourth floor of the Tanner Building was simply a business library.

When Bill Brady, who directed the BCC from 1994 to 2006, heard that the business library would be integrated into BYU’s main library, he proposed creating a dedicated career center for business students. “I knew early on that successful career services offices had their own facilities with interview and presentation spaces,” says Brady, who also served in the leadership of the first national organization for business-school career services. Brady was followed at the BCC by directors Jim Engebretsen and then Mike Roberts, who continued expanding the center.

Sam Dunn, the current director, says career service professionals are eager to collaborate with their counterparts at other universities. “The information sharing is terrific,” Dunn says. “People are very willing to talk about the challenges and their solutions. I have tried to do the same. I have recognized, though, that we’re in a unique position at BYU.”

Miguel Pomar, BCC associate director over employer engagement, notes that the center’s structure is what sets it apart. “In most career centers, professionals lead the effort,” he says. “In our center, students help lead the work, and that is unique and different. That’s one of the most important ingredients for our success.”

From the start, student employees at the BCC outnumbered professionals. When Brady started in 1994, there were four student employees and three full-time employees, including himself. Now, the center employs 83 students and 19 professionals.

Entrusting student employees with high-profile business relationships might seem risky, but when recruiters visit campus, they say to Pomar, “You guys are running a mini army. They’re all professionals.”

Through extensive onboarding and cross-training, student employees are empowered to support outreach efforts; they even work to improve existing relationships with companies. “It doesn’t matter who a recruiter connects with,” Pomar explains. “They will always receive very high-level service. We want them to feel as if they’re coming to the Ritz-Carlton.”

Student employees deliver this high-level service as they help execute hundreds of recruiting events every year, including career fairs, conferences, tabling events in the Tanner Building lobby, and information sessions hosted by companies. The center also offers guidance on résumé writing, interviewing, and salary negotiation, and the student employees help connect business students with these services.

This student-centered system doesn’t just connect business students with jobs—it creates jobs. As Dunn points out, “The BCC provides experiential-learning opportunities for the students who are on the team, helping them prepare for their own careers while they help their fellow students.”

Alums Who Advocate

Alumni are “the secret sauce when it comes to placement,” Dunn says.

And Pomar agrees. “If a company is all of a sudden showing interest, it’s typically because somebody who is connected to BYU at their company said, ‘Would you consider recruiting from BYU? Let me tell you why you want to.’”

Copeland, a global climate-solution leader, is a good example of this process. Headquartered in Ohio, Copeland has primarily recruited from regional schools in the Midwest. Until Dan Smith, a Copeland employee who had attended BYU, spoke up.

Smith and a BYU Marriott MBA alum helped connect Pomar with one of Copeland’s HR representatives. In a series of exchanges, Pomar shared more about the caliber of BYU Marriott students—including that 60 percent of students speak at least two languages. When the recruiter learned about the service BYU students give and the commitments a Church mission entails, she was blown away, Pomar recalls. Copeland has added BYU to its list of campuses to consider as it looks to fill 120 spots—with Smith now visiting campus to help recruit.

“Alumni are the pillar,” Pomar says. “They want to pay it forward. Somebody helped them, so they turn around and reach back to help out somebody else.”

This commitment to paying it forward runs deep for members of the newly formed Young Professional Advisory Council (YPAC), composed of 40 alums who graduated 2 to 10 years ago. YPAC members share their placement stories with students and offer one-on-one mentoring. The 2023 YPAC spring conference impacted more than 300 students and led to 50 job referrals. BYU Marriott’s long-established National Advisory Council (NAC) is also key in providing mentorship and making inroads for students.

Dunn is quick to add that BYU Marriott professors also advocate for students. “Many times, faculty help us establish relationships with companies, either through former students or through research that they’re doing,” Dunn explains. “The partnership is strong.”

Students Who Stand Out and Deliver

Alumni and faculty advocacy and the BCC’s mini army might help put jobs in students’ pockets, but if those students fail to execute on the job, placement rates would plummet. BYU Marriott students must deliver. And, according to recruiter feedback, they do.

After nearly 20 years of recruiting for PwC, Jay Meldrum still notices how BYU grads stand out at his company. “The students we get from BYU genuinely care,” he says. “It’s a testament to BYU Marriott’s vision, mission, and values and how their students have instilled those values within themselves in terms of maturity, experience, sincerity, and compassion right from the beginning. It’s very noticeable.”

Samantha Gelatt has observed similar qualities in BYU grads. “Sunrise Technologies recruits heavily out of the BYU Marriott School of Business for our entry-level consulting positions,” says Gelatt, director of human resources at Sunrise in North Carolina. “We have been recruiting at BYU for more than 10 years and continue to come back every year because of the value alignment, professionalism, and career readiness of the students.”

Leadership is another quality that BYU grads demonstrate in the workplace. “I get this feedback wherever I go, from Dallas to LA,” Meldrum reports. “Colleagues say that we need to hire more BYU students because they are not only making an impact on their projects but they’re also making their teams better because of their leadership.”

Dunn adds, “We always want to think our students are special, but my colleagues at other universities care just as much about their students as I care about ours. BYU brings an element beyond academic potential and performance potential. You’re actually bringing your whole self to the workplace, which includes the spiritual underpinning—and I think that’s the differentiator.”

Instruments in His Hands

While matchmaking between students and companies often happens swiftly and smoothly, these stories are not about overnight success. By the time students like Chiang meet with recruiters, they’ve been preparing—learning, leading, and living their values—for their entire lives.

Likewise, BCC staff and BYU Marriott alumni and faculty invest years cultivating relationships with companies. The strong and steady placement outcomes at BYU Marriott represent decades of work by hundreds of people.

And yet, there’s still something more.

Pomar puts it like this: “We have a singular purpose to help students find good jobs with good companies, enabling them to transform the world through Christlike leadership. As we work together and listen for inspiration, then doors begin to open. At the end of the day, though, the Lord facilitates this process. We are just instruments in making good things happen.”

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Written by Shannon Keeley
Photography by Nate Edwards

This article was published in BYU Marriott's 2023 Annual Report, pages 4–7.