Career Conversations — SFU VentureLabs
Career Conversations - SFU VentureLabs with Ashley Chia
Navigating the search for your first full-time job that matches your major & interests can be an overwhelming journey. Whether you are a freshman, transfer student or a soon-to-be-alum, we all go through a stage during our undergraduate years where we aimlessly stare at the laptop screens, not knowing where to start. Not to mention that one resume.docx that’s been piled up on top of million tabs, waiting to be revisited when the pressure to get a job finally kicks in. It’s a dreadful experience, and we all deserve someone to ask questions, seek help from, and get support—so let’s talk about it.
Career Conversations, a blog series newly launched by CMNSU, aims to provide co-op experience of Communication students and alumni in diverse sectors. Through conversation-based interviews, we aim to capture insights and tips that will help you to get your foot in the door in the various professional fields.
“Marketing is more than just social media & raising sales” - Ashley Chia is a fourth year Communication student pursuing a minor in Print & Digital Publishing. With her recent co-op experience at SFU VentureLabs, she shares the value of co-op experience as a Marketing Associate.
1. Can you tell us about your experience as a SFU VentureLabs Marketing Associate?
I did my first co-op term at SFU Venture Labs as a Marketing Associate, back in Spring 2024. Overall, it was a really great experience—I wanted to learn more about corporate marketing and its strategic aspects, and not only did I learn all different aspects about it, but also had a great experience meeting new people. I truly feel that having a great team was one of the best parts about working at SFU VentureLabs.
What was your main role? - My main tasks included different forms of copywriting—social media content, websites, monthly newsletters, blogs, and more. Other tasks included supporting events and their very own Marketing PowerUp program. It is a member program that equips tech startups with the knowledge and tools needed to execute marketing strategies on their own. We support this program by taking a look at their marketing needs, requests, and current materials—website, branding, key messages—and put together a strategy and advice on how they can build on their existing marketing foundations. These tasks are also accomplishments that I am proud of, I learned a lot through doing different tasks like 1. Website audit 2. Branding & key messaging strategy and 3. Social media scheduling strategy. I really enjoyed these projects as you learn many different skills that you don’t usually learn at school, and it’s cool to be able to apply the knowledge you have into projects and share it with others.
2. Based on your experience, how would you compare standard academic writing vs. “professional, commercial writing”?
At least for Communication students, we are used to writing lots of academic papers, and that’s one very different style of writing compared to what you’d write for an audience. With essays, for some the focus can shift to hitting the assignment word counts while making it sound as lengthy and descriptive as possible. For corporate marketing materials, it should be a lot more concise. It is important to know how precise you have to be with your words, as you want to get straight to the point in a small character count you have. Additionally, always having a hook at the start of your captions for readers’ attention and writing a “call to action”—words that encourage readers to take actions eg. attending events—helps the posts to get noticed.
3. How did you prepare for your co-op? What extracurricular activities do you believe helped to secure the job?
Getting involved with student organizations, especially with student unions like CMNSU was the most helpful part of this journey. I have been involved in several student-led organizations like CMNSU, HRSA, SMA and MISA and learned skills like: external relations, marketing, business development, event management etc.. These opportunities and skills really helped me to get to where I am today. It was also great working with different teams, and during that process I was able to learn how to communicate and enjoy the work you do, which I feel can be rare sometimes—and it’s really nice to have people around you who are supportive of what you do.
In terms of technical skills, I’d like to mention the SFU CMNSU—and marketing coordinator role as it helped me to learn practical skills applicable to real-world jobs: social media copy, internal communication, organizing events, etc. My VP of Marketing at the time, Kobie, helped me write captions and keep it concise when writing marketing materials. By writing lots of captions and being there for events, I was able to transfer those skills to my co-op tasks; so I am happy to have joined different clubs. It was also through clubs and other experience that helped me to get my current part-time job as an HR assistant, so I definitely recommend joining clubs.
Additional resources - Resources like SFU Communication Co-op program helped me to go through my resume and prepare for interviews. I was able to do many mock interviews, and it helped me to gain understanding on how questions should be answered, and what a “good interview” is.
4. Any tips on co-op applications & interviews?
Don’t be afraid to ask for help & utilize resources! For example, I was able to receive a lot of feedback on my application overall from the co-op program. Because they have experience in communicating with countless students, they can help you on how to set your career, personal and professional goals and really, set yourself up for success.
Good resumes & applications - I know this can be cliche but really, cater your application & resume to the job. Do your research, it really shows the companies that you are genuinely interested in the company and the role. This will also help you to answer how you can contribute to the role.
Interviews - For marketing roles, I recommend having a portfolio piece ready. Even though some are optional, still have it ready for your interview to support explaining your thought process and skill set. It also makes you stand out as you are coming to the interview fully prepared. Another “cliche” but helpful tip would be to always use the STAR method where applicable and do mock interviews to see how you can effectively answer questions.
5. Any unexpected encounters in roles that you didn’t think of prior to the job?
For PowerUp Projects—the marketing advising program for tech-startups—they usually run for a few weeks. However, the first one I had ended up being two months long, and it still wasn’t completed by the end of my co-op term. It’s something that I didn’t really expect, that sometimes projects can go outside the original plan and stretch; however it was still a great learning experience. Additionally, it was great interacting with clients and working on marketing strategies, while learning about how to work on a project and meet the needs of different companies.
On a more general note, I didn’t think that marketing could often include events & event executions. One wouldn’t usually think that events are part of a marketing thing, but I was involved in a few event management & facilitating the events. It was a pleasant surprise, as I was also able to meet many people with different insights.
6. Any challenges & learning experiences during Co-op?
Marketing is still something that I am building on in terms of skills & knowledge, so upon entering the job at first, I was worried of being in the position to give advice and develop strategies to real-life companies. We don’t learn this at school either so at first I questioned myself on my own skills and abilities, and whether I am really in the place to give this kind of advice, and having to develop social media campaigns etc. However, I was able to learn a lot when I received guidance and support from my manager and other co-op students to bounce ideas.
Additionally, I worked in-person and this is something I wish I had done earlier—to approach more people and build connections, because what’s the worst that could happen? So that’s something I would recommend to those who are soon to start their jobs, interacting with your co-workers more & building connections.
7. What key takeaways from your co-op will benefit your future opportunities?
Marketing is more than just social media & taking pictures for making sales: As an outsider, that’s what I initially thought before entering the job, but there’s so much to marketing; copywriting, branding, key messaging, newsletters, websites, events and so on.
Be open-minded: It’s always worth it. Always try new things and take new responsibilities—sure it might not be directly related to what you want to do in the future. But there will always be new things to learn from every opportunity, whether it’s a life lesson, technical skills or even just a good life skill.
Marketing - copywriting & strategy: Working on different tasks helped me to gain a better understanding on how captions and materials should be drafted. Additionally, I was able to learn the strategic communication aspect of marketing, how projects should be planned, organized and executed.
Soft skills - teamwork & collaboration: Through working with different people on both individual scale and teams, I was able to learn the importance of effective communication and collaborations.
8. Any advice for students who are currently in their seeking term of co-op?
Club involvement: This greatly helped me to land a co-op position. Being open-minded in trying new things at clubs is also very important—if you want a marketing role, you don’t necessarily have to just do marketing roles, it can be any other position and you would still gain skills that’s applicable in that field.
Prepare for unexpectedness: Few of the tasks that I did during the co-op were some that I did not expect from the job descriptions. However, I learned a lot from it, such as event management. So definitely prepare to learn new skills and knowledge on situations that you would not expect until that very moment.
Certificates and outside training: I personally didn’t do this myself but I see lots of other people doing LinkedIn Learning certifications, and I think it helps you to educate yourself in the field and the roles you are applying to.
Ask questions & utilize resources: Always ask questions when you need support. The individuals and professionals I got to meet all through these experiences have been the most supportive, experienced, and knowledgeable, so always ask questions when needed. Also utilize the existing resources, like workshops and mock interviews from the co-op department.
Lastly… to make the most out of your co-op experience: Be appreciative of all the little things and experiences that you get to do, be involved in as many as possible as everything will help you to grow your skills in both technical and professional aspects. It’s also a great opportunity to gain confidence in your skills, learn different things and that’s my measure of success in the role. I am really happy I had a great opportunity.