The final year of your business undergrad: The time when you begin your transition from full-time student to full-time employee. Starting this fall, the race to landing employment by June will be a strenuous one—your time will be occupied balancing school with applications, interviews, and networking in hopes of landing an opportunity that will show off your strengths and also offer growth.
At Sun Life Financial, the Group Benefits Account Executive Development Program (AEDP) will give you the experience and advancement you are looking for right out of school in just 12–30 months. What is unique about the program is it is designed to place graduates in the fast lane to work towards a career as an account executive: a client-facing, business to business sales role.
“Our program will recruit for recent grads and place them in underwriting at Sun Life for a minimum of one year,” says Candace Leung, director of Account Executive Learning and Best Practices at Sun Life, noting that recruitment for next summer’s cycle of participants begins this September, and is open to upcoming commerce and business grads.
So, are you ready to hit the gas and fast-track your career? Here’s how.
The road to becoming an account executive
As an AEDP participant, your primary responsibility is to take on the role of an underwriter: essentially the financial backbone of Sun Life’s Group Benefits division. In Group Benefits, you won’t just focus on the common dental and health benefits plans, but also on areas like pharmaceuticals, wellness, and disability. You will be trained on, and responsible for, providing pricing quotes for new business, making pricing modifications to existing group benefits plans, and executing quotations for renewals. Mentoring is also a significant value point in the program, as participants regularly have one-on-one reviews with Sun Life’s regional vice-presidents.
“They’ll also get exposure and have regular contact with the business development side, which is where account executives reside,” says Leung. Here, participants will have the opportunity to participate in workshops and webinars, focusing on a variety of soft skills development, and shadow existing account executives.
Channing Wang, AEDP Calgary participant, says it is immensely valuable to start in underwriting. “It gives you a better sense of what you’re talking about and also gives you more confidence with selling products and dealing with advisors and clients.”
Eyeing the finish line
AEDP trains its new grads to learn the Sun Life way of business right out of college or university. As an AEDP participant, you will be able to advance to a career as account executive in two-and-a-half years or less. For others the process typically takes multiple years of external experience.
With meaningful learning from day one, it’s unique from any other development program: graduates will receive the guidance they need and, based on overall performance, will transition into an account executive role. “It’s different from a program that just gives you general business experience,” says Leung. “This actually works towards a very specific career.”
A graduate of Wilfrid Laurier’s business program, Arlene Cressman, AVP National Operations & Best Practices, Business Development Group Benefits at Sun Life, sees real appeal to new graduates for this program. “This is a fantastic career opportunity that I wish had been available when I graduated. Hands on underwriting training, mentoring from existing account executives and the opportunity to accelerate your earnings potential in a short period of time is amazing! If you are a highly sociable, and results oriented individual with strong communication and presentations skills, this exciting and autonomous career may be right for you.“
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