<p>I think that one main factor we are ignoring is the field Ivyleaguer decided to study and work in. Had he been an MBA or JD from Columbia, I don't think finding a job would have been as difficult. But Journalism, even from a top 5 program such as Columbia's, is still not going to guarantee success in a field as limited and cutthroat as Journalism. I have seen Classics or English majors from Yale and other top universities struggle finding jobs too. I remember hiring a Yale graduate as an admin assistant at Ford back in 2002. She graduated from Yale with a solid GPA and a BA in Political Science and she did not want to go straight to graduate school. She looked for jobs everywhere and could not find anything. We are talking about a highly articulate and very attractive young lady. She ended up working as administrative assistant for 2 years, earning $30,000/year. She eventually got smart and applied to law school. Last I know, she enrolled into Georgetown Law school. However, he case is not at all unusual. I think Ivy_grad said it best. All that an Ivy League can guarantee is a great education...assuming one is willing to give it their best I suppose. The rest is up to initiative and luck.</p>
<p>Actually, ivyleaguer, my point was that there DOES seem to be a "wow factor" for Ivy-educated Canadians who return to their home country to work. Unfortunately, it's something like, "Wow, you must be a social-climbing, Yank-loving, ketchup-on-french-fries traitor whom I don't want to hire."</p>
<p>But I also think it is insightful of you to point out the relatively (as compared to the US's) superb quality of Canadian secondary education, and their solid post-secondary education (their top colleges probably aren't quite as good as the top American colleges, but their worst colleges are probably WAY better than our worst). So in general they have a high-quality education system, with nowhere near the huge difference between the peaks and the valleys like in the USA.</p>
<p>Therefore...you're probably right that it's far far less important in Canada WHICH college a job applicant went to, because the differences between the expected quality of degree holders from the best colleges and the expected quality of degree holders from the lesser colleges are not nearly as dramatic as they are down here. For example, an employer in the U.S. can probably be expected to perceive a HUGE difference between an applicant who has a B.A. from Dartmouth and an applicant who has a B.A. from Southwest Arkansas State Online University. Whereas a Canadian employer would NOT have such dramatically different preconceptions about one applicant from the U of Toronto and and another applicant from Ryerson. And because they are not accustomed to putting very much weight on WHERE an applican't degree is from, perhaps they aren't programmed to have much hiring-decision-influencing reverence for the top colleges (Ivys & perhaps even their own) like we do down here.</p>
<p>Maybe they prefer candidates who went to local (Canadian) universities?</p>
<p>Magusxxl, that's why it would be interesting to see if Canadian alumni of Oxford and Cambridge also get the cold shoulder from Canadian hiring executives. If they do, then perhaps you're right that they simply prefer alumni of Canadian colleges. If they don't, then one might conclude an anti-USA bias.</p>
<p>I was just thinking about that. Is it just American top universities that don't have as much international prestige, or are Oxford and Cambridge grads experiencing the same thing? I'd safely say that an MIT grad could find a job anywhere in the world...</p>
<p>bahamasc wrote: I guy I used to work out with went to Canada for undergrad, then Columbia for his MBA. Then when he came back, couldnt get a job for beans. Ended up working for customs. Then he went to a high ranking buddy who looked at his resume and told him that he was simply overqualified. </p>
<p>Yes, I hear you. Despite what Alexandre said. the degree itself doesn't seem to help IMO. As I mentioned my friend Shane said the guys in his brokerage firm with MBA's from Harvard aren't doing that well and I had a class mate who attended Stanford law and couldn't get a job in Toronto. to be fair however, in the latter case it might have that potential employers might have been wondering if an American law school graduate was as savvy in Canadian law as those from Canadian law schools.</p>
<p>I seriously don't think there is a significant anti-American bias in Canada when it comes to hiring candidates. Business in Toronto is just as cutthroat as in New York--Canadian business is subjected to the same rigours of global capitalism. So hiring the best candidates rather than the most patriotic ones is the first step to survival.</p>
<p>That said, though I have no direct personal experience in these matters as I am just graduating from high school, second-hand I have heard similar problems from older friends going to the US for undergrad. I grappled with this also when I was deciding my own college destination.</p>
<p>One guy who's at Princeton didn't seem all that enthusiastic about his job prospects back home in Toronto <em>relative</em> to his prospects as a pton student in, say, New York.</p>
<p>A friend's father, who hires at a Bay Street financial company that also has an office in New York, is a Columbia MBA alum and said: "If I am hiring in New York and I have a Columbia grad and a Richard Ivey (School of Business) grad, I'll probably take the Columbia guy. If I'm hiring in Toronto, I'll probably take the Richard Ivey guy."</p>
<p>But it's not as if you don't find Harvard MBA's, for example, in positions of power in Canada. It's just not the hegemony you find in the United States.</p>