Just like any other suburban resident, I interact with businesses on a daily basis—I order my lunch from Alpine Bagel, I go to the Apple Store to figure out what’s wrong with my laptop, I do an unhealthy amount of shopping online, and I even work for one. With so much prior “exposure” to business, I figured I wouldn’t be too surprised by a formal education in the field. I was wrong.
Throughout the UNC Business Essentials Program, I learned that there are so many more dimensions to the realm of business than the ones I step into everyday as a suburban resident. Even more, at the time I was taking the UBE courses I was simultaneously working as a sales representative for Vector Marketing, and I was delighted to see that I was unconsciously making connections between what I was learning through UBE and my work.
I started to understand the logic behind the business decisions that my managers made on a daily basis and better understood the company’s operation on a larger scale. Now, equipped with knowledge of PEST Analyses, product-focused vs. customer-focused marketing, balance sheets, bottlenecks, and production strategies, I feel more confident in my understanding of the art and science of business, and this understanding has made me a better, more-knowledgeable, employee and customer.