Glenn Young; 13 September
The speaker for this week was Glenn Young. An SFU alumnus, he is the president of "International Tradewind Strategies" and Chair of "Leaders of Tomorrow", a mentorship program sponsored by the Vancouver Board of Trade. His background is a unique combination of business, art and architecture, which is strongly reflected in own business ventures and the classes he has taught at UBC.
In the seminar, he gave us an overview of the "Leaders of Tomorrow" (LOT) program where students get the opportunity to participate in Board of Trade events and are provided with the support of a career mentor. He also explained the Board of Trade's activities on behalf of local businesses and their responsibilities to the wider Vancouver community.
As the Chair of a program whose focus is the development of business skills for students, he heavily stressed the importance of networking and people skills. One of the messages that I took away from his story is that a diversified education can lead to interesting opportunities in business and in life.
Rocky Chan & the MSSc students
"Be your own boss." This was the essence of this week's speaker, Gatis Roze. A highly energetic entrepreneur who has founded many successful businesses (including our SFU Gym Sports Goods Shop), he drove all the way from Seattle to Vancouver to share his inspirations with us. He graduated from SFU in 1975 and also has earned an MBA from Stanford. His ventures have spanned a wide variety of enterprises including: IT, retailing, manufacturing, investing, just to list a few; this has allowed him to retire at the age of 39. In addition to maintaining his investments, he also teaches young people how to start their own businesses, and how to aspire to be their own boss.
To encourage us to discover the entrepreurial spirit within ourselves, Gatis gave us plenty to think about over the course of the evening. I list here a few that are most memorable to me:
Gatis' said that his life dream was to wake up in the morning and work with twenty good friends. He has done it now, and has done it well. His inspirations today were meant to spark within us the more adventurous path to becoming an entrepeneur. I think that for many of us now, including myself, the idea of starting our own business is not that far-fetched a dream. I know that I'll be trying to pay more attention to potential opportunities in the future. He sure lit up a new path for us, even in today's weak job market. Too bad I forgot to ask for a good stock tip ...
Andrew Chang & the MSSc students
This week's speaker in the MSSC seminar was Hugh Alley, senior manager of Grant Thornton BC, a management consulting practice. Hugh, as a Professional Engineer, not only brings technical expertise, but also a background in business ethics and conflict resolution. This combination of skills was key to his own approach to consulting which stresses both finding good solutions to problems while also instilling within the client an enthusiasm for its implementation.
During the course of the evening, Hugh provided a general overview of consulting work, and also some key factors that he felt had been important to success in his own career. He emphasized the importance of managing our learning curve, developing problem solving skills, fine tuning of presentation skills including writing, and finding a work culture consistent with our lives and especially with regards to our own ethical values. Most effective to me (Hank) was his concept of the learning curve to illustrate the balancing of our level of challenge and associated stress by managing its steepness: vertical, horizontal or incremental. When acting as a consultant, Hugh highlighted the necessity of addressing the "people" aspect of the solution as well. I (Pezh) was particularly struck by Hugh's style of working closely within a client organization and drawing the solution out of them, which increases their trust and confidence in the consultant.
The resonating theme placed importance on the continual re-evaluation of our career goals and our plans to achieve them. Career decisions have long term implications and because of this, should be taken seriously. The talk was truly unforgettable, as the ideas shared by Hugh have since found their way into our group discussions, and hopefully will continue to guide our decisions towards a successful future.
Hank Chiang, Pezh Samimi & the MSSc students
Our guest speaker this week was Mrs. Penny Freno. She is the Career Services Practice Leader in the Health, Counselling, and Career Centre here at SFU. Her expertise is advising students in their future career preparations. Most importantly, she encourages students to begin thinking about their career planning well before graduation, and not after.
Much of Penny's advice centred on the fact that achieving success in today's work world requires effective career planning, which often involves less-traditional and creative approaches. First, students should invest more time and energy to get to know their skill sets, personality and goals. Then, knowing about the work world is the second step. Nowadays, organizations are looking for potential and not necessarily expertise. Therefore, students should focus on acquiring necessary skills and experiences that will enhance their competitiveness in their job search after graduation.
After tonight's talk, we realize that just by being here we have already started our career planning. I (Ada) have even begun to do my own job research on the Web. Thanks to Penny, we are all more aware that we have the ability to be actively preparing for our job searches now.
Alex Hadimulya, Ada Ling & the MSSc students
Monika Vidas, Phil Hofton & Mike Prescott, 18 October
Three enthusiastic guest speakers from TAP Ventures Inc. showed our class that choosing a career in business IT consulting could be extremely exciting and rewarding. Our speakers, Monika Vidas, Mike Prescott and Phil Hofton, had respectively diverse undergraduate backgrounds ranging from business to kinesiology in addition to MBAs. They stressed that business consulting is not limited to people with a Business or Commerce foundation. Through their "top 10" themes, Monika, Mike and Phil illustrated the the skill set, flexibility and passion that is required to succeed in their industry.
In their presentation, our speakers broke common "misconceptions" about the life of a business consultant and kept our interest by sharing their witty, and at times amusing, professional experiences. The heart of their message was clear: a business IT consultant must develop both analytical and technical skills, as well as interpersonal, entrepreneurial and marketing skills. By sharing their own stories of success, Monika, Mike and Phil, exemplified the importance of developing a well-rounded character that firms in the new economy seek in potential employees.
Our three guests brought with them their infectious passion for their work and definitely inspired some of us to consider opportunities in the IT business consulting profession. Not only did Monika, Mike and Phil demonstrate that their career choice offers many personal challenges, but also that consulting is an extremely exciting field in today's fast-paced and ever changing environment.
This week's speaker was Don Smith. After graduating from SFU with a BA in commerce, Don completed his CA accreditation. Then in 1996 Mr. Smith finished grad school at SFU with an executive MBA degree (see http://www.harbour.sfu.ca/EMBA/program/project/smith.html). Don has had many different roles in his career. He has been a Corporate Controller and Assistant Secretary, a High School Principal, and Executive VP-Finance Administrator and Director to name a few.
In the seminar, Don gave an overview in the role of accounting and finance in today's commerce. He also provided a detailed explanation of the role of a financial officer. In addition he gave us some first hand advice or "words of wisdom from the battle scarred":
Don provided the class a good insight into the different career paths in finance. In general, he gave us invaluable tips on managing our careers and taking full advantage of opportunities that arise, within or outside an organization.
Kanwal Jeet Bhullar, Sean Amundsen & the MSSc students
Neil D'Sena has been a manager of Accenture Inc. for 5 years, and his focus is in the Communications and High-Tech Market Unit. In 1996, he graduated from the SFU MBA program, where his concentration was in MIS and Marketing. He has been in Vancouver for the last decade; before that, he has lived in Seattle and Denver.
His clients are from the following 3 industry groups:
On the career development side, Neil told us that consulting covers almost every aspect of a business - accounting, human resources, technology, etc. Likewise, consultants come from various backgrounds. Neil has met consultants who have a Math, English, or Accounting background, just to name a few.
Furthermore, he strongly suggested that we attend information sessions held by our potential employers. There we can talk to people who are working there and find out if we "fit" in the company; for example, will we add value to the company or enjoy working with the other employees? After Neil's talk, I (Quentin) realized that networking is essential to our career, so I think students should start building up and improving their own networks. I (Diana) plan to polish my networking skills, and I think information sessions would be a good starting point for me.
Quentin Kok, Diana Wong & the MSSc students
Bob Wakefield, Barb Bonneville, Dan Szabo & Harry Sadhra, 15 November
This week the speakers for the seminar represented the Human Resources Group from the Royal Bank of Canada. Senior HR Advisor Bob Wakefield, along with HR Advisors Barb Bonneville, Dan Szabo and Harry Sadhra (an SFU alumnus), cleared up some misconceptions regarding the true role of a Human Resource Department in a company of such size as the RBC Financial Group. Before the seminar, most of our group was unaware of the complexity of the work done by an HR Department on a daily basis.
The role of the Human Resources Group is to most effectively plan the movement within the workforce of both new and existing employees. More simply, they try to match positions and individuals within the firm to benefit both the company and the employees. This can be very difficult when a small group is overseeing approximately 6000 employees in British Columbia. They must be planning six months to a year in advance for upcoming job vacancies and how they should go about filling them. Another major problem that Human Resource Groups are facing today is how to transfer the general knowledge of the employees near retirement to the budding leaders of tomorrow. The RBC HR group has chosen the path of mentorship to solve this problem and to ease the transfer between positions throughout the company. The human resource group is also involved in ongoing evaluations of their employees and determining how they can use their employees' talents to better the company in the long run. To sum things up, the main goal of the RBC HR Group is to ensure that RBC is getting the most out of their employees and that the employees are getting the most out of RBC.
From others in this seminar, we have heard that working for a single company over a career is not considered the norm these days. But as someone considering beginning my career with a large firm, I (Anthony) found it encouraging to hear firsthand that satisfying careers can still be realized within an organization such as RBC. We thank Bob, Dan, Barb and Harry for their very unique perspective on employment and careers from a Human Resources viewpoint.
Anthony Brough, Neil Chicoine, & the MSSc Students
Tonight's speaker from the Bank of Montreal, Paul Corcoran, is a person who is not afraid of change in his life, or his work. This is clearly evident from his very diverse career path. He has worked in marketing and public relations after his graduation from SFU, then to professional hockey refereeing in Toronto, and finally to his current position as a Senior Manager of Commercial Banking at BMO. The theme of "change" was a common thread that linked his story of the evolution in Canadian bank industry, and in his career advice to us all.
Except for the invention of bank itself, the banking industry has experienced its biggest change ever in the past 20 years, said Paul. And the notion of change in banking is new, as traditional corporate banks have always been perceived as massive, slow and conservative. Legacy banks faced new and fierce competition from smaller financial entities such as loan companies, credit unions, and mono-specialists. Much of these changes were further fueled by the impact of globalization and info-tech evolution in the financial sector. Big banks would have to evolve in order to survive in this new finance world; it would require them to become more nimble, customizable, and flexible. The Bank of Montreal foresaw this trend and adapted well in advance. This helped BMO to lead other banks in the information technology competition; they were one of the pioneers in online banking systems. This evolution in the banking industry again illustrated Paul's theme, that constant change is a key to success, and is even essential for survival.
This theme of 'change' carried on to his conclusion, and Paul gave us some worthy personal advice:
Andrew Chang, Rocky Chan & the MSSc students