jobpostings magazine (vol. 14, issue 1)

| september 2011 |

The value of educaTion, debT, and your ca-reer.



8plus:

Your EvErY-

thing guidE to

Accounting!

page special feaTure

Building urBan utopiasThe Civil Engineer

Well-oiled CareersAll the Jobs in Oil and Gas&

1jobpostings.ca | september 2011

IFC Deloitte 3 Shell 7 College Pro 9 CN 11 The Home Depot 24 KPMG 31 Grant Thornton LLP 32 Deloitte 35 Ernst & Young 36 Nexen 39 Talisman Energy 41 Magna Electric Corporation 41 Ontario Power Authority 42 Aecon 47 OSCO Construction Group OBC PwC

who’shiring

stuff to buy

yay! more school

Hey. Did you know that these companies have lots of entry level positions? Visit their websites to see a full list of positions available.

who else?

2 Humber, The Business School, Accounting 11 Centennial College, Accounting 16 Humber, School of Media Studies and Information Technology 16 Centennial College 17 Brock University 17 Niagara College 17 Ross University 17 Queen’s University 17 Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry 17 Sheridan College 47 University of Saskatchewan, Edwards School of Business IBC Humber, The Business School (Post-grad) Event Management

13 ACE Canada 18 The Next 36 23 Insurance Institute of Canada 27 Certified Management Accountants

5 Rogers Wireless 14 Excel 45 Lipton Brisk

Bubble or no bubble, the winds of change are blowing through

the halls of higher education. Here's how to ride out the storm

and take control of your school, your debt, and your career.

19

Imag

e: ©

Son

ya va

n He

ynin

gen

Success Story — Armon Rouhani on not

underestimating yourself. Brought to you by

Rogers Wireless.

Interview Smarts — Angela Fennelow of

Sun Life gives us a little interview insurance.

Money Bites — A couple of pointers to help

you manage your money.

Career Cupid — The Indy 500 of Jobs.

Start Up — Jordan Gutierez on home and

helping.

Edu-ma-cation — A Blueprint for the Fu-

ture: Master’s in Architecture.

The Smarter Grids — Our energy sector

is growing, but competition for jobs is fierce. A

look at smart grids, and what skills you need to

electrify your career.

Building Urban Utopias — The municipal

magnanimity of the engineering professional.

Nursing On The Edge — You’ll need solid

skills and limitless stamina to work for an NGO.

The Confidence Builders — Rehab scienc-

es is where technology and compassion come

together.

JobLife — The Royal “We.” It’s “we” did this, not

“I” did this. Quit taking all the credit, sheesh.

Special Accounting Section: Not Just Pencil PushersThere’s more to accounting than you think. We tell

you how to get the job (then do well on the job),

bust some myths, and weigh in on the industry vs.

firm debate. Plus, a few recent grads share their

advice. It’s everything you need to make it in this

underappreciated profession.

Inside Oil and GasWho decides where to drill? The Chief Geophysicist

does. Plus, we look at a few careers in oil and gas

that you may not have thought of.

4

8

10

12

15

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business.humber.ca

BACHELOR OF COMMERCE

Humber’s new 4-year Accounting Degreewill prepare you for the demands of the accounting and finance professions.

BACHELOR OF COMMERCE

ACCOUNTING

BE PART OF THE SOLUTION.

Shell is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

CAREERS AT SHELLLET’S BUILD A BETTER ENERGY FUTURE.

To learn more and apply, visit www.shell.ca/careers. Be sure to check out the Student/Graduate section of our website for helpful tools, including resume writing tips, a degree matcher and realistic job previews.

For additional information on career opportunities, visit us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter @ShellCareers.

■ Alternative work schedules■ Work and family programs■ Health and wellness programs

■ Training and development■ Employee networks■ Mentoring

If you’re ready to tackle the energy challenge and make a real impact on the world, join a company that values diversity and emphasizes the quality of life for its employees and their families. At Shell, we offer:

rogers.com/careers/campuslife

What drew you to your current field?In my younger years, I would spend hours messing around with the computer at home, fixing some problems and creating new ones, all the while fascinated at the things the com-puter could do. I still remember talking with my friends in elementary school about how we all wanted to work with computers when we grew up, even though we had no idea what that really meant. It wasn’t until my older cousin started studying Computer Engineer-ing (at the University of Waterloo) that I gave it some serious thought and actually started looking into what a career in computers really meant. With the help of two truly passion-ate teachers in high school, I learned what it meant to write computer programs and de-sign circuits. I knew then I was destined for a career in computers.

How did you find your current position? Being part of the University of Waterloo’s co-operative education program was the key. I worked at CGI as part of the Financial Services team in Toronto during my last coop term. When I finished my coop term, I returned back to school for my final term, and contacted one of the directors I had worked with during my time at CGI. A few emails later, I had a full-time job lined up after school and started work right after school — literally, I started work three days after my last exam.

Can you tell us a bit about your responsibilities?As with any consulting job, the project dic-tates the roles and responsibilities of each member, which differ from client to client. My responsibilities on past projects include devel-oping proof of technology concepts, design-ing, coding and debugging code, and leading the efforts of a team of developers. Ultimately, my responsibility is to make sure the deliver-able is completed properly and on time.

What is the most challenging aspect of your position?The most challenging aspect of my position, which happens to be the most interesting as-

pect as well, is the constant need to learn new skills, new techniques and hit the

ground running on any new project. Whether it’s using new methodolo-

gies or technologies, every project is different, and a chance to learn new skills while at the same time, leveraging your past experiences.

What is the most rewarding part of your job?Truth be told, it’s the people I work with on a dai-ly basis. There’s nothing more rewarding than knowing you worked hard, finished the project on time, and had a great time doing it. And the right team is integral to most of that, one that knows how to have fun and laugh, and, at the same time, get things done.

What do you think it takes to be suc-cessful in this career?To be successful as a technologist, you need to be adaptable, have a willingness to learn new skills, and a passion for solving problems! So take initiative, don’t be hesitant to learn new skills and technologies, be self-motivated but at the same time a team player, and most im-portantly have fun. At the end of the day, you won’t be successful unless you do well and en-joy what it is you’re doing.

Is there one accomplishment you are most proud of to date?The opportunity to take the lead role on a proj-ect when you’re the most junior member of the team isn’t the most likely of all scenarios. But when your Director takes you aside and tells you he wants you to take on the role of C++ Lead, you quickly realize you work for a team that isn’t afraid to take a risk and give you a chance to prove what you’re capable of. Going from being a member of the C++ de-velopment team to the Lead for my project was an amazing experience, and leading the design and development with a diverse team of developers was one of the proudest accom-plishments of my newly begun career.

What advice do you have for students looking to land their first job?Don’t underestimate what you know, but at the same time, don’t oversell yourself. Prove your-self early on, and don’t stop — don’t become content with just getting by. The difference between an outstanding employee and an okay employee is more than just what they know, it’s about how they put that knowledge into action, and how they interact with their colleagues. Stand apart, but for the right reasons.

Company CGI Group Inc.

Position Technical Analyst

Length of employment 25 months

Degree Bachelors of Applied Science (BASc.), Honours Computer Engineering (Coop). University of Waterloo

Sponsored by

suCCessstoriesArmon Rouhani

4

$169MSRP VALUE

rogers.com/studentplan

with a 3-yr. term on select devices

INCLUDES ALLMONTHLY FEES

FROMFROM

6 september 2011 | jobpostings.ca

noteI knew I liked reading books, and I was told that a university degree would guarantee employment. So I went to school, and upsold the whole "university equals a career" thing to my mom when I asked for a loan(s). The truth was that I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do, and quite frankly didn't care. I liked learning. Career? I'll figure that out later, I told myself.

I thought, mistakenly, that everyone at university was there to learn, first and foremost. Turns out that the majority of people simply wanted a career. They suffered from visions of a future where they were unemployed — visions put there by parents, high school teachers, and guidance counsellors. It’s one the biggest lies our generation has been told: university equals a career. And I think it’s time we go on the record and finally say it: university does not get you a career.

Don’t get me wrong, it certainly helps, and all evidence points to the fact that a higher education, compared to those with-out post-secondary education, means added numerals on those future paycheques. But if a university education truly meant a career the day after graduation, then there would be no need for career centres, no need for magazines or websites like jobpostings, and life would be just fantastic (save for the fact that I would be out of a job). “Got a degree? Awesome, you’re hired.” Imagine?

No, what university does is teach you how to think. Yes, it fills your head with the technical knowledge you need for your industry of choice, but it also teaches you analytical skills and different ways of looking at the world. It’s this crazy idea that knowledge gives us the tools and reasoning skills to figure out

Jason Rhyno

problems, not only in a make-the-world-a-better-place type of way but also in how we manage our own personal lives.

You should also know that a high GPA doesn’t equal a job. Sure, you’ll be seriously considered for that entry-level posi-tion, but, as one person we interviewed for our special Focus on Accounting (starting on page 25) said, “We’ve turned down people who have almost perfect GPAs.” While you may have been able to ace every single test, the question at the job in-terview stage becomes about how you're going to apply that knowledge to the really-real world of work. Employers want to know what you've done with that knowledge, and what you're going to do with it while you work for them. Don’t think, even for a second, that you can walk into an interview with nothing but a degree and a high GPA. You'll lose that position to some-one with an 'OK' GPA, but with loads of experience.

A great way to get this experience is by doing extracurricular activities, joining a club, volunteering, or working part-time while you study. Look for ways your classroom and book knowledge can be applied to the work you do, and how it can help you understand and communicate with other people. And a lovely by-product of doing this is that it will teach you how to think creatively about problems. New solutions to new problems is something employers love.

So I guess the point I'm trying to make is this: university gives you the tools and analytical thinking skills you need to understand how the world, and stuff in the world, works. It does not, however, guarantee you a career; that part is up to you.

editor’s

our favourite quote this month:

“I’m going to be blunt: if there is alcohol on offer, don’t get drunk. This is a recruiting event, and if you can’t hold alcohol, if you don’t know how to drink in a professional setting, don’t drink at all.”

Will Christensen, From Focus on Accounting, (page 26)

publisher Nathan Laurie

[email protected]

associate publisher Mark Laurie

[email protected]

editor Jason Rhyno

[email protected]

graphic designer Sonya van Heyningen

[email protected]

web editor Simone Castello

[email protected]

contributors Christine Fader, Ross Harrhy,

Emma Jones, Brandon

Miller, Emily Minthorn,

Kevin Nelson, Amy Sobrano,

Andrew Williams

national account managers Sarah-Lyn Amaral,

Mary Vanderpas

interns Vlad Omazic, Alyssa

Ouellette, Andrew Williams

jobpostings

Published by Passion Inc. 25 Imperial Street, Suite 100 Toronto, ON M5P 1B9

jobpostings.ca 1-877-900-5627 ext. 221

jobpostings is published eight times in the school year. Issue dates are September, October, November, January, February, March, April, and May. Copies of jobpostings are distributed to over 105 universities and colleges across Canada. Contents of this publication are protected by copyright and may not be reprinted in whole or part without permission of the publishers. Is it quitting time yet?

on the cover: © Sonya van Heyningen

a

QTell me about your extra-curricular ac-tivities. What do you enjoy about your extra-curricular activities, and what is your weekly time commitment to these activities?

So you screwed up in the interview, huh? They asked the ol’

“What’s your greatest weakness” question and you responded with

“cupcakes,” hoping to get a laugh. Awkward.

Lucky for you we have friends on the inside – recruiting friends

(the people who’ll be interviewing you). It cost us a few favours, but they

finally agreed to explain why they ask what they ask, and what

the best answers are.

It’s a cheatsheet for interviews. Good luck!

smarts* interview

by Angela Fennelow,

Director, CSF Recruiting and Selection

@ Sun Life Financial

The interviewer wants to learn more about you! She wants to know your interests, what motivates you and why you participate in extra-curricular activities. This is an opportu-nity to share what is important to you, and it helps the inter-viewer determine if your values and motivators are a good fit with the company and the role you are applying for. It will also help her decide if she should share specific aspects of the role you are applying for that may be of particular inter-est to you and your current career path.

Do you just show up for meetings, or are you an active member in your extra-curricular groups? Share the vision and mission of the group, and your role within it. If you are a member of a student or community organization or team, and you are in a key role that drives the strategy and direction of the organization, this demonstrates commit-ment and leadership. If you are active in more than one group, give details, because this shows you can manage multiple projects concurrently.

Your answer to this question also demonstrates your skill in balancing work (school projects, assignments and attending class) with your life outside of work. Balanc-ing work and life while maintaining your overall health is important in today’s work environment, and if you are already doing this in school, then you are putting in place the foundations for your career and life balance.

How you answer this question also provides information about your networks in the community and your ability

to build and maintain relationships with others. Networking and relationship building is an ex-

pectation of your career development today. Meeting company objectives is rarely an

individual event. For example, our career sales force advisors succeed when they help their clients, for which trusting rela-

tionships are a necessity.

Your extra-curricular activities provide you with a lot of experiences that

you can draw on in most inter-view situations. Good luck!

september 2011 | jobpostings.ca

Imag

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phot

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inks

tock

moneybites

building a

No one has limitless mon-ey,” says Laurie Campbell, executive director of Credit Canada, a non-profit credit counselling organization. “And even if your parents are supporting you, you still need to be able to budget.”

A recent study by Capital One found many recent graduates fall victim to im-pulse purchases, and often overlook extra income as an opportunity to improve their finances. The survey asked about saving and spending habits.

“If given $500 to save or spend, 74 percent of the young adults surveyed say that they would spend at least $100 of it and 44 per-cent would spend at least $300,” reports the survey.

It’s important to start off on the right foot after high school or post-secondary studies. Knowing how to make and keep a budget is something you should take as seriously as getting good grades and finding a good job. So, we asked Campbell for some advice.

sTarT by seTTing a goal“It’s the very first thing you should do. Even if it’s just paying off a credit card or saving money to go on vacation, it can help you motivate yourself to start budgeting,” she says.

Then draw up a lisT of your currenT expensesRemember all the catego-ries: rent, food, entertain-ment, transportation, books, and bills.

nexT, add up your sources of income, Then cal-culaTe The dif-ferenceThere are a ton of apps and software programs that can help you do this. If you’re making less than you’re spending, you need to take a closer look at what you’re spending money on.

For example, you might con-sider cooking at home rather than ordering a pizza. Spend-ing on clothing may have to be limited to sweaters and jeans, and not include Gucci bags. And books can be purchased second-hand rather than new.

Know the differ-enceIt’s all about knowing the difference between needs and wants, says Campbell, who adds you should set some money aside for that goal you had in mind. “That way there’s a reward for all your hard work,” she says.

of survey respondents say that they are putting money in savings on a monthly basis or more

admit they are not setting aside money for savings on a regular basis


You may not know everything when it comes to home improvement, but after our training and hands-on coaching you will. The Home Depot, one of Canada’s top 100 employers, is currently hiring. You bring the desire to put customers first and we’ll offer competitive rewards including company paid health & dental plans, 70+ benefits, tuition reimbursement & much more.

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Apply online at homedepotjobs.ca/2152

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Jumpstart your accounting career. Start here. • Accounting – Fast track• Business – Accounting• Business Administration – Accounting

• Business Finance• Financial Planning• Payroll Management

The Future of Learningcentennialcollege.ca

Career Cupid

dismiss it. It’s really not

the right job for me. I like

talking about carburetors

but I have zero inclination

to take one apart.

Perhaps that’s okay though

because not only am I a

car geek, I’m also a career

geek. Maybe it’s my profes-

sion (“career counsellor”

wasn’t one of the options

the interests tests pointed

me to, by the way), but

I seem to compulsively

make lists of work I see

around me, whenever I’m

in a new situation. And it

often occurs to me that

many of the life situations

we find ourselves in don’t

jump to mind when we

consider our career op-

tions, but are in fact full of

real, practical, paying (and

parent-pleasing) jobs.

Case in point: the race-

track. Here’s a place full

of obvious jobs that might

feel slightly out of reach to

the ordinary person: the

drivers, the race announc-

ers and pit crew. But what

about all the other jobs

that we rarely think of or

hear about? Have you ever

considered working at a

race track or team and

becoming: track marshal,

race mechanic, safety spe-

cialist, car designer, track

architect, timing expert,

rules officiate, driver butler

,or flame-retardant suit

engineer?

And, it’s not just the jobs

that sound obviously like

race-specialist occupations

that could land you in

this environment. I have a

friend who is a paramedic.

Sounds pretty normal,

Christine Fader works as a career counsellor at Queen’s

University and is the author of, “Career Cupid: Your Guide

to Landing and Loving Your Dream Job”. She dreams of

adding a vintage Fiat 500, BMW Isetta and numerous other

classic vehicles to what she hopes will be a collection.

Visit her website at: www.careercupid.com

I should have been a

mechanic (or architect or

nursery school teacher or

physiatrist). At least, that’s

what the interest tests

always tell me.

I attended a vintage racing

weekend in June and had

a positively euphoric, but

slightly embarrassing three

days. It was embarrass-

ing because there seemed

to be a lot of involuntary

shrieking coming out of my

mouth all weekend long

as I oogled and drooled

over fields of beautiful old

Minis’, Austin Healeys,

MGAs and Fiat 500s.

If that list of cars was like

Greek to you, then it’s

probably obvious that I’m

a) old and b) a slight car

nut. And it might not be a

surprise that ‘mechanic’ is

one of the options that an

interest test suggests for

me to pursue.

The problem is, I don’t

love boring cars and I

don’t like to fix cars. So,

as soon as the interest

test spits out the option

“mechanic,” I immediately

the indy 500 of jobs

by Christine Fader

right? You probably have

a picture in your head

about what his job looks

like. But, he was actually a

paramedic at the Formula

1 racetrack in Hockenheim,

Germany. He got to patch

back together Formula

1 race car drivers like

Michael Schumacher and

Jenson Button. I don’t know

about you, but even though

the job title is the same as

other paramedics, his job

has nuances that make it

a different gig than what

I think of when someone

suggests paramedic as a

career option. While “para-

medic” may not leap out

as the perfect job for me,

“paramedic at a Formula 1

racetrack” has ingredients

that make that job fit me a

whole lot better!

The same can be true of

other “regular” jobs like

promotions managers,

graphic designers, truck

drivers, logistics supervi-

sors, photographers and

videographers, event

planners, etc, etc. All these

jobs could be done at a race

track — or in some other

environment that makes

involuntary shrieking

come out of YOUR mouth.

Maybe it’s a fashion show

in Spain or working for an

international development

organization. Maybe it’s at

a theatre — in a huge city

or one in the middle of the

mountains.

Often, when we’re consider-

ing our options (and espe-

cially when we’re presented

with a list, like the one from

an interest test), we only

think of the traditional ste-

reotype of a job and some-

times that turns us away

from that whole option. But

every job role has a range of

ways of doing it. In fact, just

by moving the job into a

different environment, that

role might fit us a whole lot

better. By the same token,

pursuing a role that you

think you’ll love and doing

it long-term in the wrong

environment can also start

to tarnish something you

would normally find really

interesting.

I think that interest tests

have their place, for some

people. Sometimes they can

give insight and sometimes

they’re not at all helpful.

But, before you dismiss an

idea for sounding ridiculous

or accept an idea for sound-

ing great, consider the way

HOW or WHERE you do the

work can affect the way

that work feels to you.

You might wonder how

I could ever suggest that

“mechanic” and “career

counsellor” both became

part of my working life, but

they are. Yes, I ignored the

interest test and didn’t be-

come a mechanic but I did

accept the breadcrumb it

conjured that option from.

My car fixation is incor-

porated every day into my

work as a university career

counsellor — because I

drive there and back in my

1973 VW Beetle, the sunroof

open and my cheeks hurt-

ing from smiling so much.



Are you looking to gain hands onexperience before leaving school?With SIFE, you will not only make a difference in your community, but you will also gain real world experience. Be on a dynamic team that competes in national and global competitions while launching the career you’ve always dreamt of.

What are you waiting for?Your future starts now.

Visit www.acecanada.ca today!SIFE is a program operated by ACE in Canada


ZAP AWAY BAD BREATH

EXCEL IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF THE WM. WRIGLEY JR. CO., OR ITS SUBSIDIARIES.

Jordan guTierez

ZAP AWAY BAD BREATH

EXCEL IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF THE WM. WRIGLEY JR. CO., OR ITS SUBSIDIARIES.

conditioned store. I listened to the conversations around me, and learned that people from small towns all over Mexico had to travel long distances just to buy medical books in city centers. When I got back to Canada, I had the idea to start selling them in a way that was more accessible to people in rural communities — the thing was that I was in Canada.

How did you overcome such a challenge to be-come so successful?

First of all, I don’t think we’re successful yet. It’s not yet what I want it to be; I want to make the

Interviewed by Amy Sobrano

Can you tell me about what inspired you to launch librerialeo.com.mx?

When I finished my high school degree in Lower Vancouver in 2007, I went back to Mexico City for the summer. I decided I wanted to make some money, so I bought a coffee machine and start-ing selling drinks in the subway. But because it was summer and so hot outside, nobody was in-terested. There was a medical bookstore nearby, and my family has been in the book selling busi-ness for about 100 years so we knew the own-ers. As a favour, they let me sell coffee in their air

21 years old; graduated from Simon Fraser University

with an undergrad degree in Economics in December 2010;

currently doing pre-MBA through SFU.

Representing Canada at the 2011 Global Student Entrepeneur Awards;

2011 Student Entrepeneur Regional Champion; runs online medical

bookstore from Canada that distributes in Mexico.

Jordan guTierez

business international. In a way, the challenge of not being able to see everything for myself has become a strength. I had to plan and develop processes to monitor and ensure really great cus-tomer service, especially because many people in Mexico don’t trust buying online. I think I put sys-tems in place that I wouldn’t have developed had I not been in Canada. Presently, we are applying our expansion to other parts of Latin America, but shipping can be another challenge because many of these villages don’t have names or addresses. They’re not like small towns in Canada.

Until December, you were a full-time student. How were you able to manage your time?

It was a lot to balance. Once during exams our site got hacked, and it was really terrible. I hardly slept for three days trying to fix it, and my marks suf-fered. Now, I know my schedule and everything is in place. I wake up at 6am and go to the gym for two hours. Then I go to work until 5pm, where I do marketing for a company and am also chatting online with the engineers in Mexico. When I come home, I study my online courses for two hours, eat dinner, and go to sleep.

Did you ever consider leaving school to work on librerialeo.com.mx full time?

I love my business, but my main goal is to get Ca-nadian citizenship. Long-term, we plan to sell it because I think there are people who could use it in a better way than we can. My degree is impor-

tant to me because it allowed me to stay in Can-ada; if I had left school, I would have had to leave the country. I have been here for almost 7 years and I feel like a Canadian, but legally I am not. Even now, I have this office job so that I can stay here.

Despite your love for Canada, is it still meaningful for you to be working in your birth country?

Yes. I like to think that I am making a change there, from the point of view of both my users and my employees. We offer things that are standards here, but not in Mexico. I am interested in people who have goals, and we treat our employees very fairly, beyond what the law demands, and help them to develop. I want them to be successful peo-ple, even after they leave. Also, I think we are help-ing the medical community to have better tools and greater access to information and equipment.

Any advice for young entrepreneurs?

Persistence is key. If you have something people want, you’re going to do well. If you have some-thing people need, you’re going to do better. I had the idea for this company in 2008, but we didn’t make any sales for over a year. We were patient, we were persistent, and it worked.

startup

jobpostings.ca | september 2011


centennialcollege.ca The Future of Learning

Whatbewant to

YouDo

management, while Toronto’s own City Hall has implemented the same green roof design.

Canada has numerous tourist destinations, many of them in or around major cities, that are prime areas for architectural design. “I think people go to great cities to see interesting places,” says Ryn-nimeri. “But if you’re going to rely on just a bread and circuses approach to tourism where you cre-ate half a dozen wonderful destinations, I think that’s just half of it. When I go to Paris, I don’t go there just to see the Eiffel Tower; I go there to walk around and embed myself in the daily life of the city. If you can create that […] then the city would have its own identity.” He explains how cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver could improve the urban fabric of their streets to make city life more cohesive, something that architectural stu-dents can definitively become involved in.

Cities will only become denser as surrounding dis-tricts and metropolitans experience substantial population booms. Given these developments, construction companies, urban planners, and architects are working closely together to accom-modate our daily needs, as well as the needs of the environment. Armed with the necessary skills to address these concerns, a Master’s in Architecture will not only put you on the front lines of this field, but will also put you in the command centre, de-veloping new strategies and technologies to help move our society into the next century.

Architecture is one of those fields that won-derfully blends two things you normally wouldn’t associate with each other: art and engineering. Ev-erything from homes to entire cities need to be designed, and today things such as

livability, ecology, transportation and costs must be kept in mind. Universities have been offering stud-ies in Architecture at the Master’s level to maximize students’ specializations in this field.

In Canada, architectural schools can be found at Waterloo University, McGill University, and Dalhousie, just to name a few. Students in these programs are instructed in developing plans and determining the feasibility of construction proj-ects, as well as zoning and sites. Course material will also challenge you in the type of critical studies that are generally part of a Master’s program. To help you address the various issues facing architec-ture and urban design, you’ll work closely with 3D modeling tools, geographic information systems, realistic rendering, and of course you’ll be applying the knowledge you gained during your undergrad-uate studies. “Our focus at Waterloo tends to be on the urban periphery because that’s where the open issues are,” says Val Rynnimeri, an associate professor teaching at Waterloo’s School of Archi-

tecture. “Most people know how to do reasonably good work in a city centre, the real problems of the future lie in the suburbs.”

As our communities progress, questions that will re-quire more architectural expertise are those that ask about urban planning, livable space, and the coordi-nation of transit, energy, waste, and the populace at large. Students preparing to enter this field will face these issues and must know how to approach them. How can we design an art gallery to be aesthetically pleasing yet environmentally sound? How do we build an infrastructure that leaves as small an eco-logical footprint as possible? And how can we build a high-rise condo to be cost effective yet still adhere to standards and building regulations?

Rynnimeri stresses how crucial population sus-tainability is from an architectural standpoint. “If you don’t have population sustainability, then you become Detroit.” He explains that although the Motor City boasts an impressive architectural col-lection of arenas, stadiums and other attractions, it remains in a sinkhole situation, lacking in livability.

In addition, Rynnimeri adds that now it’s especially important to have a green strategy, and students should bear this in mind when they enter the field. One challenge is designing an urban environment that balances the ubiquitous concrete and steel of the city with green spaces and open areas. Among the many innovations that urbanized construction projects are implementing are green roofs — roof-tops covered with vegetation such as grass and even gardens. The Computer Science Building at York Uni-versity built a 20,175 ft2 grassy roof for storm water

by Andrew Williams

edu-ma-cation

Blueprint for the FutureA Master’s in

Architecture will

help you design

the future of

modern society.

Literally.


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Are YOU one of Canada’s NEXT 36?The Next 36 aims to transform Canada’s most promising undergraduates into high impact entrepreneurs. We do this by selecting the most promising students and getting you to start your own businesses. While you are building your venture, we give you access to great role models, great advice and cash. Over the next nine months we will expand your sense of what is possible.

What makes The Next 36 so unique?▶ $50,000 in capital and support.

To kick-start the development of your team’s new venture.

▶ World-class faculty. Intensive courses on innovation and strategy, business and finance, taught by award winning faculty from Harvard, Wharton, Ivey and Georgetown (to name just a few).

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undergraduate student in your third or final year of study in any faculty. Consideration will also be given to exceptional second year students.

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BUBBLE OR nO BUBBLE, ThE winDS OF ChAnGE ARE BLOwinG ThROUGh ThE hALLS OF hiGhER EDUCATiOn. hERE’S hOw TO RiDE OUT ThE STORM AnD TAkE COnTROL OF yOUR SChOOL, yOUR DEBT, AnD yOUR CAREER.


We can start this thing With a definition. BuBBle: A bubble, in the economic sense of the word, is what happens when the price of an asset — houses, dot coms, seventeenth century Dutch tulips — gets way out of whack with that asset’s intrinsic value. Over the past few years, we’ve seen a couple of pretty major bubbles swell and then burst, resulting in what some might term a catastrophic economic meltdown. And as we’re still dealing with the shockwaves of these crashes past, one might think we’d be hawk-like in our vigilance for the next event on the global horizon. But the weird thing with economic bubbles is that just like their playful, soapy cousins, they’re kind of hard to see. Especially when you’re inside one.

by Emily Minthorn

20

are you in your pro-gram because you love iT, or because you wanT a Job aT The end of four years?

Since shortly after the 2008 crash, experts from various fields — economists, educators, admin-istrators, policy makers — have, with increasing boldness and detail, been putting forward the notion of a higher education bubble. The theory goes something like this: if tuition and other costs associated with post-secondary education continue to spiral upwards, it’s only a matter of time before students and their families simply cease to be able to afford school. Once this break-

ing point is reached, the bubble bursts. Prices will come crashing down as enrollment plummets and the demand for degrees and diplomas all but evaporates, and those unlucky learners who’ve already begged and borrowed the exorbitant sums required to pay for school will be left holding very expensive pieces of parchment. In short, your hard-bought credentials will be worthless (or at least, worth less) but you’ll still be paying for them until you’re old and gray and full of sleep.

The scenario’s pretty scary, but for all the writing being done on the subject, no one seems to know what to do about it. So let’s unpack it, bit by bit. Can the value of a university degree really be discussed in the same terms as the price of shares in OvervaluedWebsite.com? Should we really be comparing universities and colleges to subprime mortgage lenders, and degrees and diplomas to consumer goods? And assuming all this gloom and doom is true, what are the indebted consum-ers of educational products supposed to do about it once the whole thing goes pop?

Since this is economics, let’s look first at supply and demand. The demand for education is a com-plicated thing. As good jobs get scarcer and the number of graduates continues to grow, there’s a kind of education arms race happening. Add to that schools’ ever-increasing variety of available programs and credentials on offer, and the extra complexity that for-profit institutions bring to the picture. Universities and colleges, accredited edu-cational institutions, are the only entities equipped to provide the product that consumers, their students, demand. This puts the schools in an all-powerful position to not only supply credentials, but to create a demand for their products that never existed before — or at least, not in the same way. The result is a system where the price of an

education routinely outstrips cost-recovery levels by an order of magnitude, where many consum-ers are priced right out of the game, and where the 2011 debt load of Canadian students will reach an estimated $15 billion and surpass the national credit card debt total for the first time in history.

Oh yes, debt. Because, of course, bubbles are nothing without bloat, and the cost of a Canadian post-secondary education has gone the way of a belly after too much beer. StatsCan reports that

national average tuition fees for the 2010-2011 school year increased about four percent from fees in 2009-2010, and this after 2009-2010 had already been three and a half percent more expensive than 2008-2009. For years now, tuition in Canada has been rising at roughly twice the rate of inflation, totaling a fourfold price increase over the past two decades, with no end in sight. And that’s not all, folks. Over and above tuition, additional compulsory fees at Canadian schools are exploding at a rate of about seven percent per year, nationally speaking — but students in Alberta, for example, were facing a jump of about 24 percent in those mandatory expenditures from what they paid this time last year.

These numbers are lots of things to lots of people: heavy, and upsetting, and eerily reminiscent of the way things looked south of the border, right before the housing bubble went bust. Productive, however, they are not.

Until recently, there was no indication that anyone might just opt out of the scheme entirely and decide to make their own fun. Value for tuition money aside, there’s a growing movement that believes learning outside the traditional classroom is just as valuable as the information gleaned from the lectures and seminars we’re all so familiar with. And so we’re brought to another definition to aid us in these troubled times.

2010/2011

2009/2010

AVERAGE TUITION FORUNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

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on tuition fees for the 2010/2011 academic year than they did a year earlier.

1.8%In comparison, inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index, only increased

Canadian full-time undergrad students paid an average of

4.0% more


“Turning a college edu-caTion inTo a commodiTy ThaT can be exchanged for a higher-wage Job is a really one-dimensional view.”

learned. You can get the knowledge anywhere — from an internship, from a website like Khan Academy — and translate it into credits far more cheaply than if you took the equivalent course.

But what about professionals whose credentials are non-negotiable, like doctors, lawyers, dentists, and architects? “This is the two trillion dollar question,” Kemenetz says. “There are two ways around it. The first is alternative forms of credentialling. The sec-ond is for traditional colleges to offer assessment and certification for open or edupunk-style learning. I think the answer is both of them together.”

Of course it’s the high tech industries, the ones that rely the most on practical experience and reputation for their success, that are already mak-ing the transition. “People in cutting-edge fields — design, programming — are using reputation-based networks like Behance and Github, and industry-specific credentials like Microsoft certi-fication or Mozilla badges, to find jobs without needing a diploma.”

Like the housing and tech (and yes, even the tulip) bubbles before it, the higher education bubble is predicated on the notion of post-secondary credentials as sure-bet assets to their investors, — Canadian students. Consider the way we frame going to school now: not in terms of learning, of expanding minds and horizons, but only in terms of graduate employability. Are you in your program because you love it, or because you want a job at the end of four years?

To think of higher education as an asset is one thing, but to frame it as a commodity, a product, to liken a degree to a fancy car or a designer hand-bag, is problematic. “Turning a college education into a commodity that can be exchanged for a higher-wage job is a really one-dimensional view. It ignores the benefits to society of having a group of people with an expanded outlook on life,” sums up Kamenetz.

This monetary mode of thinking has proven toxic to the legions of unemployed 20-somethings now lurking in the parents’ basements of the nation, degrees in one hand and past-due payment no-tices for student loans in the other. They bought what they’d been sold: that education equals employment. But with global youth unemploy-ment as yet unrecovered from its deep-recession

7.0%

Starting this year, “partial” compulsory fees, such as health plan and dental plan fees (students can opt out if they already have coverage), are not included in the calculation of the average compulsory fees.

even With these amounts eliminated, additional compulsory fees for canadian students still increased By in 2010/2011.

AVERAGE COMPULSORY FEESFOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

2010/2011 2009/2010

edupunk.A do-it-yourself, semi-anarchic attitude towards teaching, learning, and credentials, prophetically coined in May of 2008. It’s a reaction against the corporatization and commercialization of educa-tion. Its success as a movement relies heavily on open-source resources and the internet for the spread of information and ideas, and it’s catching on quickly. The movement has one of its most eloquent disciples in writer and activist Anya Kemenetz, author of several tomes of educational theory and lore including, most applicably, DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Trans-formation of Higher Education.

To Kemenetz, and to other edupunks, university or college are just two of many equally legitimate paths to a vibrant career and productive work life. College is really the archetypal rite of passage in our society. It’s reinforced in a million books and movies that this is the place where you become an adult, she says of the seemingly universal demand for post-secondary education. Higher education became part of the North American dream because it satisfies two contradictory im-pulses in our culture: democracy and meritocracy. Democratic because education is supposed to be a more open path to success than one based on family name or wealth. Meritocratic because col-lege is supposed to be an objective way of picking winners: the best and the brightest.

Instead of the accepted norm — go to school, get degree, get entry-level job, get promoted — an edupunk seeks out alternative routes towards higher learning. Think volunteering, intense long-term internships, and a patchwork of online and

22

experienced-based courses that all combine to comprise credentials that are arguably more ro-bust that anything you could learn in a classroom. And though you may not come out the end of your four years with a definable piece of paper or set of initials to add to your name, there are more and more institutions that do offer credit for these extra-extracurriculars. Kemenetz cites Learning-Counts.org as one example, but currently, several colleges offer ‘credit for prior learning,’ where you construct a portfolio to demonstrate what you’ve

lows, it’s just not that simple anymore, and we’re finding out you need more than credentials to get a good job. You need passion for your work; you need a reason to be there. If you want a career, to heed a calling, you’ll need a heck of a lot more than just a four-year degree.

Lucy Zhao has an undergraduate degree in psychology. She didn’t get it because she wanted to be a psychologist, and in fact she has no inten-tion of returning to school to study psychology further. After undergrad, Zhao took a year off from paid work to volunteer with Out On Bay Street, a social and political organization that promotes queer-positive attitudes and spaces within Toronto’s business community. Her work there took her down many roads, and — among several other worthy projects — she recently headed a Kickstarter campaign that raised over $50,000 in a month to finance a documentary. So what’s next? A high profile, high-paying consulting gig?

Actually, no. “In September of this year I’ll be going back to school to get my MBA,” admits Zhao. “I’d gone into business school just a year after coming out of undergrad, and I just wasn’t ready to go. I didn’t really have a strict direction I wanted to go in, and I didn’t want to go just for the sake of continu-ing, of doing the next step.” Now it’s not just any old MBA that Zhao’s after. She’ll be going to the school of her choice, in Beijing, focused and enthusi-astic in a way that she couldn’t have been before her year away from the halls of higher learning.

“I’m going back now because I’m really interested in entrepreneurship, and I want to harness my ideas about social innovation,” she explains, adding that she’s also looking forward to buffing up her Mandarin and getting the “international

cultural experience. And if I hadn’t got-ten into one of my two choice schools, I wouldn’t be going at all. I wasn’t going to settle for less. I think a lot of people settle. Sometimes people go to school just for the heck of getting an MBA.”

But in light of all the conversation over bubbles bursting, wouldn’t it be more prudent to just start a business venture and skip the MBA (and its price tag)? Not for Zhao. “A lot of people argue about whether entrepreneur-ship can be taught. The passion and the talent and the ideas behind it, the creativity, those things might come as

is — although there are things that can really help break your thought process out of a shell — but business school focuses on how to actually get a business started. I’m going back to school to get the tools I need. I have a lot of ideas I want to try out, and I could just try out my ideas or I could do it as part of my thesis. You can go to school or you can take the money you’d pay for tuition and in-vest it. It’s really about carving out your own ideas and finding your own experiences. Eventually, everyone takes their own route.”

Going your own way, within the education system or outside of it, seems finally to be the only way out of this bubble. And so we can end this as we started it, with a definition, in an effort to perhaps refocus the sprawling complexity of these concepts — to contract and sharpen until we remember what it is we’ve been talking about, paying for, fighting for, working towards.

education. It’s the process of expanding one’s mind and increasing one’s knowledge. And it’s its own reward. Beyond the promises of higher wages, more prestigious professions, fancier campus sports complexes, and binge drinking, true students like Zhao, as well as the edupunk move-ment, are redefining what it means to learn, to be educated. Bubble or no bubble, that’s a vocation worth pursuing.

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You andKPMG For more information visit:www.kpmgfi t.ca

Despite what you may have heard, accounting isn’t bookkeeping. It is, as one person we interviewed said, “the financial literacy of the world.”* That literacy has never been more impor-tant — with recessions, governments on the verge of financial collapse, and companies of all sizes that affect everything from the environment to the build-ings we construct to our ability to put food on the table. The better prepared our accountants are (i.e. you, dear grad), the better the world will be. But before you can change the world, you need to get a job…

*Brian Leader, National VP Learning at CA.

median hourly wage in 2009

focus on accounting

accountants

everyone else

Researched, compiled

and written by Jason Rhyno

and Andrew Williams, with help

from Simone Castello



“I’m going to be blunt: if there is alcohol on offer, don’t get drunk. This is a recruiting event, and if you can’t hold alcohol, if you don’t know how to drink in a professional setting, don’t drink at all,” says Will Christensen. Got it? Good.

Ask original questions. Don’t say “How is your company different?” As John Sogawa says, “know your audience.” Do your research, and come in knowing how the company is different. Then ask about their new project/program/initiative that you read about in The Globe and Mail/local paper/heard about from one of your professors.

Don’t swarm the partners or senior manager. Remember to speak with the junior accountants, too.

Guys, not sure if you should wear a tie? Wear it. Same for you, girls: dress professional.

How Important are

my Grades?SupEr importAnt. do wE rEAllY

nEEd to tEll You thiS? if

You’rE coming in lowEr thAn

A B minuS, Stop rEAding thiS

mAgAzinE And hit thE BookS.

wIndup, and Here’s tHe

pItcH...It’s not about saying “I’m a new

grad, and I can do everything,” says John Sogawa of CMA. Narrow your pitch, and say “Here’s what I’m pas-sionate about, here’s where I want

to go, and here are my career goals.” You’ll be seen as more unique, self-

aware, and self-directed.

Forwarding your resume off to a bunch of people you just met and asking for a referral? Hash-tag FAIL. Make a personal connection first, and then ask for a referral.

t h e D e g r e e M y t h

{ Think you need a business or accounting degree? You don’t. As Brian Lead-er, VP of Learning at Chartered Accountants of Canada (CA) told us, com-panies are always looking for diversity of thinking. Roughly 30 percent of students that go through the CA program have educational backgrounds that aren’t Business or Accounting. So for you Engineering or Marketing grads out there, rest assured that you’re welcome to join the ranks. “We definitely like them,” he told us. And, uh, a passion for numbers helps, too.

Volunteer. Get Some Experience.

Anywhere.

geT a Job.Everybody wants to be an accountant. It’s one of the most popular careers for new grads. And, on average, a big four firm receives 26,000 job applications a year. So, how do you stand out from all those other people?

We want someone who has

the personality, who has

high integrity, who has these

tangible skills beyond the

accounting realm,” Andrew

Golobic of Deloitte told us.

In fact, every single person

we spoke with said that ex-

tracurriculars will help seal

your employment contract.

BUT, Will Christensen, Na-

tional Campus Lead Talent

Acquisition at Deloitte, said

to make sure you’re doing it

for the right reason because

“we’re going to ask you.”

So avoid the laundry list of

activities. “Pick one and do

it well. Don’t do 20 and do

them all average,” he advises.

referral fail

What to Do anD hoW to Behave at a RecRuiting event

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reasons To aTTend as many recruiTing evenTs as possible

3Personal connections. Chances are, the recruit-

ers you meet will either a) have influence on

whether you get called in for an interview, or

b) actually be one the people interviewing you.1University is the only place

where hoards of employers

come to you. This will never

happen again. Take advantage. 2Career purgatory is working at a place that doesn’t suit

you. These events will give you a chance to get to know

the people, the culture, and the opportunities that ex-

ist at a particular company. You'll appreciate this later.

Create Possibilities.™

Become a Certified Management Accountant.™ The strategic management approach

of the CMA designation will give you the tools to obtain your dream job. Highly

respected and in demand, CMAs are creating possibilities for companies right now.

Watch their testimonials at becomeacma.com.

THERE’S NOTHING LIKE BEING WANTED.

© 2011 The Society of Management Accountants of Canada. All rights reserved. ®/™ Registered Trade-Marks /Trade-Marks are owned by The Society of Management Accountants of Canada.


You, dear accounting* students, are the hottest guys and dolls on campus. Accounting grads – or business grads of any stripe – are heavily targeted by accounting firms looking for the best and the smartest. It’s called “campus recruiting” and nobody does it better than accounting firms. They hire full-time staff, devote copious amounts of money and resources to various programs in addition to maintaining a consistent presence on campus, and, of course, hold networking events fit for kings and queens. But this lovely grand courtship doesn’t stop with the firms.

Enter the designations: Chartered Accountants (CA), Certified Management Accountants (CMA), and Certified General Accountants (CGA) — all have devoted serious resources to the proverbial wining and dining of students. They, like the firms, want you to want them.

Campus recruiting can create a degree of unintentional pressure to follow a very particular career route: get a job at a Big Four and pursue your CA designation. It’s what the cool kids are doing. What you may not have been told yet is that career paths tend to be as unique as you are as an individual. And when it comes to deciding

whether to begin your career at a firm or industry, you need to first fully understand your interests, and your preferences. Not only will this help you decide whether to work in industry or at a firm, it will also help you avoid working for a company that doesn't suit your style.

“We have the established program, we have the established training,” says Andrew Golobic of De-loitte, with regards to accounting firms. And he’s not wrong. Historically, the firms were where a freshly minted grad could sharpen their account-ing teeth. The firms have been at this game a long time, so it’s understandable that, with their tried and tested in-take programs, they are the safe bet.

*yes, we know that most of you will be Commerce students,

but for our purposes, we’ll use the term “accounting students”

to apply to anyone wanting to become an accountant.

The righT

fiTthe great industry vs. firm debate

The Hours firms:Busy season is, well, busy.

Many of the people we spoke

with worked late evenings.

But, will Christensen* points out, “Professionals in all kinds

of industries work overtime — engineers, doctors and lawyers

don’t clock in and clock out from 8:30 to 5.” The hours are just

spread out differently between industry and firm, he says.

SOmE OThER STuFF yOu ShOuLD KNOW

industry:Not so much on the late evenings,

but there is a good chance you’ll be

working the odd weekend.

The bottom line? You should be more worried about whether you want to work at small company or a large company. That’s where the significant differences are to be found.

{ }

29

I CAN

JOB?haz

careers. education. ideas. all of it.

we got waaay more info than we could fit on a page, so we put the rest on the internets. Check jobpostings.ca

“…students should really be choosing based on what they want to do.”

program. “It was like a default.” Admittedly, he wasn’t a big fan of external auditing. “I wanted to be more of the person on the inside that’s making things happen and making the business grow, rather than being an external auditor,” he says. A lot of his friends who went to work at a firm, he adds, are unhappy with the work they are doing. This isn’t because there is something fundamentally flawed with firms, but rather a negligence on the students’ part to fully under-stand their needs and how that lines up with a place of employment. “It’s a shame,” he says, “students should really be choosing based on what they want to do.”

But don't stress too much about this. “You don’t have to decide everything before you graduate,” says John Sogawa of CMA. “I find that students put a lot of pressure on themselves to find their entire career path, and to plan 15 years into the future.” He also points out that you do have

the ability to move from firm to industry and industry to firm if you so choose. “It’s amazing how your career can change shape,” he says, adding that it is important to recognize that your interests are going to change as you progress throughout your career.

There are definitely more nuanced differences between industry and firms, and we’ve only just scratched the surface. At the end of the day, however, it essentially comes down to you. “I would advise to not only speak to the firms, but speak to the other industry companies that you would be interested in,” says Keenan. “And speak to them having detailed, honest conversations. Take the time, don’t make a rash decision.”

A firm will provide the training, the support and development, and upward mobility that you need.

Golobic thinks that being able to get your des-ignation in industry is a great opportunity, but that the programs need some re-tooling. “A lot of companies are going to bring in a lot of students, say ‘we’re a CA training office and you can get your hours,’ but maybe they are leaning to put their students more into an internal audit role — I know that’s happened on a couple of occasions with some of these CA training offices [see jobpostings.ca for more on CATOs], but maybe internal audit isn’t right for everybody.”

Indeed, one of the most attractive aspects of start-ing your career at a firm is the ability to work in different streams, gaining insight into specific in-dustries. One day you may be working for a large bank, the next in manufacturing. “I know that certain CA training offices are offering rotational programs,” Golobic says.

General Electric just so happens to be one of those companies. Their CATO, still fresh out of the box as of April 2011, contains a rotational aspect. “Its not like the firms where you are exposed to 20 different companies or more a year,” explains Lisa Keenan, Talent Acquisition with GE. “But you will get to see how a large company works with the different businesses.” A company like GE has a long list of sectors to their name: healthcare, power and water, oil and gas, digital energy, wind turbines, and aviation, to name a few. “Even though the argument is that you can see a lot within the firms, there is the potential to see quite a bit within GE. We’re not going to say that within that one rotation you are going to get to see everything, but you see at least two to three other businesses, and make it more of a well-rounded experience.”

Stan Zabolotsky, 23, a Financial Controller at Siemens, admits that he felt social pressure to start working at a firm and do a CA designation. “When I was in university, people were looking at me like I was crazy when I would tell them I’m doing my CMA,” he says, explaining that he not only felt that pressure from his classmates, but from professors and the general structure of his

can i work at both? yup.If you’ve worked in industry, a firm would love someone with

your depth of knowledge. You would, however, have to get

your public accounting experience.

“Getting my designation in industry isn’t as good as getting it at a firm"Who told you that? It’s wrong: stop

spreading rumours. Even the people who

work at firms told us that is just plain silly.

* national Campus Lead, Talent Aquisition with Deloitte The bottom line? You should be more worried about whether you want to work at small company or a large company. That’s where the significant differences are to be found.

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profiles

soft skIlls

You have two ears and one mouth, so listen twice as much as you talk. Listening will also give you the ability to see synergies on your team, and help bring out the best in everyone. Then once you get those communica-tion skills humming on all cylinders, you’re on the fast track to becoming a leader.

en-Thu-si-asmNot ‘rah-rah-go-team-go’ but more of a general enthusiasm. This is critical, especially when you are starting out, particularly in accounting. The learning curve is steep, and the only way to get over that learning curve is to be really enthusi-astic about the opportunity to learn something new.

Be Quick, Be Bright, Be knowledgaBle

And be “organizationally intelligent,” says J.D. Clarke, Senior Vice-President Operations at CGA Ontario, and he’s not talking file naming. There are less clear lines in organizations, so you need to understand how you get things done in the company, know the im-portant people and where to go for what you need.

The mosT imporTanT skill…… is the ability to make a mistake. At school you were given marks for correct answers and lost marks for incorrect answers. Not so in the work world, where people make mistakes all the time. Think of it as a learning opportunity. Learn from that mistake, talk about why that happened, and make sure it doesn’t happen again. “A lot of the people that come and work for us are strong personalities, really wanting to move ahead, and they see anything like that as a set-back,” says Will Christensen, “and it’s not. Everyone has gone through it.”

speak up

Yes, it’s a new job, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t speak up during meetings. You should be able to have a conversation about a project with a partner or senior manager. Don’t be afraid, they hired you for a reason! Make sure that when you speak, it’s on point and rele-vant to the discussion. Don’t talk for the sake of talking. It’s reeeeally annoying.

“don’t believe that your job description is your job”That’s what John Sogawa of CMA told us. Many compa-nies are facing a shortage of talent, so volunteer to help with other initiatives and projects. You’ll look great, gain new skills, and be an active contributing member of the company. Just be careful about overextending yourself. You’ll be of no use if you’re burnt out.

Getting the job is one thing, doing awesome at that job is a whole other ball game. We asked everyone we spoke with what the best things you could do on the job were, specifically as an accountant (although much of this applies to anyone with any job).

on the job

We wanted to devote a big chunk of this special section to exploring the differences between CA, CMA and CGA. It was going to have charts and graphs, pretty colours, a little 3D thrown in for good measure, and was going to tell you ex-actly (exactly!) which designation you should take and why. Turns out we didn’t need all that (we also didn't have the

room). ¶ "It doesn’t define you," says Isabelle Morin of KPMG. "At the end of the day, if you look at CFO’s, they are CA’s, CMA’s, and CGAs. If this is where you want to go, you can get there with any designation, it’s just that the path to get there will be different." Still, though, there are some things you should know. ¶ First off, when you speak to someone about

which designation to pursue, they’ll advocate for the one they have. Choose your designation based on what works for you, not what your friends are doing. ¶ Second, any-one who tells you that ‘X’ designation will limit your career possibilities is mistaken. Each designation offers something wholly unique. The CA designation has great international recognition and is very self-study based, and chances are that

The TruTh abouT designaTions

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Audit • Tax • Advisory

* Companies >1000 employees

© Grant Thornton LLP. A Canadian Member of Grant Thornton International Ltd

Grant Thornton — a really great place to work.

Check us out online.

In 2011, Grant Thornton LLP was ranked* as the 5th best workplace in Canada.

Why did you choose this designation?

Specifically, it’s been around the longest and is kind of a legacy des-ignation, and essentially has a broad audience – there are a lot of members and a lot of opportunities with that designation. People might think it’s just auditing and tax, but the CA designation can get you lots of different job opportunities across different indus-tries. It has, I think, the widest appeal of the three main accounting

designations. So for me, for future career opportunities, I think that was one of the main reasons I chose it.

Why do you think the accounting profession is important?

Without us there’d be a lack of regulation. If a compa-ny never had an auditor, for example, they might be able to get away with certain things. Essentially, audit

is a form of detective and preventative control in regu-lating business, especially in my business of

financial institutions. Without auditors there to verify things, and make sure companies are following the rules and regulations, it’s more likely that things will go wrong. A lot of compa-nies will be making sure they are in line with those rules and standards themselves, but it’s always great to have that independent view on cli-

ents and their operations.

Going through the interview process, what would you rec-

ommend?

One is to have background knowledge of the company. I

know it’s a pretty popular interview question, but they want to know:

have you done your research?

profiles

School: U of T Mississauga

Company: Deloitte

Age: 23

Designation: Working towards his CA

“Essentially, audit is

a form of detective

and preventative

control…”

andrew golobic

if you are going into audit, you'll be doing your CA. Currently, you can't work in audit with a CMA, but they have a very strong management component built in and this transfers nicely to industry. CGA is great for pursuing your designation while still in school, and they tend to work, well, everywhere. The main thing to be careful about is how your designation transfers to other provinces.¶ "Whatever you choose is going

to lead you to a great career," says Morin, "but you have to be commited to the process as well." It's that commitment that will elevate your game. ¶ Remember that your success is de-termined by your career decisions, your ability to consistently perform at a high level, and, well, good old-fashioned elbow grease. That’s the truth. Now go take a close look at each des-ignation and find out which one is best for you.


“…you focus on strategy and management. It isn’t all about accounting and the numbers…”

School: Undergrad at WesternCompany: Finance analyst @ TD BankAge: 22 Designation: CMA candidate

lesley field

Why did you choose this designation?

I chose the CMA designation for a couple of different reasons. One of them being I was already working for TD. The thing I liked about the CMA designation was that I could work for any company I wanted, as long as it was in a finance role. That meant I could stay at TD since I really liked the culture and the company. Secondly, I really liked CMA’s focus on all the different aspects of business — you focus on strategy and management. It isn’t all about account-ing and the numbers. It’s about what the numbers mean, interpreting what your financial statements mean, coming up with process improvements, and doing different types of problem solving.

What initially inspired you to take this path?

I would probably say my university career. I always knew I wanted to go into business, and I was re-ally sure what area of business I wanted to get into. When you’re young and naïve you’re like, “Oh I want to be an investment banker. They make a lot of money!” I wasn’t necessarily up for the lifestyle.

The second is having a relationship with the potential interviewers. At Deloitte, before we do our interview process for the summer stu-dents or the full-time interview spots, we ac-tually do a pre-interview night to get the stu-dents relaxed. We might ask them some mock questions, and it’s a chance to get to meet the people who will be interviewing you. Attend-ing one, if you ever got the opportunity to have an interview, is very, very important. I got in-terviewed by a manager and a senior manager and I knew them because I had gone to the pre-interview nights.

What did you do to set yourself apart from your peers to get where you are?

Beyond the excellent grades, it’s about what else do you bring to the table? For me, it was having those extracurriculars. I was part of the U of T soccer team, basically showing that I could work on a team, that I could lead a group. I showed I could have high standards of ethics and integrity — especially being a teaching as-sistant, marking tests and watching for people cheating. They really picked apart my resume and asked me questions based on my limited job history, and they really picked apart that teaching assistant position. “What if one of your students was caught cheating,” kind of thing. It’s not just about marks. We’ve turned down people who have almost perfect GPAs. We want someone who has the personality, who has high integrity, who has these tangible skills beyond the accounting realm.

What misconceptions about accounting did you have as a student prior to beginning your career?

I heard stories when I was in university that a typical chartered account or auditor tends to work crazy hours, and I didn’t know it was totally going to be like that when I joined. Of course accountants work hard, but some parts of the year are crunch time. I’ve pulled some crazy nights from one in the morning to two, three, and four in the morning, so it ranges from industry to industry and specifically, the timing of the year. I don’t know if a lot of students are privy to that information — but I don’t want to scare anyone away!

I Need Licensing.

No, you need a designation. “Licensing” means that you are an audit

partner and can sign an audit opinion. Most accountants don’t sign au-

dit opinions. Know what that means? You don’t need your licensing —

at least not now. As you get closer to becoming a partner, your firm will

help you with that process. For now, worry about getting the experience.

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What area of accounting are you focusing on and why did you choose this designation?

I’m focusing on Audit, on specifically the real es-tate sector. I chose the CA because it’s interna-tionally recognised across the world, and there-fore allows for global mobility. And right now in KPMG there are a bunch of individuals who are traveling and working in Australia and Europe, so having that opportunity is really good.

What initially inspired you to take this path?

My inspiration was my mom. She’s had the abil-ity to work in public practice and government. She’s started her own consulting business, and now she’s teaching at post-secondary institu-tions. So seeing the flexibility in the jobs that she has had has definitely inspired me to be-come an accountant and show me that there are a number of opportunities going forward.

Why do you think the accounting profession is important?

I think [accounting’s] important because it provides standards and guidelines to show how companies should op-erate. And we’re able to help busi-nesses and organizations plan and control their finances, which allow businesses to function and operate year over year.

So far, what has been the most ex-citing aspect of your job?

I just really liked my accounting classes and I liked my accounting professors at Western. They were all very knowledgeable and very helpful, and that just motivated me to move into accounting be-cause it quickly became an interest of mine.

What did you do to set yourself apart from your peers to get to where you are?

I worked with this group that hired me on as a summer student the year before, so I had already gotten to know some of the people in the group.What set me apart was the experience I previously had in the group, the connections I had, writing a really good resume, and being very involved with the vice-president of the area by following up with him. I think the thing I was best at was definitely being proactive.

If you could give one piece of advice to an undergrad wanting to go into accounting, what would that be?

I would say research the designations because there’re three different kinds, and figure out which one is tailored to what you’d like to start your ca-reer as or where you’d like it to go. I like the man-agement aspects and the strategic learning the CMA provided, as well being able to work for the company that I wanted to work for. So I’d recom-mend to any graduating student to definitely re-search companies you think you’d like to work for and tailor your designation to that.

I’m curious to know why you decided to work at TD.

Again, I already knew the culture of the company, and had experience meeting some of the finance professionals here. To be honest I really liked ac-counting in university but I just wasn’t interested in public auditing. The funny thing is that I didn’t take an audit class until my last year of university. And I did not like that class. So I figured that I’m go-ing to be applying to TD and get my CMA.

Do you have friends who work at firms and talk about your experiences or what your days are like?

Yeah, all the time. Friends of mine who work at De-loitte or KPMG talk about classes and everything. Most of my friends in the CA right now are off at accountancy at York, so we talk about the CKE exam vs. the CMA exams, which are very similar. And we also talk about any opportunities we have to move up to our next career goal.

I would say meeting new clients, being able to work with a number of different companies, and having the opportunity to travel to different lo-cations for these clients. I’ve been able to travel to Boston, LA, Atlanta, Toronto, and even Mexico for a client, which was kind of nice. I’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with a bunch of professionals in top organizations, so it’s been a great learning experience.

What’s the most challenging part of the job?

I would say the most challenging part of the job is multi-tasking, for sure. The job requires a lot of time-management skills; whether it’s juggling different clients or staff members, there are always different things going on. So you need to learn how to pri-oritize items, which initially is really hard to do so it takes a lot of time and practice.

Was there a shock when you realized accounting wasn’t all number crunching?

Meaghan Vanderlinden``My inspiration was my mom.”

School: University of Victoria

Company: KPMG

Age: 25

Designation: Working towards CA

Accountants are lame and boring and stuff.

No way, Jose. Accountants spend much

of their time talking to people, and de-

veloping relationships. This means

you should polish those social skills.

5 + 2 equals 7.

Not always. “There are debates that go on about accounting issues, and some-

times five plus two doesn’t equal seven," says Vicky Au of Deloitte. "There are

functions and estimates and that’s where it get’s pretty challenging, but

that’s where it’s the most interesting. We’re doing a transaction where I

have an opinion, the buyer has an opinion, and the seller has an opinion.”

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There wasn’t really a shock when I came in but it definitely was a surprise.

When you look back to your undergrad years, is there anything you think you could have done differently? Anything you should’ve done more of?

Honestly I don’t think so. I took the right ac-counting classes, I had all the prerequisites for the designation I had chosen, and did it in a time that I wanted to. But I definitely did have a plan. If I didn’t have a plan in place, I probably would have changed things, but it’s definitely a good idea to lay out where you want to be and how to get there, and I think that’s what helped me.

Where would you ultimately like to go with this career?

There are so many opportunities out there. I’m just taking it one day at a time and seeing where I end up.

If you could share one piece of advice to an undergrad wanting to go into accounting, what would that be?

Find a mentor. Mentors are a good thing to have because they can answer a lot of ques-tions you might have. They can clarify any concerns you’d have along the way and deter-mine if it’s accounting you want to do in the first place.

How did you choose this career path for yourself?

When I was in my second year, I went to a presen-tation that was put on by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario. The CA designation spoke to me because it seemed to offer a lot of flexibility and opportunities to work with different types of clients, and it really gave me the opportunity to see the inner workings.

Was a career in accounting something you consid-ered prior to this experience?

I always had an interest in the field. When I did the business program I had a very basic account-ing course that we had to take. But then, as I went to more presentations and realized the ca-reer opportunities that were there, that’s when I decided to pursue it further and really focus my classes on accounting.

As a senior associate, what’s your focus?

I work in what we call our TICE group (Technology, Information, Communications and Entertainment media). Within TICE, I am heavily focused on our ECS practice (Emerging Client Services). These deal with start-up tech companies.

How important is it for clients such as these to have an accountant working with them?

It is critical for them in the start-up phase because they may not have a big budget to hire sound ac-counting staff. They require us to come in and guide them through the process, while helping the staff that they do have understand the rules and guidelines that they need to follow.

Do you have to break down best practices to your clients? Or do they generally understand accountant-speak?

We definitely have to break it down, and I would say that’s a wonderful skill that’s needed for this job — to be able to adapt the language you’re us-ing, based on the client. If it’s a big, public client, you can tailor your language to them. But a lot of clients in our ECS program, for example, need to

we've got a whackload more profiles online. Check jobpostings.ca

laura gilchrist“I feel like the stereotype

of accounting has shifted

over these last several years.”

hear plain business English. They want to know, ‘How does what you said affect my business, and what changes do I need to make to ensure I’m fol-lowing the right guidelines?’

What were some of the misconceptions you had before you entered this profession?

I had a misconception that I would be spending the majority of my day behind the computer, and not really having any client-facing opportunities in the first few years. I found out quickly that it’s the complete opposite of that. The firm gives you exceptional training, and that gives you the confi-dence you need to go out there.

What’s been your biggest learning experience so far?

To never be hesitant to put your hand up. If there’s something you want to do, tell someone and get out there and do it. Everyone becomes supportive of you once you take the initiative. It’s your career and it’s what you make of it.

Do you feel this industry is drawing more females than in the past?

Since I started I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the balance of men and women, and with oppor-tunities for mentoring and getting to know other women in the firm. One of the reasons I chose PwC was because of the senior women I had met.

There were partners that had families and were

able to balance a ca-reer and children. To me that spoke very highly about the company itself.

besT QuoTe abouT TeamworkChristopher Shaw, Deloitte: “nobody wants a Debbie Downer. Even if it’s a long day, and there

are long days and hard days, and it’s just staying positive. And contributing; if everyone is stay-

ing till two in the morning and you’re leaving at four, then obviously there is something wrong.”

numBeR of PeoPle We inteRvieWeD foR this sPecial section: 14 numBeR of PeoPle We inteRvieWeD

Who, afteR Being inteRvieWeD, Quit theiR JoB oR moveD to anotheR comPany: 3

School: Queen’s University (Bachelor of Commerce)

Company: PwC – 3yrs

Age: 24Designation: Working towards CA


© 2011 Ernst & Young LLP. All rights reserved.

and you’re in controlYou have plans. Places you want to go. At Ernst & Young, we get that. That’s why we give you room to explore. Hands-on experience in assurance, tax, transaction or advisory services. Exciting new industries. And global opportunities. You’re in charge of your career and where it’s headed. And we can’t wait to be part of it.

Explore your career options in assurance, tax, transaction or advisory services.

What’s next for your future?To learn more, visit ey.com/ca/careers.

Day one

2011

By exploring and developing some of the most globally signifi cant oil and gas basins, Nexen Inc. delivers energy to the world.

To learn more about the opportunities available to join one of Canada’s Top 50 Companies to work for, visit: www.nexeninc.com


Most of us don’t need to look further than the station down the street when we want to locate some gas. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple for the companies that fuel our hectic modern lifestyles, which is why they employ Chief Geophysi-cists: the people who reconcile the business and scientific ends of the spectrum. In an industry that’s so intimately con-nected with our economy, our environment, and virtually ev-ery other facet of our lives, it takes some real brain-power to keep everything running smoothly.

While there are differences from company to company as to what the role of a Chief Geophysicist entails, generally they over-see teams that assess where to drill for resources. “The first task of the geophysicist is to acquire data and evaluate land, deter-mining if there’s potential for natural resource development,” explains Tom Sneddon, the Manager of Geoscience Affairs for the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geo-physicists of Alberta (APEGGA). Due to the large number of proj-ects a company may be involved with at any given time, and the maturity of each project, each day is different from the last. “In one day, you might have an initial asset team meeting at the kick-off of a project, and later on another meeting might lead into a development program discussion dominated by an engi-neer looking for a more grainage pattern, followed by a meeting with yet another team that’s integrating data into a common mathematical model of what a reservoir would look like to see how a payzone will behave once extraction begins.”

In other companies, a Chief Geophysicist might not be as re-sponsible for the technical aspects of the job. “I don’t person-ally do any work developing drilling locations,” says Herman Cooper, the Chief Geophysicist of Nexen Incorporated. “I’m more of an advisor or mentor, and I ensure technical excel-lence through one-on-one advice to personnel about their issues or problems on the job.” Keeping up with advancing technology in a complicated field is also key to staying com-petitive, according to Cooper. “I monitor external develop-ments in geophysics to see if there’s anything happening in the industry that we should be aware of and utilizing.”

As far as the mental equipment required to do the job, it takes a special cast of mind. “Not everyone has the gearbox necessary to do a geophysical analysis,” confirms Sneddon. “A Geophysicist thinks on scales from interplanetary down to the

the great integrator

by Kevin Nelson

centre of the earth, in terms of time and space, and how that varies depending on where you are on a sphere.” If that sounds a little cosmic, the data acquisition approach is anything but. “You have to think in terms of the mechanical and electrical properties of rock, and then come up with a strategy for how to extract information from how long it takes a seismic or elec-tromagnetic wave to pass through the ground,” says Sneddon. “A large mind is required to be successful in this profession, and there’s a need to be nimble enough to think in multiple scales without getting lost, and that takes time to develop.”

Despite the obvious need for an academic background in geo-physics, years of hard work are necessary to advance in the field to Chief Geophysicist. “I’ve been a practitioner in various aspects of the business,” agrees Cooper. “I’ve done data acqui-sition, processing and interpreting at different points in my career, and I’ve held supervisory and managerial positions.” Learning the craft is important, and only after a person moves from junior to intermediate to senior Geophysicist are they even considered for the role. “Seniors have ten years plus in the industry, and those are the people in demand,” says Sned-don. “Geophysicists are a rare breed — there’s a little over a thousand of us in Canada, and most of them are within a 15 minute walk of where I’m sitting. It takes a long time to de-velop advanced understanding of all aspects of the business, so you’ll find that people don’t really retire.”

In the later stages of a Geophysicist’s career, there’s a more pro-nounced need to consider the business aspect of the industry. “If you want to be a Chief Geophysicist, you need good financial and business acumen,” says Sneddon. “Most people these days collect an MBA at mid-career, enabling them to straight-line into the executive suite.” It’s the ability to integrate the various as-pects of the industry — the technical side with the business and organizational sides — that serves the Chief Geophysicist well. “It’s a dynamic role with a lot of economic pressures as well as in-ternal pressures,” confirms Sneddon. “This is a job you never fully understand, and every time you walk out onto the floor, you’re learning something new about the business and the science.”

To be The Chief GeophysiCisT, you've GoT To reConCile The

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Environ-mEntal EnginEErda scoop: Environmental engineers develop approaches to help engineering teams minimize ecological footprints and adhere to environmental regulations. you’ll work towards environmental ap-provals, assist with action plans and carry out waste management initiatives. In the event of spills or contamination incidents, you would also help contain and resolve the situation as effectively as possible.

What’cha need: A Bachelor’s or master’s in environmental engineering and at least three to five years working in the environ-mental sector or oil and gas industry.Not everyone

in the oil and gas industry is like Daniel Day-Lewis!by Andrew Williams

Wait… what? Analysts? HR representatives? Law-yers? These are people we normally wouldn’t picture all greased up working in an oil field or operating a massive rig. Nevertheless, these are actual roles that can be found in the oil and gas industry. To get a grasp of some of these areas, we spoke with Nancy Eaton-Doke of Nexen, a Calgary-based energy com-pany, to give us a quick glance at careers that aren’t particularly linked to the more popular engineering aspects of this industry. And, like roles in oil and gas, you can be sure that the pay is competitive.

Drill Deeper. there’s more Beneath the surface.

Human rE-sourcEsda scoop: Involves dealing with any matter con-cerning employees, their well-being, and recruit-ment. here you might work in the compensation department, reviewing things such as employee salaries. Other tasks may include performance review and interviewing. Eaton-Doke describes graduates who work on alcohol and drug policies within the company and even accidental death and dismemberment policies. Also, in the world of oil and gas, where you have employees living on site away from home, expect to make sure that workers are well-accommodated, and that they know where they’re going the first day of work — especially when they’re assigned to a place like an oil field.

What’cha need: Communication skills, techni-cal skills. “We always ask for cover letters, since resumes tend to look the same,” says Eaton-Doke. “So if you could tell us something about yourself in the cover letter that’s different from everyone else, it’ll give your resume more of an edge, and that can be an involvement in the community and com-petitive sports, or having activities and interests.”

supply mgmtda scoop: “[Supply management] would be working on the complete procurement process for assigned parts of the oil field or corporate purchases up to delivery to the end user,” says Eaton-Doke, “so start to finish of the procurement process.” Indeed, supply chains are an industry all in their own, providing all sorts of facets that you can get into. As part of the oil and gas industry, you’ll be managing the logistical aspects of the company’s operations.

What’cha need: A Bachelor’s degree in business or training in economics, a background in engineering (preferred), and a designation in procurement such as the SCmP (Supply Chain management Professional) doesn’t hurt at all.


With Talisman, my career is going places.

EngineeringGeology and GeophysicsPetroleum Land ManagementAccounting and FinanceSupply Chain ManagementInformation Technology

Every year, Talisman employs more than 100 students globally from a variety of educational backgrounds:

We offer students meaningful work experience and exposure to industry leaders. Talisman is committed to recognizing top performers who contribute to our business needs.

Discover your opportunities at talisman-energy.com/careers

Given the vastness and far reach-ing diversity of oil and gas, it could be considered not one industry, but various industries working together. For any oil and gas company, all these industries are connected for the common goal of finding and delivering the resources we depend on.

commu-nity out-rEacHda scoop: Employees in this area work and consult with communities. They also ensure adherence to safety standards and regula-tions, and take measurements towards sustainability. This field is all about building and maintaining relationships, which also includes community investment and media relations. many companies, for example, have various programs aimed at helping diverse Aboriginal communities. “Nexen has huge community involvement,” says Eaton-Doke, ”we sponsor a lot of different areas, arts and culture, as well as a few things related directly to the business.”

What’cha need: A robust history of commu-nity involvement, at least five years of industry experience, post-secondary degree, back-ground in environmental affairs, familiarity with stakeholder issues related to oil and gas.

lawyErda scoop: “There have been a few entry-level type positions that would be called Counsel,” says Eaton-Doke. Aside from support-ing the Senior Counsel, lawyers in this industry handle all the messy legal bits the company might come across, from advising on securities filings in Canada and our neigh-bours to the south, to monitoring regulatory and legislative changes in Canada as well as the u.S.

What’cha need: a Bachelor of Law, a Juris Doctor would look pretty good as well. Career experience is important to have under your belt, with at least two to four years at a Canadian Bar (and not the kind where you mix drinks), and a back-ground in a corporate, commercial or securities law firm.

analyst – workforcE rEporting and sEcurityda scoop: A specialized branch of hR, these folks are concerned with managing the human capital or workforce data issues within the company, and developing better strategies to address and coordinate these issues. here you’ll work closely with integrated systems and databases such as PeopleSoft for analysing and reporting. As Eaton-Doke outlines, some of your responsibilities may include:

Contributing to company surveys.

Developing queries and reports to generate reliable and consistent information for year-end, Board of Directors and other external reporting requirements.

Preparing hR performance measures, scorecard and general work-force/demographic analysis.

What’cha need: At least five years of business experience in an analytical role, and proficiency with hR and pay-roll utilities such PeopleSoft Query, Crystal Reports, etc.

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years. Dr. José R. Martí, a Professor at the Univer-

sity of British Columbia’s Department Electrical

& Computer Engineering, asserts that “ten years

ago, this option was the least popular, but now it

has completely flipped and seen a huge revival.”

Crucially, however, Dr. Marti also advises that the

most valuable skill an electrical engineering stu-

dent can gain to get ahead is knowledge of social

systems, or “demand management that will edu-

cate the end user’s consumption.”

Typically, in any profession, a student’s skills

and knowledge should never be restricted to the

classroom alone. Dr. Marti advises that electrical

engineering is no different as “employers are gen-

erally looking for students than can demonstrate

initiative and an ability to handle unexpected

situations. Project based learning, a new module

now offered to second year students, can be the

best way of demonstrating these crucial skills.”

Murphy supports this view as “communicat-

ing complex things simply is a lost art. A lot of

work is now automated these days and it is vi-

tal to employ people with the ability to put the

stitching together. Accordingly, a strong candi-

date would have knowledge of more than one

electrical component and be able to bridge gaps

between Informational Technology and Opera-

tional Technology.”

If you have already begun to hone your specialty

in a sector other than electrical engineering then

fear not, as Murphy, who originally began his

own career working with nuclear energy, claims

“movement in a career can make you more mar-

ketable, creative and valuable to a company.

While specialism can be good, movement will

keep you challenged on a regular basis.”

If you think you are able to provide employers

with diversity and that extra-special-something,

then the benefits of pursuing a career working

with smart grids are numerous, whether you in-

tend to work with communications, conceptual-

ization, operations or distribution. The future of

smart grids is promising and has the potential

to provide some lucrative career opportunities.

❖

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❖ These days it seems as though everything

is getting a little smarter. Our phones, cars,

healthcare, and now, thanks to innovations in

electrical energy engineering, our electricity.

Smart grids, intelligent electricity networks de-

signed to monitor, control and encourage effi-

cient energy use, are changing the way we that

we do laundry forever; but how exactly?

The “ye olde” power grid, while familiar to us all,

was a rather resilient, brainless zombie. With the

flick of a switch, electricity channelled into our

homes and the user, sometimes begrudgingly,

paid for what they used at a standardized rate.

The smarter grid on the other hand, as a trans-

mission and distribution system with an IQ that

may rival Stephen Hawking, still channels the

electricity into our homes, but also monitors our

hydro usage, provides bi-directional metering, and

incorporates cleaner energies such as wind and

solar power. Consequently, like telephone billing,

the associated smart meter will bill the user at the

equivalent peak or off-peak rate, while also ac-

tively managing demand response across the grid.

While we may hear a groan from consumers,

believing this to be yet another environmentally-

packaged tool to part them from their cash, for

users willing to slightly adjust their hydro usage,

nothing can be further from the truth. The whole

aim of the scheme is to promote more efficient

energy use, lower total energy consumption,

and maintain a reliable and secure electricity

infrastructure, which can meet future demand

growth. Growth truly is the key word here as,

let’s face it, our cities aren’t getting smaller.

Move to SMarter GridS

Gary Murphy is the Smart Meter Chief Project

Officer at BC Hydro. He maintains that, with

the growth of the smart grid sector “in the last 6

months, BC Hydro have employed 300 new peo-

ple; from technicians and business analysts, to

line-men. These new hires have been in addition

to employing contractors from other sources.”

Gaétan Caron, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

of the National Energy Board, claims that “Canada

is in a unique position in the global economy as

a major energy consumer, producer and exporter.

We have a large, cold country with a resource

-based economy. This results in Canada being one

of the highest energy users in the world.”

With Canada’s distinctive global position, a

number of engineering schools are now provid-

ing more specialized options, particularly within

the field of Electrical Energy Systems. To name

a few, universities such as Toronto, Calgary and

Waterloo, all offer Masters, PhD, or Graduate Di-

ploma programs with specializations in energy

and environmental systems. The Canadian En-

gineering Accreditation Board has a more com-

prehensive list of schools and programs to help

with your choices.

Of course, with a bountiful array of relevant grad-

uate courses, and an energy sector on the cusp of

even bigger growth, there is one drawback, in the

form of competition. There is no doubt that grad-

uate jobs are available, however, the electrical

engineering programs themselves have recently

seen a drastic increase in popularity, leading to

fierce competition amongst candidates.

The University of British Columbia’s Electrical

Energy System’s option has seen its student

numbers increase from 50 to 75 in the last few

a SMart

by Emma Jones

industryinsiders


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BUILDYOUR FUTUREWITH US

streets plenty

Imag

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emer

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where engineering profes-

sionals enter the picture.

A lot of different disciplines

play a role in the life of a

city, but at the heart of the

engineering department

you’ll find the civil engineer.

“It’s a very broad discipline,

more so than chemical or

mechanical engineering,”

says Kent Novakowski,

Department Head of Civil

Engineering at Queens Uni-

versity. “As a consequence,

students sometimes don’t

see how they might fit in,

because they associate civil

engineers with buildings or

bridges. That’s not all we

do.” Indeed, everything from

design and construction of

roads and water treatment

plants to the implementa-

tion of environmental proj-

ects like coastal protection

and brownfield remediation

fall under the umbrella.

“Many civil engineers work

in the environmental field,

and there’s no real distinc-

tion between civil and envi-

ronmental engineers.”

While architects usually

spring to mind when one

thinks of construction proj-

ects, it’s the civil engineer

Despite growing up in a ru-

ral area, I’ve always been

attracted to cities. Being

close to amenities and cul-

ture meant being close to

where the action was. In

North America, over 80 per-

cent of the population lives

in urban centres, a trend

that’s only going to increase

as time goes on. Infrastruc-

ture is needed to support

these people, as well as to

ensure that business can

proceed as usual. Street

lights need to light, sewer

drains need to drain,and

roads need to be built and

maintained. And that’s

that powers the project.

“We’re the technical side

of things, while the archi-

tect is the artistic side,”

reveals Novakowski. “One

of the main reasons that

a civil engineer needs to

be accredited is because

they provide an element of

public safety. How do you

know a bridge will survive?

Because it’s been designed

by an accredited engineer.”

Like all engineering, the dis-

cipline is math and science

intensive. “When you’re

looking at beam deforma-

tion or loads in regards to

structural elements, there’s

a lot of similarities between

civil and mechanical engi-

neers,” says Novakowski.

“However, it’s a different

personality type. In the en-

vironmental aspect of civil

engineering there’s almost

an element of estimation

that you don’t have with

the pure calculation of the

structural engineering side

of the equation, and that’s

something you need to ac-

commodate in your per-

sonality. Some people are

fine with that and others

are not.”

Once in the field, a grad

will progress from junior

engineer up the ranks, and

their day-to-day tasks will

change accordingly. “Say a

civil engineer is involved in

the development of a subdi-

vision,” offers Novakowski,

by way of example. “They

would design all the infra-

structure, spending part of

the day in the office using

AutoCad or another draw-

ing package. Another part

of the day might involve

evaluating the progress of

elements of the subdivision

project.” While communi-

cation and interaction are

important at all stages of a

career, they are critical for

the senior engineer. “You’d

have more interaction with

clients and management, as

well as more writing respon-

sibilities,” says Novakowski.

“You’d also have more peo-

ple reporting to you.”

Getting a degree in civil en-

gineering is a great path to

getting a job in a municipal

engineering department,

but there are other ways to

get there. Steven Fifield has

been working in the City of

Victoria’s engineering de-

partment for 35 years, and

currently holds the title of

Manager of Underground

Utilities. While he doesn’t

possess an engineering

degree, he’s paired his aca-

demic background in Ap-

plied Science Technology

with his work experience,

and has been granted a

limited licence to practice

professional engineering

in a defined scope of work

by the Association of Pro-

fessional Engineers and

Geoscientists of British Co-

lumbia. “When you go the

route of getting a limited

licence, you have to qualify

and state your scope of

work and qualifications by

showing that you’re capa-

ble of working within that

scope,” says Fifield. “Any-

time I put my professional

stamp on a drawing, I also

have to include the scope

of my qualifications. If, on

the other hand, you have a

degree in engineering, you

can become a professional

engineer and determine

the scope of your work.”

There were multiple rea-

sons for his decision to ap-

ply for his limited licence

in engineering. “At this

point in my career I saw no

advantage to returning to

school, and I decided that

utilizing my experience

was the way to go,” offers

Fifield. “It’s gotten me the

recognition of being a pro-

fessional in the field of en-

gineering, but it’s certainly

been the long route.”

It’s a profession as old as

cities themselves, and the

need is only going to in-

crease for civil engineering

professionals. If you’ve got

a mind for math and a fas-

cination for cities, you may

have just found your calling.

the MuniCipal MagnaniMity of the engineering professional

by Kevin Nelson

industryinsiders

jobpostings.ca | september 2011 43


You’LL NeeD soLiD skiLLs & LimitLess

stamiNa to work for aN NGo.

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Nursing On The Edge

NursIng On The Edgeindustryinsiders

Nursing is a demanding

field of work even under

the best circumstances.

Undertaking a placement

within an NGO with a mis-

sion to provide healthcare

to the world’s most under-

privileged citizens takes

nursing to its most ex-

treme, stretching a nurse’s

skills and stamina to their

limit and beyond.

“It’s a little bit difficult to

get into the field at the

offset, but if this is some-

thing you want to do, then

just keep at it and you can

find a way in,” admits May

Marconet, International Re-

cruiting Manager at Inter-

national Medical Corps.

As in any field of work, tai-

loring your studies to your

career path from year one

will bolster your applica-

tion to work for an NGO im-

mensely. “Someone who’s

been studying emergency

medicine as their concen-

tration we see as more

likely to be suited for this

type of work, rather than

someone who had select-

ed something like general

family practice,” Marconet

explains. She adds that, for

her organization at least,

tarian work-study overseas

isn’t an option for you, as

northern nurses are often

faced with the same chal-

lenges that Doctors Without

Borders team members see

on their missions every day.

But a great nurse isn’t just

made of classroom training

and work experience. Those

intangible, integral person-

ality traits and behaviors

we call soft skills are also

vital to every nurse’s pro-

fessional development. And

as you might imagine, it

takes a pretty unique set of

soft skills to equip a nurse

for a career with an NGO.

“The ability to cope with

stress, and great com-

munication skills, are the

two big traits we look for,”

Campbell says of Doctors

Without Borders’ ideal

candidate. “Your team that

you’d be working with will

be diverse, from different

cultural settings, speaking

different languages,” he ex-

plains. “Most of the medical

and non-medical profes-

sionals that work with us

are actually from the coun-

try in question, so the abil-

ity to communicate across

cultures and languages is

one of the most important

things we look for.”

Campbell also advises

broadening your job search

beyond clinical positions.

Any team management ex-

perience is extremely ben-

eficial to a prospective NGO

worker, he says, stressing

that “the role of our nurses

isn’t necessary clinical work

all the time; it also involves

a lot of coordination and

supervision. When we send

people overseas, we aren’t

just sending them there to

be an extra pair of hands.”

“This is a very rewarding ca-

reer path for someone who

has the personailty and

skills for it,” says Marconet.

And whether or not a nurse

continues working with

NGOs or returns to their

home country’s hospitals,

the skills gained in crisis

areas overseas apply to any

medical position. “In the

places where we work, re-

sources are scarce and peo-

ple need to be able to adapt,

be resourceful, and find new

ways of doing things. And

in the absence of technol-

ogy, you have to go back to

the basics of what it is that

medical professionals use

to help to provide services

to patients,” she explains.

a graduate degree in a re-

lated field also helps set a

candidate apart and is con-

sidered to be a part of any

complete job application.

Any nursing program re-

quires a practicum pe-

riod and this, says Owen

Campbell, Recruitment

Manager for Doctors With-

out Borders Canada, is

the perfect opportunity to

hone your extreme nurs-

ing skills to the niche needs

of an NGO career path. “If

you’ve worked in trauma

or ER settings, that’s use-

ful. Working in pediatrics

with children, in obstetrics

and gynecology, are all very

useful,” he says of the areas

where NGOs see the most

need during their missions

abroad. “We always need

midwives because most of

our programming in the

field incorporates a ma-

ternal health component.”

If there’s a nurse who’s

worked with kids, who’s

managed large caseloads

or worked in ERs, or who’s

worked in northern medi-

cine — “these nurses have

had to deal with more re-

sponsibility because there’s

less staff, they’re isolated,

and they don’t have the

same resources as they

might in other places.”

Because proven skills are vi-

tal in crisis situations, a po-

sition in an NGO isn’t usu-

ally in the cards for nurses

fresh out of school. “Most of

our positions require previ-

ous international experi-

ence,” Marconet says of In-

ternational Medical Corps

in particular. “We send

people to disaster areas, so

we want to make sure we’re

sending someone who can

handle the stress, and who

knows what to expect.”

Gaining that experience is

tricky. Both Doctors With-

out Borders and the In-

ternational Medical Corps

advise volunteering in your

nursing field of choice as

the best way to bulk up

your NGO application. Get

to know the individual em-

ployment requirements of

your NGO of choice through

their website, and attend

any information sessions

held by the organization.

Check your campus job

board and your career cen-

tre. Most of all, volunteer

— often, and for as wide a

variety of projects and loca-

tions as you can. Campbell

suggests looking to north-

ern Canada if a humani-by Emily Minthorn

® – Unilever Canada Inc. Used under license.

industryinsiders

The word “rehab” probably makes you think

of an Amy Winehouse song or a Charlie Sheen

#winning rant. It might surprise you to know,

then, that rehabilitation is a varied and innova-

tive category in the health sciences. And while

you might not recognize the field of rehabili-

tation sciences just by reading its name on a

piece of paper, there is no doubt that you are

familiar with at least one of the many profes-

sions that fall under this exciting umbrella.

Canadian schools of rehabilitation sciences

vary in their scope, with the term covering

everything from physical therapy and occupa-

tional therapy to speech pathology and audiol-

ogy. At its core, rehab science is about helping

people maximize their potential and increase

their performance. It is a flexible, cooperative

and ever-changing career path.

“I think about rehabilitation as improving func-

tion for people,” says Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, who

has worked in audiology for over 25 years and

now teaches in the School of Rehabilitation Sci-

ences in the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of

Health. “The focus is on providing people with

the knowledge and skills to be able to partici-

pate in society.”

It is this sort of hands-on approach that first

drew Fitzpatrick to the field. Working primarily

with children, she has been able to draw on her

background training in high school education

and use it in a one-on-one setting. Through

the years, she has seen firsthand how much of

an impact rehabilitation can have, not only for

deaf children, but also for their families.

“I can think of one young boy who was about

13. He had profound hearing loss since birth

and had learned to use a hearing device,” says

Fitzpatrick. “And at 13, he received a cochlear

implant. I remember going to visit his family

on their farm after about six months and he

could now hear his dad when they would ride

together in their truck. And they could have

conversation around the dinner table.”

Physical therapy is probably the most well

known area of rehabilitation. Though it is gen-

erally associated with athletes and the elderly,

professionals actually work with all sorts of

patients, like children born with cerebral palsy

and those with respiratory disorders.

Darlene Reid is a professor in the Department

of Physical Therapy at the University of British

Columbia, and specializes in instruction on

rehab sciences is where technology and compassion come together

builders

by Brandon Miller

cardiopulmonary physical therapy and muscle

injuries in people with chronic diseases. Like

Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, Reid entered the field be-

cause she wanted to help people. And that’s ex-

actly what she is doing, currently with research

and in her clinical days before that.

“After open heart surgery, people have to

sit up on the edge of the bed,” she explains,

when asked to recall a memory from her clini-

cal work. “Often times, they are very scared to

move,” she says. By positioning their bodies the

right way, “I gave them the confidence to do it.”

A university professor since 1983, Reid has

seen her share of students excel in the physical

therapy work. One of the most important quali-

ties a potential student should have, she says,

is the ability to be flexible and adapt to change.

“The health care system is constantly under-

going change,” she says, noting that change is

inevitable and not necessarily a bad thing. “You

need to learn how to embrace change in your

work rather than see it as a deterrent.”

Being flexible is something that Tonya Castle

Purvis, a doctoral student in rehabilitation sci-

ences, knows well. Currently the Mental Health

Coordinator with the Region of Halton, Castle

Purvis has a music therapy background and

has worked in mental health and addictions for

years. Like many others in the field, she high-

lights curiosity, compassion and an open mind

as the qualities necessary to succeed.

No career field can be completely perfect. Luck-

ily, the incredible triumphs far outweigh the

challenges. “There was one client I had and,

while she was in the music therapy studio, she

was symptom-free,” Castle Purvis recalls of her

time spent working at the Centre for Mental

Health and Addictions. “This woman had the

most serious hallucinations I have ever seen.

She is the only person I have ever seen who

had tactile hallucinations, and she also had vi-

sual ones.” It was only when the woman would

play the piano that her symptoms would dis-

appear.

The field of rehabilitation sciences offers a

multitude of opportunity for those looking for

a pioneering, gratifying career. “It is a way to

blend an interest in science — that more tech-

nological piece – with the social ‘people’ part,”

says Elizabeth Fitzpatrick. And, quite frankly, it’s

a way to change lives for the better.

theconfidence


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MORE FOLLOWERS


with Ross Harrhy

The Royal ‘We’

Well, at any level shipping orders are not the sole responsibility of one person — remember those supply chain coordinators who made sure you had the stock to fill the orders, or the sales team that got the orders, or the warehouse personnel that packed that orders? They all played their role. you may think, however, that I completed the job that I was asked to do, but that doesn’t need to be said; when you use the “we” your role is implied. What’s more important is that by using the “we,” you share the responsibility with your colleagues, which they’ll appreciate, and you also show that as an employee it’s not all about you, it’s about the combined efforts of your entire team.

Consider these questions and your answer:“how was your client presentation on Thursday?”“Did you get the sale for that ad space?”“have you seen the numbers for last quarter?”“have you swept the floor around your desk re-cently?” (Okay — that last one might seem weird, but I swear it has a purpose.)

here would be my answers:“The client loved what we had to offer this season.”“They were really interested in working with us, but didn’t have the marketing budget for this month.”“The numbers look great — we have a lot of poten-tial for next quarter.”“The floor looks nice and clean since yesterday.”

Imag

e:iS

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inks

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Queen Victoria had a famous quote: “We are not amused.” She was responding to an actor perform-ing a parody of her, but it spawned the idea of the Royal ‘We.’ It’s the idea that a King or Queen is a representative of the country and the people, so his or her thoughts are spoken on behalf of the people. It’s a bit more complicated than that, sure, but maybe you can apply the royal ‘we’ to your work in order to become the king or queen of your office.

We all want credit for our efforts and achievements, but within a company, and as a contributor to a team, those efforts are not only expected but a part of your responsibility. When your boss asks you to do something, obviously you say “I’ll do it,” but often the case is that you couldn’t get there entirely alone.

I’ll use a typical manufacturer’s office as an exam-ple. There may be several different departments from product development, to supply chain, to fi-nance, to customer service, to sales — all of which have to work together, directly or indirectly, to get your product into stores. Now, your position carries with it a certain function within the cycle of generating your company income. In that case, “I” am responsible for the duties given to me in my position. however, consider this: if my boss were to ask me “Did those orders get out on time?” I could say “yes, I was able to push them out on time.” But what I should say is “yes, we were able to get them out on time.” Why?

See what I did there? I turned every question and spun it positively around the company (even when I didn’t make the sale). However, with the last question, there was no way I could add the “we” without sounding like the Queen of England, so in-stead I opted to drop the “I.” Think of “I” as a dirty word, only to be used be sparingly, as in “I went to the movies this weekend” or “I’m feeling great.”

Conversely, you can also use the “I” to your advan-tage. Sometimes you make mistakes, and there is no better way to own up to a mistake than to use the “I.” Not only will it show that you have the chops to admit you were wrong, it divests your colleagues of the responsibility of your problem. It also makes you do your job better; when you take responsibility for your negative actions, you are less likely to make that mistake ever again. (Bonus point: you may have thought about this already, but using “we” can also spread the responsibility if an error crops up along the line and you don’t want to point any fingers.)

I’m not saying you shouldn’t ever take full re-sponsibility for doing your job — heck, sometimes you’re boss needs to know that you actually did some work. But the fact is that a lot of people crave the thought of “I accomplished something” and need to say it to feel they did. I’m saying you can feel that way, but also share it with your col-leagues — some of whom get left behind more of-ten than not. They’ll appreciate your acknowledge-ment. So much that maybe they’d like to work for someone like you…

business.humber.ca

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© 2011 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. All rights reserved. “PwC” refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an Ontario limited liability partnership, which is a member fi rm of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, each member fi rm of which is a separate legal entity.

jobpostings magazine (vol. 14, issue 1)

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