negotiator

C attle:

It's time we 'meat'! Ha

In Calgary next week. Want to meat up?

Negotiator

AnselmAdorne

I advised my daughter to avoid bikers and percussionists as possible romantic partners. I might add B Comm grads to the list.

YYC-YYJ

Don't misinterpret my comments as "big-headed" but I said specifically I wanted something business related. Forgive me for being frustrated at the lack of potential paths out their for new grads.

My aunt is a flight attendent and loves it. Not to mention ex-gf as well.

Don't derail an informative thread by taking something I said out of context.

KB

Seat13F_AC_CRJ

Dear YYC-YYJ,

For both the business world and hanging out on FT, you will need a thicker skin. Maybe you should look for an outdoor summer job.
--
13F

shuuy

Send me a private mail. I can be helpful.

tcook052

Frayed_Yak

I'm in the same boat (recent grad just starting to look for work). Universities are very good at inflating your egos because they have to justify their worth - otherwise, why would you go to university at all?

To be honest, I thought compared to other Canadian cities, Calgary is relatively advantaged when it comes to starting careers?

Z-man

Hey, let me give you some perspective frome someone who has been out of school less than 10 years. I remember thinking that I wanted to travel....but you have to realize that companies will only send you to clients or places if you can contribute. As a new grad, you likely will not contribute much unless you have a particluar skill (like a CA, CPA, etc) and they can send you to do audits and it's cheap for them.

Do not talk about travel in your entry level interview, people will think you're crazy. I spent a couple years in a financial instition before I started travelling because I could not contribute at first, and now I travel a fair bit (enough for Elite), but none of our junior guys get on the road a lot...sometimes for a conference or something but we would not put them in front of clients after 5 months.

I really think you should figure out what you want to do and the travelling will come when it is timne. Do not make that your priority.

airbus320

A very wise perspective and quite good advice IMHO.

Employers could be leary of hiring someone whose primary reason for choosing a job is travelling. After all travel is only commuting to work even if the commute to HGK is 14 hour from YVR. The reason for the trip starts when one lands at work destination.

PS: Travel for business was somewhat glorious for less than six months and then the harsh reality of being a road warrior (as eloquently described in above posts) set in.

Good luck on your career journey.

Kate_Canuck

I'm not so sure. The most demanding things I've ever done were in the public sector (e.g. sole assessor of a significant component of a country's financial assessment, by myself, and delivering the report onsite all within a 4-week period; almost back-to-back all nighters for the last 9 days - beats anything I ever did in a law firm). And sometimes the risks (e.g. security risks, risks that you will draft a piece of legislation that turns out to be really stupid, or enjoin a business activity that wasn't harmful, or fail to stop the really harmful one - all visible to the public) seem kind of high to me. And that's leaving out those public sector careers in war zones ...

Of course the rewards (not financial, but certainly other kinds of rewards - especially experiences) have been equally high.

why fly

The grass always seems greener on the other side of the fence... I used to do leave monday come home Fri night..... and always thought that international travel was better..... now I leave for two weeks, go to factories in the middle of nowhere, where nobody speaks English... my flights are seldom less than 12 hrs and now the customers make us fly to Asia.... why to make 2 hr presentations... [eg. Wallymart]
Anyhow if you want to travel go into sales... if you want international travel to every "underdeveloped" country in the world, go into importing. However a lot of it ends up being lucky or unlucky....depending on the boss and the company.

PS its not all bad you can become a NON-Canadian resident.

ReluctantCanadian

There are many career paths out there for new grads, but very few employers will pay much attention to a B.Comm or other recent grad, simply because of his qualifications, no matter how high the grades. When I'm hiring new staff, I'm much more interested in experience and critical thinking than the applicant's degree specialization.

I'm not sure how old you are, either, but I remember a colleague once telling me never to trust a consultant under the age of 25 -- in most cases, there simply isn't enough real-world experience for the individual to be able to provide any meaningful input. Similarly, the university careers office is no substitute for taking the initiative to meet with real people doing real jobs in the industries you are considering, which in turn is just the beginning of the networking you'll need to do to find your ideal first job.

After Burner

"Demanding" and "rewarding" are difficult to define. So my statement was a bit of an oversimplification.

However, taking your example, what were risks you were facing had you not won your race to deliver your product on time? Would you have lost a bonus you were counting on? Or worse, would you and your co-workers have lost your jobs? Or even worse, would your company have been forced into bankruptcy? I've been there (too many times!).

That's what I mean when I say "demanding."

globespanner

In my life I have always gone to the beat of a different drummer. I love to travel and originally my career was grounded in owning a retail store, I started with 10K I borrowed from my dad.

What I realized was the best of that were the trips to Italy and Germany to buy the clothing for the store. Slowly the light went on and I realized that I wanted travel to be integral part of my Job description

I took stock of what I had the University degrees business skills and interest in computers, and in the early 80's went into the venture capital business. I used to arrange financing in England for small tech companies. I used to go to England for 1 week a month and one other week a month I spent in the US.

I did this for 6 years, then was a silent investor for 5 years so I could be with my young family. In 1995 after trying some other things I realized travel was important and I still loved the clothing business so I went into the souricing business. Asia was the center of the garment industry. I started to go to Hong Kong then India and finally Thailand. For 9 years I sourced product on behalf of smaller American Clothing companies that did not have the infrastructures to do it themseves. This year I was offered the job to head world wide sales for a Thai Clothing Company. This year I have flown over 200K miles.

The essence of this story is define your interests, evaluate your job skills and create a job you can sell, rather than looking for a job you can fill.

I am near 60 now. If I were younger I would look at the wine industry, as I love wine and would like to visit all the countries wine is grown in. I would get a degree in marketing and add a Master of Wine from London. This would allow me to get in the wine business as a consultant, writer or anyting else.

If you want to be learn the global view of the world Read the best selling book: The World is Flat, a brief history of the 21st century, and learn how colloboration with companies and individuals overseas is the way of the 21st century.

Have fun define yourself and don't be afraid to selll your talents or if neccessary to reinvent yourself on demand. At times it takes sacrifice to do it. There were whole years without a cheque coming in for me. But it is way more fun.

One last suggestion start your new career as a home based business while you work. This gives you significant tax advantages as well allows you to get up and running. Sell rare peruvian pottery on e-bay. Buy linens in provence and sell them in North America. Colloborate on software. Think globally. Use the internet and access the world, then travel to define the business.

Good luck Have fun and keep us informed

shore9

would you suggest getting a CA? I worked in a CA firm over the summer, and there is no way that I want to do accounting for a living, however it does sound like getting a qualification would be a very good base to start from.