globespanner

This is a portable skill that companies all over the world are searching out. Define if living abroad is what you want or just travel and visit. Visting suggests joiningf a consulting company that is highly specialized in one area and can sell it all over the world. If you want to settle in Berlin or Hong Kong for a couple years join a multinational accounting or do Corporate finance for a Morgan Stanley or the like and you can thake that all over the world.

YOWkid

Or how about potentially screwing over the lives of millions of citizens? Or you screw the Minister up at the Cabinet table? Or you make a recommendation that messes up the economic or social state / framework for the country and / or for the country's allies? How about national / international security? Or you end up making a decision that wastes billions and billions of taxpayer's dollars?

Those are pretty significant if you ask me. Maybe even more significant than simply losing a personal bonus, a job, and not getting enough return for shareholders...

I'm not devaluing private sector work, etc., but I'd just like to point out that the risks and the demands are just as high in the public sector as it is in the private sector.

Just not many people realise that.

shore9

I would like to travel all over the world, but would like to live in Canada, so living abroad for a couple years, although not completely off the list, is low priority.

After Burner

I thought all of the above were the goals of government. They certainly are consistently successful in achieving these goals.

Braindrain

I'm sending some junior staff to Winterpeg in December for some training.

For myself, I get to cherry-pick the best conferences and other meetings. On average, I travel about 1-2 times/month between Sept and April, each for about 3-5 days, mostly transcons and transborders.

I feel it's more than enough and nets me between 60-70K Q miles/yr. I even have the occasional urge to return immediately home once I arrive at my destination.

cur

Is this supposed to impress or deride? Haskayners are some of the funniest people I have met. Quick, I think there's another business luncheon now! But you jus missed it, so many chances for you to brag, I mean, network!!! You’ll have to wait another hour for the next one!!!!! What will you do? So many billable hours going down the drain! The putting green in your faculty is being used by the MBAs!!!! The stock ticker is down too, and you already saw the Kudlow Cramer on the school's CCtv wired to CNBC!!!! Does this mean you have to venture out of your building!?!?!?!?!?!? The grad lounge is only a few hundred feet away! You can make it without having to be around the disgusting education or english majors! They can't even tie a tie! Why not go on flyertalk and talk about how much money you made during the summer and how this gives you a ‘VERY marketable skill set’? Great idea!

parnel

[QUOTE=YOWkid]
BS the layers of bureaucracy are so deep you couldn't find a culprit if you tried........privatise 60% of the bureaucracy and things will work much better.


You got that right. Most of us don't realize how little of anything important most bureaucrats really do.

parnel

[QUOTE=globespanner]
Having followed a similar career path (and of a similar age) to you but in different industries I travelled to some of the most exotic places on earth.

I have had, since 1993 basically, a home office, and set up an independent consulting business doing M&A work, financing and getting on some boards of smaller Companies needing an outside opinion for the shareholders. I, along with some partners, have now entered the business of commodity trading and financing to further increase my overeseas travel and of course make money while doing it.
The benefits of having a home office are immense and very rewarding for those disciplined enough to work diligently while at the home office desk.

meagicano

I'm a fourth year B.Comm right now - I've accepted a staff accountant position with one of the Big 4 firms in Calgary, with the intention of pursuing my CA. It seems like a great foundation - there's a bit of travel involved, even in the first few years (nothing overly glamorous, but it keeps me from getting bored) and then after I get those letters, if I stay with the same firm, I can do busy season exchanges (four months) or longer exchanges (18-24 months)...

I go to school in Halifax now - Calgary is a very attractive place for a lot of grads from out here. Decent pay (I'm making about $9000 more out there than I would here), nice city...

Consulting has always interested me, but as mentioned above, people straight out of university just don't have the life and business experience. I would feel like a fraud.

RTR

Has anyone mentioned working for a commercial air carrier?

LGA_Joe_YUL

Amen, YOWKid and Kate_Canuck..and civil servants aren't in the game to get rich or famous.

I wonder if most people think that, for example, Avian Flu emergency response planning 'just happens' at a local, regional, national or international level, or WMD counter measure contingency factors just show up in a filing cabinet or on the hard drive one day, or famines just 'end'.

This career path takes more dedication and discipline than many others because there are none of the overt ego/monetary perks associated with mainstream biz school grad jobs. One just needs to want to go down the path, accept the good with the bad and that the reward is the job well done.

As for travelling, pick the right (international) civil service and you could be looking at over 50K flown miles per year on average (mostly in biz so 50% bump in status miles). Mostly the big European based ones, Geneva, Brussels, Vienna. However, there is the prospect for even greater adventure in the developping world.

cur

Yeah but we all know how much business students love going off the beaten path and being away from their XM radio and plasma TVs and $8 martinis.

parnel

What kind of stupid statement is that? Jeeez

yyznomad

Awesome! Another garbage post! Keep up the good work!

If you plan to post more crap, I highly suggest the Duplicate - Please Delete thread... I guess that means that all your posts should go there.

shuuy

They took the ticker down?!?!!?!?!?