Originally posted by Jordan Fujiwara.
Jamie McGuigan is a busy guy. Before coming to the program he was all over the globe, visiting places like Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Sweden and Tanzania (check out his Tanzanian blog: http://tantasticvoyage.blogspot.com/). He also taught English in Korea. Then he came to the Corporate Residency MBA, which he describes as being “very challenging and rewarding. Now that I’m in the workforce I feel like a well tuned Olympic athlete; it’s definitely given me the confidence to speak up, contribute, and not just be ‘another’ employee.”
As a member of the Credit Solutions Team at Scotia Commercial in Toronto (the same position as Rich in Halifax), he’s recently embarked on his rotational program. He’s also been enjoying the bustling life of downtown Toronto. Originally from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (“the city that never sleeps,” according to Jamie), this UPEI grad (BBA) has no trouble fitting in with the big city culture. He’s witnessed an undercover police bust, motored around on a Segway (apparently the elderly supplied him with many a strange look), attended a bunch of Raptors games and joyfully took to the streets with the crowds after the Men’s Hockey Team earned our record setting 14th gold medal!
Busy indeed! Prior to shipping off to Toronto, he was no less active during the academic portion. Jamie participated in a business skills competition put on by the Sobey School of Business (a friendly rival of Dalhousie’s) with several other Corporate Residency MBA students. Out of the $15,000 in prize money, our team took away $11,000 of it, coming first place in EVERY event! “It really spoke volumes to the calibre of our team,” says Jamie proudly. He also ran Dalhousie’s team for the Fall 2009 Financial Post Stock Challenge.
One of the most memorable experiences for Jamie during the first six months of the Corporate Residency MBA was the Interview Competition. Our whole class had a day where we did mock interviews (with real employers). The interviewers ranked us, and the top three were invited to do a public interview where they were grilled by a panel of three interviewers, while the rest of the class watched… one of the interviewers took candid and frank notes regarding the interviewee’s performance on his laptop, which was projected above and behind the interviewee for all to see! This experience was particularly memorable for Jamie since he was actually one of the top three. “It was a really high pressure situation. I don’t know if I’ll ever be nervous in any situation after that,” he recalls. I remember watching those interviews and being nervous for Jamie (as well as the other two: Jocelyn and Matilde, who you’ll meet soon enough), but what an experience for him, and the audience!
Moving to the present: as promised in Rich’s blog, I called upon Jamie to shed some light on what exactly they do in the Credit Solutions Team. Jamie joked, “I start my day by putting on my pants, one leg at a time. Once the pants are on I make blockbuster financial deals!” Both distraught and intrigued by the image of a half naked Bay Street Baron, I requested some elaboration. Jamie explained that his team works with clients who have revenues between 10 and 500 million dollars and that he does a lot of business analysis and helps determine appropriate loans as well as their covenants and restrictions. He works alongside a credit solutions manager and client relationship manager for every client, providing a lot of the analysis. “I have a great deal of autonomy,” he says, “the great thing about commercial banking is that you get to touch on so many different products and companies. I’m getting a lot of experience quickly, it’s a great role… I’m looking at telecommunications companies, the wine importers, private schools , gold and silver mines in Mexico… they all have unique issues.”
Whew! That’s a lot to take in, but if anyone can handle it, it’s Jamie. With that said, goodbye for now and be sure to drop in next Thursday!