Kevin Vigneau is a fourth-year student from Bradford Ontario. Originally planning to go to university for kinesiology, Kevin found a passion for finance and decided to come to Dalhousie. Here he had the opportunity to explore Nova Scotia from its trails to beaches, as well as the mandatory co-op portion of the Commerce Program.

Two of Kevin’s three co-ops have been with large real estate investment and development firms. Working with the Toronto market, the growth and demand in the industry was eye opening with an added twist of being able to see what you were investing in rather than seeing it as a general financial asset. Over the past summer, Kevin secured his position with CacheFlow through Venture for Canada, a government funded program to connect students with small start-ups for mutual growth. CacheFlow is an organization focusing on creating a smart budgeting tool for organizations that helps match and predict spending patterns as well as understand spending behaviour. Watching the entrepreneurial process and being able to work directly on projects affecting the direction of the firm was a amazing learning opportunity. Kevin recommends this exposure in entrepreneurial realm to any student, especially if you are driven by the fast-paced problem solving. Venture for Canada also has workshops available during your time with them. They offer training that is applicable in the business world as well as networking with businesses across Nova Scotia.

In his final year at Dalhousie Kevin is balancing his school and graduate job hunt as well as being the Commerce Society President. This is a challenge that he recommends to any student, as it provides the ability to work on leadership skills and make a positive impact for fellow students. The balancing of commitments is difficult, but the society works as a team with delegation and team work required to succeed. Through this and an organized schedule, Kevin has been able to successfully balance his obligations while still being able to enjoy his final year.

In this spare time Kevin has been participating in case competitions and summits. In October he participated in the Rumble in the Rowe Case Competition with his team of 4th year Commerce students coming out on top against MBA students and his peers. Kevin got into case competitions as a recommendation from a friends and has continued to pursue them. Kevin says they can get stressful taking on a challenge in such a short amount of time but the skills you develop and experience is worth a little stress. He also displays these competitions prominently on his resume saying they really help show your aptitude to handle high stress situations and problem solving.

After graduation Kevin is looking to explore career options, possibly going back to his co-op roots in real estate investment and development. To follow Kevin’s success’ check out his LinkedIn page here.

To find out more about Venture for Canada click here for their website.

To find out how you can get involved in case competition watch out on the MyCareer calendar as well as the Management Career Services and Commerce Societies news feeds.