Hailing from Toronto, Ontario is Veronica Denson, a second-year Commerce Co-op student planning to major in Finance. Veronica knew she wanted to be a part of Dalhousie’s co-op program so she could gain fundamental experience to help her in her future career. “It really sets you up for success when you’re trying to decide what you want to do after graduation.”

Veronica is currently completing her first co-op as an External Auditor at EY’s Toronto office. “Throughout my co-op term I get placed on various engagements, so my main responsibilities change a lot depending on the team that I am working with and where they are with their audit. In general though, I spend a lot of time analyzing the work of the client’s finance departments, mostly using Excel and internal software.”

For the remainder of her work term, Veronica is looking forward to working closely with a variety of teams to learn from their experiences and gain new skills. “Though I will be sad to leave my first team since they have been so helpful and welcoming, I am excited to get started with a new team, so that I can use my skills that I have developed so far on my co-op term and apply them to a new project in order to learn even more.” It can be challenging to start at a big firm, but through her determination and the support of her peers, Veronica has excelled.

On top of Veronica’s work term and classes, she always makes time for extra curriculars. “Last semester, I was a Junior Analyst for Dalhousie Investment Society (DALIS) in their Fixed Income and Macro Strategy group. I worked with one other Junior Analyst, one Senior Analyst and two Portfolio Managers. The job of the analysts was to pitch trade ideas as well as to help create and present PowerPoints for our weekly group meetings. We worked as a team to create an investment thesis, and from there I was really allowed to explore things that interested me.” This year, Veronica is Vice President of Internal Affairs for the Dalhousie Accounting Society. Through the society as an executive member, she has further developed her leadership and communications skills. She is also a second-year rep for the Dal Commerce Society (DCS). “I really appreciate the sense of community I feel when I get to plan events for other Commerce students, and as a first year DCS really helped me get involved and put myself out there.”

During the fall term, Veronica joined the Women at TD University Mentorship Program. “I advanced through to the interview round and ended up being one of just over 20 university students selected from across the country to participate in the program.” This program aided Veronica in her journey navigating capital markets – specifically, it heightened her selling and trading knowledge. Her mentor was even a Dalhousie alumna.

Navigating your first job search can be challenging, but Veronica shares the strategies that assisted her. “I started my job search by attending lots of networking events. In first year, I attended office tours, recruiter visits, and the Toronto Corporate Tour.” Networking showed her the type of environment she wanted to work in while helping her build professional connections. Through the support of MCS and her own research, Veronica was able to secure her job. “I ended up accepting my EY offer in early June which definitely took a huge weight off my shoulders going into second year.”

Here is Veronica’s advice for you:

• Start early, it allows for better organization.
• Do not underestimate the value of building your network.
• When networking, find out what you have in common. It is easier to talk with someone when you can relate to something.