Student Spotlight: Jared Hudson

November 19, 2019 Management Career Services Leave a Comment

Jared Hudson is a fourth-year accounting major who was born in Halifax. His father’s work took him and his family around the world to nations such as Switzerland and Turkey. When deciding on universities, Dalhousie’s Commerce Program stood out due to the compulsory co-op for commerce students. Not so long ago, Jared started his company myPAQ, which is a sustainable home delivery service for personal care products. Recently, Jared participated in the Halifax Corporate Tour. This involves taking students to three companies, related to their major, around Halifax to network and further learn about the industry and working in it.

At this year’s Halifax Corporate Tour Jared visited VERB Interactive, Dash Hudson, and VOLTA Labs. He reflects on this tour saying “The tour provided me with valuable connections and increased my knowledge about the type of career and office environment I want to have”. Jared found VOLTA Labs, a local innovation hub for startup businesses, as particularly interesting showing him more of the local entrepreneurial environment, and giving him the opportunity to ask fellow startups invaluable advice. On top of allowing him an opportunity to learn how to better his business ventures, Jared believes this tour gave him an edge when applying for future positions having met and networked with many employees at each organization.

Jared would recommend the Corporate Tour to any students who are job hunting, or trying to learn more about an industry. The insight into the organizations would be helpful for someone trying to determine organizations and industries they would like to explore, or work with. To make the most of this opportunity the ability to network will help you secure a vantage as Jared has. To help with this he recommends to be yourself and be interested. Asking many questions and showing genuine interest will help you build a rapport with the person, as well as build your knowledge. This allows for a natural conversation flow ranging from hobbies to career goals, and in turn promoting yourself.

Moving forward Jared hopes to capitalize and sell his sustainable and industry-disrupting service myPAQ, and continue in the start-up scene. A future in the startup scene may not be his only goal as he explores the opportunity to continue to be an entrepreneur or move into the venture capitalist space. To follow Jared and his business’s adventure follow him on Instagram @jaredhudsonn as well as @mypaqcanada. To find out more about Corporate Tours check them out on the MCS website and watch your myCareer Calendar for information sessions.

Student Spotlight: Kevin Vigneau

November 5, 2019 Management Career Services Leave a Comment

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.

Student Spotlight: Melissa Amelia

April 12, 2016 Management Career Services 2 Comments

Melissa Amelia is currently a second-year Bachelor of Commerce student completing her first co-op work term with the Centre for Entrepreneurship Education and Development (CEED) as a Workshop Facilitator. Melissa believes her previous work experiences were all important in refining key skills that led her to be successful at CEED. Even the work that she didn’t think was relevant to her career, such as being a line cook in a small restaurant, has proven to be applicable to her career path.

“In the fall semester, I began my search for a prospective co-op placement through myCareer, as many students do. I applied to a few positions and had one other interview before seeing the CEED posting. Throughout the interview process you can truly get a feel for the culture and environment of a workplace, and one of the most important pieces of advice I will give to people searching for a placement is that it has to feel right. The job description caught my attention, the interview felt comfortable and compelling, and from my first day in the office I felt like a part of the team.

As a Workshop Facilitator for CEED, I’ve worked closely with the Education Team to promote entrepreneurship as a viable career option to youth, and exploring the transferrable skills and competencies related to the entrepreneurial spirit. Throughout my co-op term we have traveled the province delivering workshops to schools and community groups, generating business ventures, and developing curriculums in alignment with Nova Scotia graduation competencies.

Although each piece of the work that I’ve been exposed to is important and enlightening in its own right, my favourite part of the term has been the community group work. The collective impact from relationships built with marginalized youth in various parts of Nova Scotia has been insightful and rewarding. There are ample initiatives CEED has going on in the community, one of which I’ve been working particularly closely on a “Family Recipe Book” venture to celebrate the heritage of the East Preston community. They have been bringing in various family recipes with stories and pictures to match, and we have been working on developing a business plan as well as expanding their marketing skills.

My first co-op placement has been extremely important in both my personal and career development. I’ve had the chance to learn from various individuals who truly have a lot to offer, and to be exposed to a vast array of experiences. One piece of advice I carry with me is to not get discouraged from failure, as the bumps along the road will eventually lead you where you are meant to be.”

Connect with ambitious students like Melissa at the 2016 Co-op Summer Social! Also, be sure to check out the Management Career Services Facebook and Twitter to keep up-to-date with the Bachelor of Commerce class of 2018 candidates’ #WorkTermPride!

Student Spotlight: Terrena Huisman

February 2, 2016 Management Career Services Leave a Comment

Terrena Huisman is a third-year Entrepreneurship major in the Bachelor of Commerce Co-op program who recently completed her Certificate in Entrepreneurship through the Entrepreneurial Skills Program offered by the Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship. During her first co-op, she realized two things: working in an office was not something she was going to enjoy long-term, and there were no local providers of custom swimsuits in Halifax. With her entrepreneurial spirit, she decided to seize this opportunity, and the inception of her business, Terrini’s Bikinis, began. Terrena describes her experience:

“This experience taught me dedication and self-motivation – skills that are needed to make a business successful. Communication and organization are absolutely key, as well as focusing on developing a brand image. Managing social media accounts and client relations is a very time-consuming process and has taught me the importance of being fully committed. Running a client-based business involves being available 24/7 and a typical nine to five co-op experience does not expose you to the value of having your own business. The personal growth and things you learn about yourself while building a business are unparalleled and are transferrable to many other aspects of your life.

An entrepreneurial work term is an excellent opportunity for students to take risks that would otherwise be daunting in the real world. I would encourage every Commerce student to try it for at least one work term. As a student entrepreneur, you have many valuable resources at your fingertips and the Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship is a great support system – be sure to make use of it. Funding, networking, marketing advice, and constructive feedback are all easily accessible and very useful to the growth of your business. After graduation, you won’t have these resources available to you and this can make the pursuit of a new venture very intimidating. The best time to start your own business is while you are a student and have nothing to lose!”

Do you have the desire to pursue your own entrepreneurial work term for Winter 2017? If so, the deadline to submit your expression of interest is February 9 at 4:30 p.m. For more information on how to kick-start your entrepreneurship experience, visit our website.

Prospective Entrepreneurial Course for Fall 2012

June 26, 2012 Amy McLellan

Interested in starting your own for profit or social enterprise?
Have you attended or interested in attending Startup Weekend?

If you answered ‘yes’, we encourage you to visit Starting Lean and complete the survey today … HERE’S WHY:

There was significant interest in capturing the energy generated at the two Startup Weekends held a Dalhousie last year and converting it into a semester long course. Your survey entry will help us gauge the level of interest and design a course that best fits the needs of the participants.

The course will be based on the Lean Startup methodology developed by Steve Blank and Eric Reis. The course will focus on:

Mapping and communicating your venture using the Lean Canvas platform (developed by Ash Maurya)
Problem discovery
Customer development
Validation of the proposed business model

Please share Starting Lean with anyone who may be interested. For questions or comments, please contact Dr. Ed Leach, Director of the Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship at Ed.leach@dal.ca or 902.494.1816

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