Career Week - Winter 2012!

With March just around the corner, the Business and Tourism Department is gearing up for our biannual Career Week. We have a sensational week of events planned, starting Monday, March 5^th going through until Friday, March 9^th. If you are a business or tourism student, you are not going to want to miss a minute of the action! (All events are learning passport eligible so don’t forget to bring your passport along.)

Here is what’s planned so far:

On Monday, March 5^th the week will kick off at 11:00pm in the RBC Link with a Resume Road Show, hosted by Career Planning Services. This is a great opportunity to get a professional critique of your resume and get advice on those cover letters you have been working on.

Join us in Seton 508 at 12:30pm-1:45pm for the Careers in Marketing & Management speaker panel. A group of professionals from the industry will be discussing potential careers and how to obtain a position in the field. I am personally excited to see Mr. Rob Batherson from the Halifax based marketing/PR company, Colour speak. This event is a must see!

At 2:00pm -3:00pm in Seton 504 a job coaching session will be taking place. This event is “drop in” so stop by to get advice on how to find and land that dream job of yours.

Careers as Entrepreneurs is another speaker panel taking place at 6:00pm-8:50pm in Seton 502. We will have the opportunity to pick the minds of this panel of entrepreneurs and hear their stories of how they made an idea into a success business.

If you can’t make it to campus on the 5^th, no sweat! We are having a speaker panel on Leadership being streamed live at 6:00pm-7:00pm. This panel will consist of people in leadership position discussing what it takes to be an effective leader. Watch for more details on the exciting opportunity for our distance learners to take part.

On Tuesday, March 6^th we will continue the fun with a panel of Human Resource Professionals at 12:00pm- 1:15pm in Seton 503, hosted by Career Planning Services.  This event will address topics such as, best practices for interviews and proper business conduct. Come hear from panelists such as. Cindy Wheeler from Customizing Wardrobes discussing the dos and don’ts for interviews.  

Careers in Tourism & Hospitality is another speaker panel taking place at 12:00pm-1:20pm in Seton Auditorium B. This is one of the most exciting and fastest growing fields for students to work in. All students should attend this event to learn about a variety of exciting careers. I can’t wait to hear from our wonderful panelists, including Mr. Adam Bower from Delta Halifax.

We are closing the day’s events with a much anticipated Networking Workshop at 2:00pm-3:00pm in Seton 306 given by Mr. Nathan Ward from CIBC Human Resources. Learn effective strategies for developing business relationships and how to implement them.

On Wednesday, March 7^th check out a workshop on Culturally Sensitive Business Conduct, taking place in Seton Auditorium B at 12:30pm- 2:00pm. This workshop will be great for all students, especially those interested in international business.

On Thursday, March 8^th the Careers in Accounting & Finance speaker panel will be taking place at 1:30pm- 2:45pm in Seton 505/506. This panel will include financial managers, CAs, CMAs, and CGAs and is ideal if you are considering working in this industry. Come down to hear the panelists discuss potential careers opportunities in the field.

On Friday, March 9^th Career Planning Services is hosting the final event of the week with the Winning Resume Workshop at 10:00am- 11:00pm at Seton 508. Join us to learn tips and tricks for getting your resume noticed by employers to land interviews. This is a perfect ending to a jam-packed week.

No matter what your specialized field is, there is something happening during Career Week for you. Getting to engage with industry professionals gives us firsthand information on what these careers are really like. These events will help students the right career path and help prepare us for life after graduation.

Guest Post: Social Enterprise for a Day SE4D

Guest Post: Social Enterprise for a Day

The Business & Tourism department at MSVU is a community of people, experiences, opinions and voices. Our blog will reflect that community with the inclusion of guest bloggers who have stories to share of value to our community.
 
Today's guest blogger is Tanis Trainor, a first year BPR student who was selected to participant in the SE4D event. Her blog was written with the help of Brenna Hill, also a first year BPR student. 

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SE4D: Social Enterprise for a Day

This academic school year, Mount Saint Vincent University hosted Social Enterprise for a Day, a new conference focused on students.

A social enterprise is a not-for-profit enterprise that has a final goal of helping society. Students attended the conference from Mount Saint Vincent University, Dalhousie University, Saint Mary’s University, Nova Scotia Community College and various high schools in Halifax Regional Municipality. Students were split into groups on Friday, February 3rd and ran their enterprise on February 4th.

On Friday night, I was placed into the Black Team. Our team met and discussed what issues surround us on a day-to-day basis and brainstormed some possible solutions we could act on. We had a few really great ideas! But given the time frame (we had to launch it the very next day!) we decided to focus on the issue of bottled water.

In North America, we have access to the very clean tap water, yet we choose to pay over one dollar for water in a plastic bottle. By purchasing bottled water, we choose to act in an environmentally unfriendly way while others in the world struggle to have access to fresh water.

We decided to call our group @H2KnowH2O to raise awareness on this issue and developed a three point mission statement for our venture:

• H2Know H2O is a social enterprise venture created by youth who are looking to meaningfully engage in social change using entrepreneurial principles. Social enterprise creates profits, which are reinvested in efforts that support youth business experience, ecological sustainability, and philanthropic goals. Social enterprise ventures encourage a “triple bottom line” and socially responsible model for industry. Supporting H2Know supports social enterprise.

• H2Know H2O is advocating the reduction of bottled water usage. By targeting elimination of plastic water bottles we are promoting corporate and social responsibility that acknowledges the impacts of industry on our natural systems. Pledging support to H2Know H20 is not simply a monetary investment in a social enterprise. Supporting H2Know raises awareness to reduce consumption impacts on environmental degradation.

• H2Know H20’s campaign fosters a culture of mindful actions pertaining to global water systems. By raising funds through social enterprise, H2Know is able to invest in developing nations to create potable wells and safe water systems. Supporting H2Know allows business and industry to improve human living conditions and quality of life.

With our mission in hand, it was time to come up with a plan!

We decided to run a water taste test! With a table set up at Halifax Shopping Center on Saturday afternoon, we approached shoppers and ask them to “take the test”. We “tested” customers on both filtered Brita water and bottled water to see if they could taste the difference. Most shoppers could not tell the difference and if they could, we asked them if the difference was strong enough for them to spend large sums of their money per bottle as well as negatively contributing to environment. Their response was consistently NO. We also had information and fact sheets laid out to raise awareness of the real impacts of bottled water.

After the taste test we asked shoppers to also “take the pledge”. We printed off a pledge sheet and asked customers to sign their name in efforts to help reduce bottled water consumption. Most shoppers happily agreed! We also accepted donations to sponsor the building of a well in a developing country. In our three-hour time frame we raised over $300 dollars to donate to our cause.

This “Social Enterprise for a Day” was a truly rewarding experience with a great cause for each individual group. There were teams all over Halifax who dealt with socially important issues in innovative ways and raised money for their causes.

In the end, we had a lot of time to bond as a team and we came out with an amazing feeling of contributing to a good cause!