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Slideshare showcase busn 210
- 1. By: Kareem McLaren Student #: 300709540 Instructor Kathleen Leslie Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Editor's Notes
- I got enrolled into this legendary institution known as Centennial College and began my educational journey Fall 2012. My goal is to leave this school with a Business Finance diploma followed by a Graduate certificate in International Business Management which leads to a Masters at hopefully any school of my choosing. In order to achieve this objective, it all begins with a 2-year Business Finance program consisting of 17 courses. So far I have maintained strong grades. My first semester I was able to maintain a 4.25 GPA and for this current semester is projecting a 4.1 GPA. I know that my journey hasn’t reached the halfway point but I’m off to a good start that’s giving the confidence to continue to go down the model route I’m following to succeed in life.
- These are just a few of the courses I have taken and are currently studying this semester. Specifically in this pic, there’s textbooks for Financial Accounting (2 courses- 1 in Fall 2012 and 1 currently in Winter 2013), Math of Finance and Principles of Marketing. I wish to gain a full understanding of all these core subjects to serve as a foundation for the more specified courses I will soon be registering myself into for the upcoming semester. My job is to simply get grades in these subjects to keep myself in solid academic standing in the eyes of Centennial College especially in the School of Business. What I have been doing and will continue to do is to make sufficient time to review and grasp the concepts being taught to me by my Instructors on my own time. With this, I will continue to gain valuable knowledge which will prove useful for my desired career in financial services. What I have learned from these courses in this pic is the understanding of Time Value of Money for future and present, an important component of financial services is satisfying the customer and the importance of a company’s financial performance, just to name a few.
- I was in one of the bigger lecture halls on campus doing a group presentation of Risk Management for one of my courses. My powerpoint presentation was focused the different aspects of risk management as demonstrated through the slide that is currently shown on this projection screen where the topic is broken to Risk Assessment and Risk Control with sub-topics under each one. My part in the group was the Risk Control side of Risk Management and information was gathered by sifting through articles, e-books, and journals on the topic via google and a hard copy book called “Understanding Risk Management”. With the 5 of us working together, efficiently and equally, we all came with enough definitions, calculations and concepts for myself to create a 45-slide power point presentation that lasted 26 minutes. It was significantly longer than what our Instructor wanted but I take comfort in knowing that he didn’t ask as much questions as he did with other groups. To me, that means we covered a lot of areas with our extensive amount of content. I learned parts of risk management that I didn’t know about before but most of all I remembered the trouble that can come with group work. I realized that sometimes its hard to hold yourself accountable for your portion. Although I didn’t have that problem myself but communication with my other members is vital in succeeding in this project which is with 30% of our grade.
- I had received some in-class work in my Mutual Funds class. The instructor wanted the class to work through the problems he gave us (a portion of which required a calculator)in class. Our task was to complete the handout and show it to him so he could determine whether or not I understood what the questions asked of me as well as my classmates. What I needed to do for the in-class assignment was calculate marginal tax rates for different levels of incomes, taxable amounts in interest, dividends and capital gains, characteristics of various types of pensions and mutual funds, as well as describe the changes in these pensions and registered plans with a spouse. When I showed my instructor my work, he gave me a “thumbs up” indicating that I know what I’m doing and should be ready for our final exam which is always a practice for my industry next month to get my licence to sell mutual funds. This course is the toughest of all my classes I’ve done up until this point but I’m glad that I have stuck with it and really worked hard. I’ve definitely learned a lot regarding regulatory bodies in the provincial and federal levels of government here in Canada and the importance of financial advisors to the Canadian economy. I have improved my critical thinking skills just from this class which has enabled me to speak more intellectually which I believe will further lead me to becoming more of an engaging, and dynamic person in future interviews, seminars and lectures. With this vote of confidence from my instructor, I will be aiming at a strong score on not only my final score but this focus should lead to me receiving my accreditation in mutual funds in early May.
- After graduation, I would love to work in companies like these in the financial services industry. It can even be in the corporate side of these companies because I believe I possess the analytical skills to belong in a high-rise hierarchy. Also after a couple semesters at Centennial College, I feel I can not only conduct myself professionally, but also exercise the correct mindset needed to interject myself into corporate culture. I leave the option of being in the retail banking side of these companies open because I know I’m very open, approachable, customer service-oriented and welcoming to potential and new customers which is the focus of these major banking entities. My task is to simply complete my model route that is set out to obtaining my Business Finance diploma, graduate and promote myself as an ideal candidate for these companies. How to go about this is to simply continue what it is I do with my classes now which is not only memorize what is being taught to me but most importantly demonstrate the ability to incorporate what I learned to real-life scenarios to show employers that I can apply knowledge to a workplace setting. This should result in several employers being impressed with my grasp of various concepts heavily focused on by their respective organizations, thus making me a hot commodity but most importantly making me that closer to being the success I desperately want for myself at this stage in my life. What I have learned from these companies is their dedication to customer satisfaction and loyalty. After doing my informational interview with a rep from RBC, it was really encouraging to know she saw the potential in me to thrive in this industry.