RDC hosts Backpacks to Briefcases conference

In addition, officials say students will also learn how to sell themselves and their skillset during the hiring process, with industry experts sharing details about resume writing, interview skills and networking.

Keynote speaker Todd Hirsch, Chief Economist, ATB Financial, says his main message to students at the Welikoklad Event Centre Thursday morning, was about adapting to sudden, unwanted change.

“I use the example of spiders in zero gravity, how they were able to build brand new structures of web in zero gravity,” he explains. “The main message is you’ve got to remain true to your core story, you have to know who you are as a person, or as a business when that unwanted change comes. You have to know it’s going to be a lot of hard work to adapt to sudden change but also how much risk taking is involved but also how rewarding it is because spiders and humans are both capable of adapting to change if we are intent enough about doing it.”

Hirsch says sudden change in life is inevitable, so everyone needs to learn how to adapt and anticipate a career-path that will zig-zag and not be the straight path they may have anticipated or were planning.

“In 2018 and going forward, you have to create a job,” states Hirsch. “That’s a different way of looking at the world of work but the good news is, you can create whatever job you want. It’s not to say it’s easy but you can also move easily from one kind of career to another.”

Hirsch admits he’s actually excited and much more encouraged about the world of work in 2018.

“It’s going to be a whole kaleidoscope of different kinds of careers, different experiences,” describes Hirsch. “Students and workers always keeping their networks of contacts up-to-date, always keeping their skills up-to-date, something that workers 50 years ago were not good at doing. This is why I’m encouraged about workers and students coming out of post-secondary in 2018, is that they have those skills to move almost seamlessly from one career to another.”

Trevor Thomas, Associate Dean, RDC Donald School of Business, says the event being attended by roughly 450 students throughout the day was created out of need expressed by local employers.

“Employers were telling us that students weren’t well-rounded, they were missing those soft-skills,” he explains. “So we created a professional development day where students will learn about networking, they’ll learn about resumes, they’ll learn about interview skills. We want students to have the mindset that today is day-one of their career.”

Thomas says the event has evolved along with the changing workforce.

“When we started, we heard that our students didn’t interview well, they don’t have those skills” states Thomas. “Now we hear that students are much more outgoing. They’ll go to industry nights for businesses when they get invited and they’ll be able to handle that much better than before.”

by Sheldon Spackman

RDC hosts Backpacks to Briefcases conference

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