Career Options Post Secondary Winter 2016

CO

CAREER OPTIONS FOR CANADIAN POST-SECONDARY STUDENTS

CAREEROPTIONSMAGAZINE.COM WINTER/SPRING 2016 / VOLUME 30 NO. 1

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SPECIAL SECTION: CAREERS IN THE ARTS

22 ARE ENTREPRENEURS BORN OR CREATED?

26 FINANCIAL LITERACY:

AND WHAT PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING HAS TO DO WITH IT

SINGING, TEACHING, NURTURING

DANIELLE ALLARD BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHER

PHOTO CREDIT: DAN MATTHEWS PHOTOGRAPHY

PAGE 14

Competence.

Validation.

Trust.

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CAREER OPTIONS WINTER/SPRING 2016

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Doing Well by Doing Good: Entrepreneurship with a Conscience

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12

Editor’s Letter

Behind the Scenes Is Where the Real Action Is

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By Danielle Klassen

Stop Stressing and Talk to a Career Counsellor

By Alex Scantlebury

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Ad Agencies of Today

By Joseph Mathieu

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Q&A with Well-Known Canadian Artist, Danielle Allard

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Social Entrepreneurs Create Positive Change

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Financial Literacy: And What Professional Accounting Has to Do with It

By Glen Peters

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An Expert in the Field: Specializations in Accounting

By Eleanor Fogolin

By Conor Rochon

What Can I Do with a Bachelor of Arts Degree?

By Alex Scantlebury

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By Stuart Jeffery

CAREERS IN THE ARTS

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FINANCIAL

22

Are Entrepreneurs Born or Created?

By Glen Peters

A Thousand Doorways, One Career

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CAREER OPTIONS

HAVE YOU CHECKED OUT THE CAREER OPTIONS WEBSITE? FOR TODAY’S MEDIA-SAVVY, CAREER-FOCUSED STUDENT!

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Paul D. Smith ASSOCIATE EDITOR

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BLOGSPOT » Students, career educators and guest bloggers share their thoughts about post-secondary education, entering the workforce, finding the “right” job and getting a career on track. Submit your own blog ideas at careeroptionsmagazine.com/ community/blog

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Colleen Hayes Stephan Pigeon CONTRIBUTORS

Eleanor Fogolin Danielle Klassen Glen Peters Alex Scantlebury

Stuart Jeffery Joseph Mathieu Conor Rochon Paul Smith

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10 The Canadian Payroll Association

EDITOR’S LETTER

Art and the Good Life

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n 1989, I had just completed my Bachelor of Arts (English Theatre) at Memorial University of Newfoundland. In the summer of that year, Touchstone Pictures released a movie called Dead Poet’s Society, featuring Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard and Ethan Hawke. It was about a group of boys at a private school who are shown by their teacher that life calls for them to “carpe diem” or “seize the day”—to live deliberately. The lesson changes their lives.

One scene, more than any other, remained with me. Robin Williams—as the teacher, John Keating—made this statement, “…medicine, law, business, engineering—these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love—these are what we stay alive for.” As an arts grad, the movie validated all that I believed in and the work that I had done; I remember once arguing that a well-written poem was as important as a well-made bridge.

I tell you this by way of saying that I am proud of our theme—Careers in the arts—for this issue of Career Options. We hear so much about careers in “medicine, law, business, engineering,” as well we should, for they are “noble pursuits.” But we must remember the valuable contributions that are made by artists. They add depth and meaning to all that we do. Can you imagine a world without music, without theatre, without novels? No sculpture? No paintings? Artists remind us that the urge to create exists within all of us. Experts call for more people to study science and engineering so that we might lead the world in innovation—but isn’t that just another word for creativity? We painted on the walls of caves, and now we use technology to imagine universes.

We do these things because we need to tell our stories, to pass along our humanity—that is what we stay alive for.

As I write this, CBC Radio is releasing the long list of books in competition for the Canada Reads contest for 2016. The Canada Reads contest brings together leading Canadians to discuss books that matter to them, books that every Canadian should read. This year, I see that my old classmate Michael Crummey and his book Sweetland have made the list. I wonder if Michael ever watched Dead Poets Society? Whether he has or hasn’t, he seized the day, he contributed a verse.

What will your verse be? CO

PAUL D. SMITH is the Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Career Educators and Employers and Editor-in-Chief of Career Options magazine. Email Paul at pauls@cacee.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT: cacee.com, careeroptionsmagazine.com

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When you help her climb after they said she would never walk, that’s MORE THAN MEDICINE.

Matthew Rubacha, MD, currently an Orthopedic Surgical Resident in Toronto, was drawn to St. George’s University by the dedicated faculty and international perspective. But SGU taught him more than just medicine.

His professors taught him to strive for solutions beyond the expected. Today, he helps people get back on their feet using cutting-edge technology.

Dr. Rubacha is just one of over 13,000 SGU graduate physicians, including 1,000 Canadians, who have practiced medicine all over the world.

Matthew Rubacha, MD, SGU ‘14

SEE OUR STORY sgu.edu/md

US/Canada: 1 (800) 899-6337 ext. 9 1280 sguenrolment@sgu.edu

©2015 St. George’s University

By Alex Scantlebury

STOP STRESSING AND TALK TO A CAREER COUNSELLOR

Each and every one of us is a mixing bowl of potential, filled with individual talents and skills, dreams and desires, goals and an eagerness to accomplish something. But how do we blend all those ingredients together to end up with a career we excel at and enjoy?

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his question, and the adventure we undertake when we answer it, can arise at any point in a person’s life, but it begins for most when they are entering their senior years of high school. It’s a common rite of passage: students facing choices when several post-secondary directions beckon.

Which field should you pick? Where do you want to go to college or university? Is going directly to employment after secondary school an option?

What about apprenticeship training?

No one can speak for everyone, but it is clear that making those choices at that early age can be a heavy burden.

However, there are ways to reduce the anxiety— people and services you can turn to in order to help you make the smartest decision for your future.

When we look for sources of help, we find that the options are virtually unlimited. Let’s forget that the online world exists and go traditional for a moment. To start, make a list of all the people in your life that you could go to for advice about anything. By the time you are finished, the size of the list will almost certainly amaze you. Don’t leave anyone out—parents, friends, other family members, coaches, teachers, and guidance counsellors. Include them all. Each will have different perspectives and offer you different styles of advice.

Speak to each of them and compile what they say into an overall picture. Evaluate what they say carefully. All this is important, because you’re making a choice that will shape the rest of your life.

Of course, there’s another choice that in some ways is simpler. You can go and speak to a career counsellor who works at one of the local post-secondary institutions. They answer these

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Visit

www.itsajuggle.ca

to learn more about building questions every day and are always happy to help someone shape their future. A good example of someone who’s benefited from career counselling is Ally Bottero, a 22-year-old public relations student at Algonquin College in Ottawa who started her post-secondary career taking film studies at Carleton University.

After a couple of years, Bottero realized that, though she loved film studies, she wanted to make a change to something else.

“I went into the registrar’s office at Carleton and ended up speaking with one of their career counsellors. I told her that I didn’t know what direction I was going and I thought that maybe I needed a change. We chatted for almost an hour and through the entire chat we somehow ended up talking about the PR program at Algonquin College. It turns out I have the right mindset for communications. I don’t know if I would have found my way career success.

THE PERSONAL CONVERSATION APPROACH WON’T WORK FOR EVERYONE, BUT THERE ARE USEFUL ONLINE TOOLS AND SERVICES THAT ARE AVAILABLE ALL THE TIME.

there if I hadn’t spoken to a career counsellor—and I couldn’t be happier with the choice I made,” said Bottero.

Granted, the personal conversation approach won’t work for everyone, but there are useful online tools and services that are available all the time and make an excellent fallback option. Such services can be a less subjective and more comprehensive source of career counselling information. For many, it’s produced great results.

It’s a Juggle (www.itsajuggle.ca) is an effective and easy-to-use career counselling and advancement tool available free for anyone. The original concept for It’s a Juggle came from Dr. Linda Pardy, Senior Partner at The Pardy Group, who conceived it as as a toolkit for building sustainable career success.

“We design sustainable student success for the 21st century workplace,” Pardy says. “To do this, we work with higher education and business leaders to support learners in achieving ongoing success in a complex economy.” As a professor of communications and a business partner, Pardy straddles the worlds of business and education, giving her a rich perspective from which to offer help. That help is crucially important, she says, because it helps learners “build better life stories.”

Essentially, the site offers a step-by-step planning platform that can help you answer all of the questions that arise while you plan your future.

Everything from academic planning, career assessments, career planning, advice to both entrepreneurs and small business owners, all the way through to managing your mental health throughout the process can be considered through using this tool. After reviewing what the site has to offer—and knowing that I am already happily placed in my dream career in communications— I can see how much easier the path would have been if I had known about this at the beginning.

There are some extremely specific tools online to help with individual aspects of your plan. Educationplanner.ca is offered to students in British Columbia. It isn’t your typical “college finder” app because it has a far more personal feel. This planner will walk you through the process of finding the perfect post-secondary school, allowing you to search out programs and schools by asking about your interests, the subjects you like, and any schools you might have your heart set on already. I believe this to be a far more pertinent way to go than just trying to answer the cliché question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Obviously, careers are not what they used to be, nor are the people who pursue them. Rarely do you see students coming fresh out of high school with all the answers—though they might think they have them—and moving directly onto their life’s pursuits. The world is just not that simple anymore.

It’s quite typical for people to follow multiple career paths, by choice or by circumstance, before they eventually retire from the working world. Career counselling makes life easier for all demographics. We all face challenges moving through life and no one can truly say they knew or know where exactly they should be heading. Ask the questions, find the answers, and plan your future. Not an easy task, I know, but there are many services available to help you make the important decisions. CO

ALEX SCANTLEBURY is the founder of EBM Professional Writing Services and a graduate of Algonquin College. Follow him on Twitter @ebmprowriting.

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AD

By Joseph Mathieu

AGENCIES OF TODAY

We’ve all seen the Mad Men version of advertising—hard-drinking advertisers vying for the best business, trying to scoop each other’s clients with little more than brassy self-confidence and a slogan. Advertising agencies have changed a lot since then—that much is clear—but are there still agencies out there like Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce?

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here’s always a competition for business across agencies, but perhaps nothing so dramatic,” said Karen Kavanagh, Coordinator of Algonquin’s Advertising and Marketing Communications Management program. “What Mad Men did portray well is the high energy of creative work, the struggle of coming up with great ideas. The ideas are still core to everything an ad agency does.”

Nowadays it’s far more than a print ad with a slogan that sells the idea.

Modern campaigns are steeped in experiential advertising, event planning, and social media. All these aspects support campaigns that are still focused on the Big Idea, one Don Draper might have pulled from his back pocket.

No current agency is held afloat by the work of one person alone. It’s always a crew of people, working together, that gets the job done.

“Generally a traditional agency has a creative team, a strategic team, and a marketing team with several different positions in each,” said Kavanagh.

“Ideas come from everywhere and all those people depend on one another.”

After graduating from Algonquin College’s two-year Advertising program in 1995, Kavanagh moved to Toronto to work with Echo Advertising and a few other firms. Four years later, she returned to Ottawa where, among other

things, she taught one class per term at Algonquin, becoming a full-time employee in 2011.

The program she coordinates has since added Marketing Communications Management to its prior focus on advertising, besides adding a third year of study. Its curriculum helps her students develop the skills to work well with others, and to think quickly and strategically. But even well prepared students may find ad agency work tough, she points out, even without a Pete Campbell breathing down your neck.

“It can be intimidating when you first get hired,” she said. “Don’t be afraid to share your ideas, and be aware that you’ve been hired for your input as well as your skills.”

Every type of person can work at an agency, even an introvert, as long as they work well with others, are self-reliant, and take interest in the world around them.

Just as an agency can serve a narrow niche or a broad range of advertising needs, grads too have to decide whether they will serve a narrow or broad field. Questions to ask: How will you, as a recent grad, differentiate yourself from your peers? What specialization will give you an advantage?

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Calling all creators!

IF YOU’RE A GRAD IN LIBERAL AND APPLIED ARTS, your job prospects in the advertising and communications industry have never been better. Smart strategic thinkers and strong visual creators are in high demand.

Are you a fan of the written word? Passionate about wellconstructed arguments? Fascinated by great website design? Your creativity will thrive in advertising, an industry dedicated to innovation and fresh thinking across all forms of commercial communication.

We at the Institute of Communication Agencies (ICA) can help you explore your options. As the voice of the Canadian industry, we can help you access a short-term internship to learn more about what a life in advertising is really like.

The media space has become quite fragmented since the Mad Men era, immensely complicating the task of getting an advertising message across.

No traditional campaign of the kind Don Draper knew could reach the majority of Ottawans today. Now you’re as likely to find the target audience through a smartphone or ear buds as through a magazine or television.

“I’m constantly learning new things in this ever-changing industry, and every year we’re adding new strategies, new technology, and new ideas to the program,” said Kavanagh.

Now, depending on who you ask, there is still some drinking at the agency. Think social drinks instead of morning whiskey. There is a certain amount of excitement around planning campaigns for films or festivals, and always opportunity for mingling. Agencies are social places.

But hard drinking? Well, what happens at the agency stays at the agency.

In that sense, Don Draper would be happy—but otherwise his wings would be a little clipped. CO

ICA’s Agency Diver site is a great place to start exploring. Learn more about some of the career directions you may want to pursue, read personal profiles to experience the range of skills tapped by advertising work, or make agency connections to explore future internship and entry level positions. www.icacanada.ca

www.agencydiver.ca

Based in North Grenville, JOSEPH MATHIEU is a bilingual freelance writer and editor.

He bolsters brands, explores music and narrates lifestyles worth celebrating. He tweets @JRMwords.

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By Alex Scantlebury

What can I do with a

BACHELOR of ARTS DEGREE?

W

hat is a Bachelor of Arts degree really worth in today’s world?

What types of jobs are available to those that earn them?

Because a degree in the liberal arts emphasizes thinking above all else, the successful recipient can—and should be able to—make an argument that careers are out there if the mind is properly engaged. The training may be perceived as generic but the soft skills of reflection and communication are in demand in almost every field.

The skills developed are often hard to quantify on paper, but a B.A. graduate can think critically and creatively, and organize information and materials with discipline. These are traits that open doors to a wide variety of occupations that are not directly related to the field of study. With a B.A. in tow, you will be pleasantly surprised to know that few opportunities will be off limits.

There is a direct correlation between the soft skills you will gain while working towards a B.A. and the types of industries that will be happy to hire you. Outside of occupations that require specific knowledge related to the hard sciences and specialized industries, the skills acquired over the course of a four-year B.A. degree are often considered more important than the actual subject matter that was studied.

Bradley Moseley-Williams graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from York University. His original goal was law school but he ended up turning his B.A. into a long and lucrative career in communications.

“I decided that I wanted to try my hand as a writer. I first worked several—poorly paid—freelance jobs before spinning that into a job as a technical writer. In that role, I knocked out a few computer manuals as an employee of a company that made educational computers,” said

Moseley-Williams. “I ended up getting the chance to work in public relations once the internet became a popular tool for teachers.”

While sociology became a means to an end, he remains glad he learned about the discipline for its own sake. “What I liked about sociology was that it enabled me to ‘see’ that nothing happens by accident, and that things like religion, education, racism, the immigrant experience, etc., could be seen and understood. More than anything else it was very interesting and it gave me something to do while I grew up, eventually leading to owning my own PR consultancy firm,” he said.

Moseley-Williams now teaches his trade as the Public Relations program coordinator at Algonquin College.

Understandably, it can be difficult to figure out the direction of your life after school. Creativity alone might take you great places. Some careers and opportunities may require additional training or education, but a B.A. provides an exceptional foundation on which to build your dream. Don’t paint yourself into a corner by limiting the possibilities. They are almost endless.

And if there’s one thing that earning a B.A. should teach you, it’s that thinkers are the only people who can literally make something of nothing. CO

ALEX SCANTLEBURY is the founder of EBM Professional Writing Services and a graduate of Algonquin College. Follow him on Twitter @ebmprowriting.

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By Danielle Klassen

BEHIND the SCENES is where the real action is

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hen the lights go down, the sound comes up, and the show starts, all eyes turn to the stage. Suddenly, the audience is immersed in a new world, transported to a different age, transformed by a sensory experience. This is the magic and allure of the performance arts.

Whether an opera singer, actor, dancer, or indie rock musician, the job of a performance artist is to bring this world to life for their audience. But for every performer who takes the stage, there’s an army of people behind the scenes bringing the production to life—the people who really make the art world move.

Every person behind the scenes knows that they’re to be anywhere except in the spotlight. As audio specialist John Rosefield observes, “I’ve always said that if I’m running a show, if the audience or people that came to the show didn’t know I was there, then I did a good job.”

Rosefield has worked for years on live theatrical and musical performances. From hauling gear off trucks to mixing the sound for a show, work in AV can be equal parts physical and technical. But for Rosefield, it’s much more than that: It’s a creative outlet.

“I like the immediacy of live sound. You have to make decisions in the moment and do the best you can with what you’ve got,” says Rosefield.

A passionate live music fan, Rosefield says he’s always loved to be behind the scenes. Even when playing in a band, he chose the drums, shielded from the spotlight on stage, but still able to connect to the audience—and to the sound.

“In a way I feel like I won the lottery in careers, because I just really do love doing it. It’s what I do in my spare time anyways,” says Rosefield.

Now, his job is to help give artists the confidence they need to rock their performance.

“When you get it to that spot where everything just sounds great and the audience loves it and the band loves it, there’s a bit of magic that happens there. That’s a great feeling. That’s super rewarding,” says Rosefield.

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While jobs like Rosefield’s focus on the immediacy of performance, the action in many behind-the-scenes jobs occurs long before the stage is set.

Robert Shannon is the coordinator for the Bachelor and Masters of Fine Arts Theatre Design program at the University of Alberta. Reflective of the reality of the competitive and small industry, the program admits only a handful of students each year.

He admits that his is an industry that’s far from lucrative, but for those who love performance, he says the work can fulfill a calling.

“Talk to most of us and we will have been obsessed with building things, drawing, and imagining our whole lives,” he says.

While a visual artist will often work independently, taking their cues from those who buy and criticize work, a theatre designer must be a team player first, responding to a director’s needs and understanding that their masterpiece is just one part of the whole, says Shannon.

Theatre design applies fine arts skills to massive installations. From lighting, to costumes, to the set itself, a designer’s concept will often start with a sketch, but when the curtain drops a designer’s work can colour the entire show.

And watching their vision come to life is anything but beige. “It’s thrilling, it’s sometimes disappointing. It’s never neutral,” says Shannon.

With so many jobs behind the scenes and, by comparison, very few on-stage performers, backstage work can also be a fallback opportunity for those who prefer life in the spotlight but didn’t quite reach that brass ring.

They can still have a career in the arts backstage.

Chris Ralph’s first passion has always been acting, but to sustain his lifestyle he’s developed a breadth of roles in the industry. Three years ago, he co-founded the Acting Company, a small recreational drama school in Ottawa.

CA RE EROP TI O N SMAGA ZIN E.COM

“In Ottawa, there are not enough jobs to sustain you as a full-time actor.

There’s no film or television in this city, so every actor has some other kind of job,” says Ralph.

Despite the fact that running the business is a seven-day-per-week commitment, Ralph also finds time to work as a producer at a local theatre. A far departure from his work on stage, he says this position has more to do with crunching numbers to determine if a show will sell.

“A producer’s job is to weigh the risks,” he says. But while the wager is high, this position can offer ample rewards. “I like the challenge. There’s always something new involved. Every single aspect of every show is different.”

While behind-the-scenes work offers such a diversity of roles, a number of threads weave together to make any production possible.

Those who succeed in the industry feed off a passion for performance and share an ability to apply their creative energy to a technical trade.

“You’re doing this because you love it and find it a worthy way to live a life,” says Richard. CO

AVERAGE SALARIES

for careers in the art industry (per Canadian major cities)

TORONTO, Ontario: $35,065 - $70,049. Average of $50,557 OTTAWA, Ontario: $32,817 - $66,434. Average of $49,625.50 CALGARY, Alberta: $39,751 - $74,242. Average of $56,996.50 MONTREAL, Quebec: $33,059 - $63,542. Average of $48,300.50 VANCOUVER, BC: $34,212 - $65,765. Average of $49,988.50 CANADIAN AVERAGE OF $51,093.60

Based in Toronto, DANIELLE KLASSEN works as a publicist and is a graduate of Carleton University’s School of Journalism.

Connect with her on Twitter @daniklassen.

Respectable careers and incomes can easily be made within the arts industry. These are simply the averages, not the maximums.

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PHOTO CREDIT: JUSTIN VAN LEEUWEN – JVL PHOTO

By Stuart Jeffery

WITH WELL-KNOWN CANADIAN ARTIST,

DANIELLE ALLARD

When I finish my interview with Ottawa-born artist and communications professor Danielle Allard on a cold November afternoon, I realize she has reminded me of why I feel compelled to write something new every day. Grateful, I compliment her on her song Shipwreck—which I had been listening to before our interview—and the release this past May of the album from which it comes, Chameleon. She takes both pleasure and amusement from compliments. As she says, “On both my first and current albums, people’s favourite songs are the most depressing and heart wrenching.”

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PHOTO CREDIT: DAN MATTHEWS PHOTOGRAPHY

PHOTO CREDIT: DAN MATTHEWS PHOTOGRAPHY

O

ver the course of our forty-minute interview, I forget at moments that I am talking to a woman who has done in her life what most people only dream of—to work authentically and prosperously in a field she feels passionate about. When this former strange art kid remembers her childhood struggles with bullying, I can relate to her; when she explains how she gets audiences to get creative with craft paper and crayons, I laugh along with her; when she expresses her dual passions for music and teaching and how they complement each other, I am all ears.

After the call is finished, I look out the window and watch the snow fall over downtown Toronto. Her music is playing softly in the background. All is calm, but looking over my notes, I am jolted by a fresh appreciation of the person I’ve just been speaking with. “Oh my god,” I tell myself. “Danielle Allard is a true artist and someone to be envied.”

Allard has the rare ability to make you feel as if you are talking to one of your oldest friends—but then you suddenly realize that her life is the unicorn we all chase throughout our professional lives. She might mention one of the students in her communications course, or share her successes and disappointments within the music industry, or allude to a recent charitable organization she is performing at. There are good moments and less good moments, and Allard never glosses over the hard work and perseverance needed to find fulfillment in the arts. What sets her apart is the joy she reliably finds. She loves the moments of honest and raw self-expression, loves seeing art and creative expression bring people together.

She is part of the growing number of young professionals who are unwilling to accept a life which does not stimulate them. “I cannot live my life that way,” she says. “I just cannot do something for forty hours a week I do not enjoy.”

She believes success is about being happy. “And what makes me happy is helping people,” she says.

She helps through making beautiful music and through teaching: “I love them both equally, whether in the classroom or on stage.”

What particularly makes Danielle Allard special is her complete disregard for the fame game that so many young artists and creative types are accused of playing. She doesn’t believe that fame and wealth breed happiness. If she could perform more, she’s not sure she would. “I’m happy in my life and like a certain amount of anonymity,” she says. The balance she now has between performing and teaching gives her great personal satisfaction.

Allard has the kind of experience most artists can only dream of. In May 2015, she released her second feature-length album with money she had raised through crowdfunding; she did much of the advertising, marketing and promotion herself.

When we touched on the government grants that help fledgling artists fund their work, Allard said any artist should apply, even if they are not sure they qualify. “If you can get the money, and you qualify, then absolutely get the money.”

Many people do not understand that being an independent artist “without the aid of 40 to 60 people behind them” requires that one create one’s own

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STILL FROM THE CROWN MUSIC VIDEO

ALLARD HAS THE RARE ABILITY TO MAKE YOU FEEL AS IF YOU ARE TALKING TO ONE OF YOUR OLDEST FRIENDS—BUT THEN YOU SUDDENLY REALIZE THAT HER LIFE IS THE UNICORN WE ALL CHASE THROUGHOUT OUR PROFESSIONAL LIVES.

personal brand around their business. For many artists, this is difficult, even though, through social media, the current moment is potentially one of the most creative and innovative in human history. “But not many artists are great business people,” she says. Many artists, particularly the younger ones, achieve temporary notoriety on the internet, whether through antics on Snapchat, a viral YouTube video or a hilariously sardonic tweet on Twitter—but to remain relevant and to keep one’s brand going requires astonishing creativity and work.

Allard is a superb example of an artist who seamlessly bridges the gap between different careers. Her music-making and her teaching are not naturally connected but she notes that both are sparked by a common factor—her love of helping people. Music puts something right in the spirit, and teaching conveys skills that students need to flourish in the world. Allard is also heavily involved in the Ottawa community and offers her services and time to many local charities. In some sense, this is a matter of giving back, for she feels she has received a great deal from “family,” a term she defines fluidly.

Allard disproves the generational belief that millennials are lazy and self-indulgent. Through hard work, she has become the quintessential businesswoman and young professional who connects with people through two distinct career paths.

As a society, we spend too much time celebrating famous artists and living vicariously through what the media reveals about their lives. After speaking with Danielle Allard, I realized her success is more personal. She

is the artist I strived to be when I was a child. Her goals are not wealth or renown but the opportunity to use her gifts to on her musical adventures @daniellejallard bring people together.

To be both a true artist and a servant of others is an attainment. We can envy the life Danielle Allard has made, but she would rather you forgo envy and put the energy into allowing her to help you achieve your dreams. In her classroom, she helps by giving you her attention; at her concerts, she gives her music and energy—and maybe some craft paper and crayons so you can turn creator yourself. CO

Follow Danielle

STUART JEFFERY lives in Toronto and often wonders whether it’s strange he does most of his writing in the shower. Read more: janikon.hubpages.com

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Create

By Conor Rochon

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

POSITIVE CHANGE

ENTREPRENEURS SPOT OPPORTUNITIES FOR NEW INDUSTRY, THEY CREATE JOBS AND GROW STRONGER COMMUNITIES. IT’S HARD WORK. SUCCESS MEANS NOT ONLY HAVING A GREAT IDEA, BUT ALSO HAVING THE DRIVE TO FOLLOW THROUGH ON THAT IDEA, NO MATTER THE OBSTACLES.

K

athleen Kemp is the co-founder of CigBins, an Ottawa-based company tackling the problem of cigarette-butt litter. CigBins installs and maintains butt disposal bins on their clients’ properties and returns to clean the bins on a regular schedule. On the surface, CigBins looks like any other small business, offering their services to clients at competitive rates and attracting new business with careful marketing and branding—but Kemp founded CigBins to do more than simply turn a profit. The company recycles the waste they remove and, in partnership with Causeway Work Center, helps people with mental disabilities find a place in their workforce. “We want CigBins to be a positive force in the community— but to do that we need to be a sustainable business,” Kemp explains. “It’s all about finding the right balance between the social, environmental, and economic impacts of the company.”

Entrepreneurs like Kemp are innovators. They keep the economic engine running by taking great ideas and building businesses around them.

Entrepreneurs spot opportunities for new industry, they create jobs and grow stronger communities. It’s hard work. Success means not only having a great idea, but also having the drive to follow through on that idea, no matter the obstacles.

restricted to for-profit businesses that put their values before their bottom line. No matter the specifics, the premise remains the same—the use of solid business practices to help solve society’s problems.

“Social entrepreneurs are some of the most fascinating people I’ve ever worked with,” says Craig Ryan, director of Corporate Social Responsibility at Business Development Canada (BDC). The mandate of BDC is to enhance the growth of the Canadian economy by offering flexible loans to small and medium businesses. Ryan’s job at BDC is to ensure that the organization considers environmental and social impacts, both in its own operations and when choosing companies to partner with.

Ryan landed in his current position after working in both the private and public sector and believes such diverse experience can be especially beneficial to the entrepreneurs he works with. “Social entrepreneurs are trying to marry civic problems with commercial solutions. They need to know how to move in many different worlds. Cross-pollination between sectors is important.”

The good of social entrepreneurship hasn’t gone unnoticed. Organizations of all sizes have sprung up to support and grow innovative social ventures. At the international level, institutions such as the Ashoka Fellowship

It might be hard to find two experts who agree on the same definition of social entrepreneurship. Depending on who you ask, the definition might include non-profits operating through grants and donations, or it might be restricted to for-profit businesses that put their values before their bottom line.

Why entrepreneurs innovate is as important as what they innovate. It’s easy to be cynical and think that every business grows out of love for the dollar, but that’s often not the case. The truth is that many innovators are driven more by values than by financial security. Values are the backbone of great social entrepreneurship, a force which has been changing the world, both locally and globally, for a long time.

It might be hard to find two experts who agree on the same definition of social entrepreneurship. Depending on who you ask, the definition might include non-profits operating through grants and donations, or it might be 20

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and the Skoll Foundation search for committed people with great ideas and awards them grants and networking opportunities. At a local level, collaborative office spaces such as Impact Hub are bringing entrepreneurs together and allowing them to share ideas.

Social entrepreneurship has also found a home on university campuses.

ENACTUS aims to create student entrepreneurial action through competition. Every year, ENACTUS teams at universities around the world test their innovations in national competitions hoping for a chance to bring their ideas to the ENACTUS world cup.

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Social entrepreneurs are trying to marry civic problems with commercial solutions. They need to know how to move in many different worlds.

Tanveer Mostafa joined ENACTUS during his first year at University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Business. He joined both to build his entrepreneurial experience and to make a positive contribution to society. However, he had to find a problem before he could solve one. This took him out into the community. “People think they can do all their research at their desk,” Mostafa explains, “but to understand the problems facing a community, you have to get out of your comfort zone and engage with that community.”

The problem Mostafa eventually identified was job insecurity in immigrant and homeless communities. Along with his business partner, Wendy Liang, and with the support of the University of Ottawa ENACTUS team, Mostafa founded Ontario Sports Officials, a company that provides free referee training to recent immigrants and connects them to soccer leagues across Ontario in

need of officials. The company has since gone on to expand nationally into Canada Sports Officials—but Mostafa, true to his entrepreneurial spirit, is already looking for a new challenge.

While the idea of corporations making positive changes in their communities isn’t new, entrepreneurs who decide to walk this path have more support than ever before.

It’s easier to grow a socially responsible company from an idea than it is to take an existing company and make it socially responsible. That’s the real value of social entrepreneurs. By founding the industries of the future, today’s innovators can have a say in how those industries are run. By making social and environmental impacts a priority and combining those impacts with sustainable business practices, entrepreneurs can be a powerful force for positive change. It’s an exciting time to get involved. CO

CONOR ROCHON is a freelance writer living in Ottawa, Ontario. Conor is interested in science and technology, can steer a canoe, and occasionally tweets @Roy_Rock_On. He also enjoys long walks on the beach because who doesn’t?

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By Glen Peters

ARE ENTREPRENEURS

BORN or

CREATED? DAD ALWAYS SAID, “Only suckers work for someone else.” A tidy philosophy, but narrow.

The Old Man and I didn’t share a vision—yet here I am, self-employed like him, for fifteen years and counting. Did I inherit some Sinatra-ish gottado-it-my-way gene? No? Well, maybe it was just something in my psyche.

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here are business people, and there are entrepreneurs. Two different species. Nothing new in that observation. People have been trying to figure entrepreneurs out for a long time. And for good reason: They’re responsible for a lot of the wealth and innovation we’ve enjoyed throughout the modern age.

Jibran Malek’s blog, on Masschellange.org, traces the term’s storied past.

Over 250 years, we’ve come to know entrepreneurs as risk-takers, “resource hackers,” even “wild spirits.” From areas of low productivity and yield, they make great things.

They have a way of leaving business as usual behind. That makes them outliers. Most people have an investment, financial and otherwise, in the status quo, and like stability. Given this, there’s strong resistance against

the entrepreneurial impulse—so strong that few can stand up against it. Yet entrepreneurs do. Where do they get their strength?

Professor Saras D. Sarasvathy believes that entrepreneurial thinking differs from conventional business strategy. Normally, we identify our goals and our available means to achieve them. We try to find the fastest, most cost effective approach. We evaluate the results we expect for viability. Business people are, he says, like military generals.

Innovators, on the other hand, are explorers in uncharted waters. They start with what they’ve got and run with it. The goals emerge organically.

They’ll try something, pivot, and pivot again. They’re very action-oriented.

Business as usual simply wouldn’t have tried some of these gambits, the source of some of our most iconic success stories.

According to many, it’s not a talent or a mindset we can learn in school.

It’s simply in the blood.

PEOPLE HAVE BEEN TRYING to figure entrepreneurs out for a long time. And for good reason: They’re responsible for a lot of the wealth and innovation we’ve enjoyed throughout the modern age.

With three colleagues, Scott Shane co-directed a study that found that helpful qualities pass between the generations—in the DNA. In a blog post for the New York Times, he writes that “the tendency to be an entrepreneur and personality traits of extraversion, openness to experience, and sensation-seeking have a common genetic component.” Your blueprint, he says, will make you more or less able to see opportunities, start a business, and make money.

James V. Koch is president emeritus at Old Dominion University. He told Entrepreneur.com that entrepreneurs have to take risks. Tolerance for that sort of life, its ambiguity and uncertainty, are heritable. “The notion that I can add six inches to someone’s height and that will make them an NBA player is bankrupt. So why do we think we can send someone to a business school and change their risk-taking preference?”

According to Forbes.com, fluid intelligence and a balanced personality are key. So are pattern recognition, logic and abstract thinking. Also, a capacity to work well with others, to be friendly but firm—you know, to get things done.

How are your kids shaping up? Is the little guy or girl smart, confident and “in charge”? Is the family educated and stable, but he or she has scant regard for the rules of the house? You could have a mogul in the making.

(I note here with some interest that IQ and conscientiousness are irrelevant. With this in mind, I am tempted to contemplate my career; but I resist the urge.)

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Dr. Koch reminds us that inherited traits are a double-edged sword. Looking at the entrepreneur, he describes an almost artistic temperament—often mercurial, intuitive and over-optimistic.

Their highs are high, their lows are low. “A very large proportion of entrepreneurs fail. They tend not to be as devoted to consensus decision-making. They violate the status quo more often. Many don’t accept defeat or losses gracefully.

They are energetic, and a higher percentage tend to be loners and work long hours.”

Well, if you’ve read Brave New World, I can guess what you’re thinking. Might as well go to the lab, book a session with the analyst, get this settled. I had a dot com idea, but maybe I should just play bass. Wait, there’s more to this.

Julian Lange, senior professor of entrepreneurship at Babson College, rejects any idea of cookie-cutter personalities suited best for business adventure. Natural talents aside, technical and leadership skills must be learned and optimized. The venue itself of school, being around other like minds, contributes to networking and getting vital feedback.

There may be characteristics that correspond to entrepreneurs, but it reminds me of what Thomas Edison said about genius—that it was “one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”

People in sports or music might have great talent or physical strength, but the people who are the most outstanding might not be the people with the most physical strength. Often they are people who work hard, try to overcome deficiencies and put things together in a package that works for them.

As usual, life isn’t easily categorized. Statistics show a weave of factors, including family, society and luck. Most who succeed come from the middle class, and have parents with degrees. (And half of them had someone in the family already self-employed.) They had over a decade’s experience in their field; didn’t like working for others—and, one has to add, often had a hard time finding work.

You could look at my grandfather and his reiterations in my father and me and note that there are hardly three generations less alike. My grandfather came from Europe, with nothing—the kind of nothing that makes you hungry. He built himself into a business owner, a land owner, a crop farmer, an employer. Did my father inherit that, or learn by example? How did I, a student of world religions, wind up starting a web development company?

You might ask me: “Do you think it’s genetic, learned, or signs of the times?” And I’d answer: “Yes”. CO

Learn while you teach! Share your passion for learning and cultural diversity. At the Kativik School Board, you will play a role in the development of our students in one of the 14 Inuit communities located along the coasts of the Hudson Bay and Ungava Bay. Its administrative centre, presently located in Montréal, will ultimately be relocated in Nunavik.

Teaching Opportunities 2016-2017 School Year • Elementary • Secondary You will soon have a teaching diploma or permit from a Canadian province, and are able to teach many subjects at the elementary or secondary level?

We want to hear from you.

We offer many interesting benefits including trips, an isolation premium, subsidized housing and food cargo allowances.

To find out more about teaching opportunities available, come meet with us at one of our Information Sessions or at the on-campus Career Day of your choice. Please bring your resume to the campus Career Day event. Full details are available on our website at www.kativik.qc.ca.

If you cannot attend in person, we encourage you to send your resume, by January 22, 2016, to Nunavik@kativik.qc.ca and indicate the teachables for which you are applying in the subject line of your e-mail.

To avoid duplication, we ask that candidates submit only one resume.

GLEN PETERS, writer and editor, lives in Ottawa. He did business for many years in web development, project management and graphic design. Visit his website at www.glenpeters.press. Connect with him on Twitter @glenHimself_.

We thank all applicants for their interest, but only candidates considered for hiring will be contacted. No phone calls, please.

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FINANCIAL

LITERACY

By Glen Peters

And what professional accounting has to do with it

A

s I write this, the month is November.

It is that time when men grow facial hair for cancer awareness. It’s that quiet lull between Halloween fun and Christmas mania. Also, so well-timed for holiday shopping, it’s Financial Literacy Month! You meant to put it in your calendar. These things happen.

On the outside chance that someone is caught by surprise, we should honour the commemoration. Let’s take the time for a few words about how it came to be, and why it matters to our sound financial health. Our financial doctors, the professional accountants, deserve a mention. They put a lot of work into this.

In the 1990s, the world’s politicians grew to understand how people were making some really terrible decisions with their money. It wasn’t just a question of suffering some personal setbacks with

their standard of living. Rising debt and financial unpreparedness bruised the economy on a global scale. Canada’s own government saw it, and initiated some reviews and public consultations.

In time, the federal government would create the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC). Their job is to oversee the country’s financial services, and protect the public from anything…untoward. They are also in charge of promoting financial literacy, which they describe as “critical to the prosperity and financial wellbeing of Canadians.” In 2012, thanks to the FCAC and the Financial Literacy Action Group, the Parliament of Canada officially recognized November as our Financial Literacy Month.

So. We don’t want to make bad money decisions—but how do we make good decisions?

What do we mean, all in all, by “financial literacy”?

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The Government of Canada’s web page is very informative. (There’s a link further on.) They love their bullet points: Financial literacy is having the knowledge, skills and confidence to make responsible financial decisions.

• Knowledge refers to an understanding of personal and broader financial matters; • Skills refer to the ability to apply that financial knowledge in everyday life; • Confidence means having the self-assurance to make important decisions; and • Responsible financial decisions refers to the ability of individuals to use the knowledge, skills and confidence they have gained to make choices appropriate to their own circumstances.

The site goes on to outline some benefits of the virtues above. Put simply, good and literate citizens

will make better choices when choosing what to buy with their money. They will know more about the banks and government institutions created for our benefit, and how to actually use them beneficially. (Setting up an RRSP or RESP, for example, are good ideas.) Typically, there are things we want in life: a home, maybe and, eventually, a good retirement. It’s just not that easy!

But with a bit of education we can plan for them.

And of course, everyone is an expert. Everyone has advice. With a ground level understanding of the financial landscape, a person can sniff out good advice from the bad.

Speaking of good advice, enter the professional accountant.

While most of us think of them only at tax time, accountants are experts at far more than that. They can advise on how to start up a business and supply long-term planning and projections. If you’re looking to buy or sell a business, they can help with valuation, or the transaction itself. For individuals like you and me—in addition to income tax—they help with financing or audits. If you’re looking at receivership or bankruptcy, they can act as trustee. The web site of Chartered Professional Accountants Canada (CPA Canada) has an exhaustive list of their many services.

CPAs are highly trained and respected professionals with a deep insight into the financial landscape. They adhere to a set of enforced professional standards. Their practices encourage transparency in the marketplace, and accountability. We know all too well how vital those are. On behalf of interested parties, they are the go-between with the federal government, and help policy makers make informed decisions.

Most importantly, CPA Canada is mandated to promote financial literacy.

Their educational program is award winning and they sponsor special events for the cause. They will meet with adults or students, new Canadians, businesses or entrepreneurs. There are, apparently, over 11,000 professional accountants across Canada who are ready to sit down with you and help you engage with your financial environment.

A media release, dated June 9th 2015, tells how Jane Rooney and then federal Minister of State (Finance) Kevin Sorenson unveiled the National Strategy for Financial Literacy—Count Me In, Canada. See it at www.fcac. gc.ca/CountMeInCA. It’s a rich source of information that should interest you, covering everything from personal banking, to paying for school, to home ownership.

It’s always been good sport in popular culture to make light of penny pinching and the starchy, bespectacled profession of accounting. But accountants are more than technicians. They help keep business on the level and they help us thrive to our financial potential. It’s a jungle of paperwork out there. A little financial literacy can make a huge difference to our quality of life, both short term and long into the future. CO

GLEN PETERS, writer and editor, lives in Ottawa. He did business for many years in web development, project management and graphic design. Visit his website at www.glenpeters.press. Connect with him on Twitter @glenHimself_.

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AN EXPERT IN THE FIELD:

SPECIALIZATIONS IN

ACCOUNTING

By Eleanor Fogolin

I

f you are considering a career in accounting, you may find that your professors or career counselors urge you to become certified in a special branch in the field. Economic and technological developments in accounting have caused many smaller specializations to emerge— giving, you might say, multiple lenses through which to view financial information. But what are those specializations? Here’s a quick breakdown: Financial Accounting deals with business transactions and financial statements to be used by internal and external users. This is not to be confused with Fiduciary Accounting, which handles trust and/or estate accounting and receivership.

Management Accounting deals with information related to the specific needs of a corporation, as well as budgeting, performance evaluation, and asset management. Cost Accounting is a subset of management accounting, focused on the analysis of manufacturing costs to help managers project company operations.

Public Sector Accounting covers the government accountants and auditors who deal with the financial information of government agencies, private organizations, and individuals whose businesses fall under government regulations and taxation.

External Auditing is the examination of financial information by an independent party to determine compliance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

Systems Accounting involves the development, installation, and monitoring of procedures and systems in the accounting process, including business forms, personnel direction, and software management.

Tax Accounting helps clients to plan and prepare tax returns, and mainly advises clients on tax issues according to the relevant authorities.

Forensic Accounting is one of the most popular trends in accounting today, for the simple reason that it involves the exciting world of court and litigation cases. Fraud investigation, bankruptcies, and any other areas that involve legal matters all fall under forensic accounting.

That’s a lot to take in. But why does this matter to you? What are the advantages to specializing?

The first is obviously a competitive advantage in the job race. Your specific skill set will give you an additional edge over graduates who lack that certification. In a

Searching for a Career?

Choose Payroll A career in payroll can be very rewarding and becoming a Payroll Compliance Practitioner (PCP) will ensure you have the compliance knowledge and payroll skills needed for success.

• Employers look for this certification when hiring and consistently pay a higher salary to those who have achieved it (Hays Canada Payroll Salary Guide).

• PCP Certification requires taking four key courses and one year of payroll-related work experience.

• Courses are available online and at universities and colleges across Canada.

Certification is the smart choice to elevate your payroll career. The Canadian Payroll Association can guide you on your path.

“Having my PCP certification has given me greater confidence in my job. With the wealth of knowledge I obtained through the PCP program, I can answer questions quickly and accurately.”

Nadine Harrison, PCP Payroll Administrator

For more information visit payroll.ca

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field full of bright graduates, specialization can help you get recognized by employers. Studies show that specialization increases productivity, reduces the need for continued training, and fosters independence in employees. For several decades there has been a trend in corporations towards seeking employees with expertise in a particular branch of their field over those with general knowledge.

Then again, specialization can just as easily put your job in danger. Professionals who have a concentrated perspective on their discipline may not be as quick to identify patterns in the field as a whole—and may be less likely to adapt to uncertainty.

Navigating uncertainty can be a huge part of financial accounting, especially when handling the finances of a large corporation. A study performed by Professor Philip Tetlock found that in a survey of 284 professional political forecasters, experts in their field were less accurate predictors than non-experts in the same field. As Forbes writer Meghan Casserly says, “specialists … serve a very specific purpose within their particular ecosystem and are extremely adept at navigating

it. However, should those conditions change—as a result of nature or, more commonly, an outside force—specialists often become extinct.”

Ultimately, if you want to specialize in accounting it’s best to also maintain a broad knowledge base and a wide set of skills. Some questions can only be answered by specialists, while other answers require the general abilities of someone who can look at the big picture. CO

ELEANOR FOGOLIN has a Master’s degree in English Literature. She has written for the education market, digital start-ups, and notfor-profit organizations. Her work has been featured in The New Quarterly, Cactus Heart Press, and Steel Chisel.

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