“I fit the profile,” she says. “I’m a newcomer to the country and don’t know many people. I’m ‘book smart,’ but have no contacts. Plus, I wanted another way to connect to the city.” Wang spent her first work term at a wholesaler and her second placement at an international corporation. Her third placement was at the accounting firm Roll Harris and Associates Inc. in Montreal.
“I was hired in January for tax season and that placement confirmed that I really like tax!” recalls Wang. “It wasn’t a huge shock, because I enjoyed tax in school, but I particularly liked it in a small-sized company, where everyone’s encouraged to have an entrepreneurial mind and think as if the company is their own.”
While getting hands-on experience doing client taxes, audits, year-end statements, T1 and T4 preparation, Wang also became familiar with the office software, including CaseWare and Taxprep.
“It’s important to be a self-starter in a small company,” says Wang, who didn’t find it difficult to adapt to the professional workforce because her student jobs were quite serious, involving confidential information about students. “My skills were transferable that way, since accounting involves clients’ confidential information.”
Wang has chosen to take one academic course during each work term. “I like to know what’s happening on campus,” she explains, cheerily. “You can’t forget about your student network either.”
Amanda Curren, BComm (acct.) 11, intermediate auditor at Roll Harris and Associates, reviewed 20 applicants before selecting Wang for the Co-op placement. As a Co-op alumna herself, Curren is supportive of the initiative and sees the mutually beneficial value of the program. “Employers get a fresh perspective when students come through the door,” says Curren, who was offered a full-time position at Roll Harris when she graduated. “Students ask questions that force you to act in a different way or think about things from a different perspective.”
From her own Co-op experience, Curren remembers that a common challenge is adapting lessons from the classroom into real-life scenarios. “There’s a disparity there,” she points out. “But Winnie wasn’t in that boat. She’s a quick learner with a great attitude. She took initiative, too, and fit in well with our learning-on-the-job style of training,” Curren says.
Now that Curren is an employer, she is seeing another value. “It takes time and money to train new hires, so a Co-op situation is a great way to get started with someone,” she says. “If it isn’t a good fit, you aren’t married to each other.”
