BC Returns the Co-op Favour to Lucky CGA Caribbean Student

Just over a year ago we wrote a post about a student who had the opportunity to travel to the sunny islands of Barbados to work and study—and play. Now BC is returning the favour to one Barbadian CGA student. Through the CGA Co-op Global Careers Program launched nearly two years ago, the Association welcomed our very first student from the Caribbean to BC last Thursday. Welcome to Vancouver, Kevin Stuart.

Kevin Stuart, CGA-Barbados Student

The CGA designation is recognized and valued by employers around the world. To showcase the global mobility of the CGA designation, the SFU Beedie School of Business, CGA-BC and CGA Caribbean formed a partnership in 2011 to create the CGA Co-op Global Careers Program, which sees one SFU CGA co-op student complete a work term with a CGA employer in the Caribbean and, in return, one CGA Caribbean student experiences a work term here in BC.

I want to personally thank Reid Hurst Nagy Inc. (RHN), one of BC’s largest CGA public practice accounting firms, for supporting this initiative and being the first employer to give a Caribbean CGA student the opportunity to gain work experience here in BC under the CGA Co-op Global Careers Program.

I don’t think we could have picked a better place for Kevin to work. RHN takes pride in working hard and having some fun as well. The firm offers an on-site fitness centre to support good health and allows flexible work schedules as well. They are always looking at ways to better serve their clients and support staff. Kevin should be in for a pretty amazing experience.

Kevin is a CGA student with nearly three years of accounting experience in auditing in his native Barbados. He is looking forward to applying this experience to his new role at Reid Hurst Nagy Inc., the Richmond-based CGA firm. Kevin believes strongly in leadership and community involvement; he recently travelled to New York City to represent Barbados as the National Youth Ambassador for a high-profile initiative hosted by the consulate. The motto of Barbados is “Pride and Industry,” an outlook that should serve Kevin well. When he isn’t being industrious, you can catch Kevin playing soccer or volleyball.

It’s a great time of the year to visit Vancouver, so I don’t think he will be missing home too much. We wish him all the best on his visit.  I’ve already asked him to tell us more about his stay here in a future post, so stay tuned.

@JasTheCGA

Three Accounting Bodies in B.C. Agree to Merge

As post secondary business students you are no doubt aware of the merger talks that have been taking place here in B.C. You may also have already heard yesterday’s big news:  the CGAs, CMAs and CAs have signed an agreement to pursue a merger under the Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) designation.

The leadership team of CMA BC, ICABC and CGA-BC signed the merger proposal on May 8, 2013.

Needless to say we are excited at the thought of bringing together the best features, members and students from all three designations into one accounting powerhouse. We also recognize that it raises some questions for prospective students currently in the process of finishing their post-secondary studies. I know many of you have been taking courses and planning to pursue the CGA designation, and may now have some questions given today’s news.

The new CPA program has already begun accepting students. However, in fairness to those of you who were selecting courses and on track for pursuing a CGA designation, CGA will offer two more application periods allowing you the opportunity to complete the CGA program. Under this transition arrangement students will be able to complete the CGA designation and subsequently also receive the CPA designation. This transition has very specific timelines —- CGA students must complete all academic course requirements of the existing CGA program by the summer exam session of 2015 (September 2015). If needed, these students would be given a subsequent two years to complete the work experience and/or degree requirements. Any student not able to meet these deadlines will have to bridge over to the requirements of the CPA designation. For these bridging students consideration will be given to courses and experience completed as they transfer over to the CPA requirements.

I am embedding a link to a communication that CGA has sent out to all post-secondaries with more detail on the above.  And, as always, Jas and I are available to speak to you in person should you wish to discuss.

@DanTheCGA

The Other Side of LinkedIn

I get to meet and speak with countless students and groups of students who are about to commence their career searches. One question I always ask is, “Are you on LinkedIn?”

I’m pleased to report that the majority of graduating students have at least started to build their LinkedIn profile. However, I still find that many students are only aware of one side of LinkedIn – the side most like a job board, a place where you create a profile or post a resumé and hope for employers to connect with you. Yes, this aspect is powerful and has revolutionized the world of online job boards. But there is another side to LinkedIn that job seekers should be aware of.

It’s the side where we can build an incredibly effective network; the side where we can tap into a rich resource  of career information and connections to facilitate career development. If we take a bit of time to understand this other side of LinkedIn we ’we’ll discover an incredible tool to inform and advance our careers at any level, from campus grads all the way to C-suite.

I don’t intend to write a how-to post about LinkedIn. There’s already plenty of resources on the internet for that. Instead, over a series of posts, I want  to highlight a few of the features and tips from this “other side” of LinkedIn I feel students will find most useful. So please check in with us over the next few weeks. And by all means, if you have any tips or feedback you would like to share, please do so. We’ll post them here as well, or perhaps invite you to contribute as a guest blogger.

For now, if you don’t have a LinkedIn profile or don’t even know what LinkedIn is, get one started and build it over the next few weeks. LinkedIn does a really good job of guiding you through building a complete LinkedIn profile and I would recommend you do this before you start adding connections.

You can also check out the free LinkedIn 101: The Basics of LinkedIn webinar that LinkedIn puts on every Wednesday at 1:00pm (CST).

I expect that at least one of the tips we post over the next few weeks will help you tap into a vast mine of career development gold.

 @DanTheCGA

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