A Funny Accountant - Is that possible?

I had the opportunity to hear career advice from Karen Maidment, the CFO of Bank of Montreal today. She is very different from what I imagined her to be. I know all executives want to be liked, but I found her to be genuine and frank. She was really funny (strange for a CFO and an accountant!) and very down to earth.

She started out wanting to be an urban planner, but ended up getting her Commerce degree at Mcmaster University majoring in accounting. She was an auditor at Clarkson Gordon, and then went on to become CFO of Clarica Life Insurance, before arriving to take on the CFO job at BMO. In 2006, she received the CFO of the Year award. Her personal life – She’s married, has two kids, and lives in Cambridge, Ontario.

Some advice she passed along:
• Don’t focus on balancing a day, just life in total - So, some days you are going to work twice as hard, and some days you will slack off.
• Don’t take yourself too seriously - Obviously you have to take your job seriously, but don’t take yourself seriously. Don’t beat yourself up for the mistakes you have made.
• Live within your means, even in the good times. (This is basic accountant dogma)
• Don’t be afraid to take risks – This was in answer to somebody saying that she has led a charmed life.
• Always be your self - She never thought she would fit into the banker’s mould.

She also said the three things to seek out in a job are: learning, contributing and having fun. Oh and she also talked about the whole "it’s about the journey not the destination”. She said ‘journey’ people are much happier in life. Focus on the journey, and think about the three things: Am I learning, contributing and having fun?

On the recent BMO problems: She said that her little 12 year old boy said to her "I hear there are problems at the bank”. She replied “yes”. Then her son went on to say “Well I heard that the tile fell off the building, the screws fell off the field, and it costs $680 million to fix it”! Priceless!

She also said that her kids don’t know what a real homemade cookie is. They think you take the dough out of the freezer, unwrap it, slice it and bake it. And she’s okay with that. :)

Study proves what we knew all along

Finally! The myth disproved. ;)

Money can buy Happiness

What do I want to be when I grow up?

I had a meeting with the Rotman career counsellor today, and I realized that I have a lot of soul searching to do. She asked me what I thought an ideal job would be, and I could only come up with 3 things. The saddest part was I had to really struggle to come up with those 3 things. One of the questions she asked me was “What I considered fun, and what I enjoyed at work?” Frig! My mind went blank. Work - Fun? You got to be kidding me. It got even worse when she asked me what I wanted to do. I listed five completely different things. She was very nice about it, and said a lot of people are like me. I think she was just trying to make me feel better. I felt like telling her that my ideal job would be to start my own film company and make some indie films. On days like this I really feel like ‘Bridget’.

I ended up walking home after as I needed to think. I realized I have been entrenched in the corporate world for so long; fun isn’t even part of the equation. I remember when I first graduated I was so excited to have a job in banking. I remember when I got my first job downtown, and I felt all grown up. The newness of everything; the excitement. I want that back. As some of you know I had wanted to go to school full time. I needed to just be. I feel I have just been running on the corporate treadmill for so long that I don’t even know what I want anymore. Funnily enough, on my way home I walked down Yonge Street. A section of Yonge Street was closed off for a 5K race. The race was the ‘Bay Street Rat Race’. For those who don’t know, Bay Street is Toronto’s financial street. I think it was a sign. I just wish I knew what it was trying to tell me.

Champagne and Cake for Everyone!

I’d be celebrating too if I received $60 million. Yesterday Rotman invited the ‘3 year’ MBA students to celebrate Rotman’s $60 million funding from the Ontario government. They still need to raise another $60 million to fund the school’s expansion. The building will be finished in 2010, which is when I am supposed to graduate, so I will not see any benefit from this $120 million effort. The money will be used to construct an additional building, and to hire more faculty to teach all the extra students they plan on getting. They intend to double the size of the students (and faculty), which means they will be churning out 600 MBA students a year (they currently graduate 350 or so). I guess they must think that the MBA designation is sustainable.

Anyway, this $60 million is quite the feat for Rotman, given government cutbacks in education (I am hoping the tuition rioters don’t get wind of this). Rotman has managed to secure a never before funded amount, and they made it a point to divulge that the funds came directly to Rotman, and not through U of T. Of course, the man responsible for this is Roger Martin. “All hail Roger”. Hey, that could be another slogan on a t-shirt. I know, I know the ‘t-shirt saying’ trend has passed. You can’t blame me for trying. I am in b school. It’s bringing out the capitalist in me.

2 courses down, so many more to go....

Just had the Managing People exam on Thursday. It was open book which was nice, however that made it hard to study for. We have now moved onto Micro Economics and Accounting. Having a degree in Economics, I find the Economics in b school more practical, than the abstract method in my undergrad. I think Rotman does it in this way, as there isn’t too much time to teach us a full course in Economics. We finish studying Micro Economics in 6 weeks!

There isn’t much to write as its summer and there isn’t all that much going on in the school except for classes and a few speaker events(which I haven’t attended). So, it’s time for some random blogging:

Everyone at Rotman is in love with the dean, Roger Martin. He has superstar status, and there’s good reason for the adulation. In his reign, he has managed to get Rotman from 72nd to 27th in the FT ranking. He was able to do this partly as his appointment to dean followed the generous $15 million donation from Mr. Joseph Rotman. This donation enabled him to hire and pay better professors. That might be true, however I think Roger Martin brought something more to the table. He was able to take a business school and define it in his thinking, namely the ‘Integrative Thinking’ philosophy behind Rotman’s curriculum. He is PR savvy, and he has managed to promote the Rotman brand around the world. He also seems genuinely nice, and is approachable, and not highfalutin or self-aggrandizing at all. So, on that note, let’s print ‘I love Roger’ t-shirts – maybe we will make a killing out of it.