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Teruel Carrasco. Graduated from the University of Alberta with a bachelor
of arts in political science and a minor in economics
My current position is manager software
licensing solutions
for Acrodex. I'm in charge of
the western Canadian operations.
In my current position, I run essentially a $50-million business.
I'm in charge of the profit and loss of all of our software solutions and sales.
So that encompasses consulting, and of course, selling our solutions to
our customers and new customers.
Day to day
it involves a lot of planning,
problem-solving, communication, speaking with our customers
with our vendor partners
and speaking internally with many branch offices in
Calgary and Vancouver
and here in Edmonton.
As well as communicating with our offices in Toronto.
The road to this position started off by, upon graduation,
I got my first
corporate job at General Electric
and one of the
interviewers said: "you know, you're the only applicant
that does not have a bachelor of commerce degree"
and "what makes
you think that you can be successful in this position?"
I said: "I think it's
my ability to think strategically,
to analyze multiple different facts,
to write, to communicate.
I think that I'll be a quick learner."
and that person agreed
and gave me my first opportunity.
so I really entered into the corporate world several years ago
through that.
And each
position I've held ever since then
I've grown and learned new skills and
acquired much experience but it's really what they're looking for I guess
at the beginning and anything that has allowed me to be successful is
really your ability to think, and articulate, and communicate, and write
and problem-solve. And in the
business world, that's
a key
trait for success.
When I started my degree, I did not
think that it would...
I was more interested in academic career at the beginning
and thought that a bachelor of arts in political science would be a good way
to start.
I realized
through my learnings
that the courses that I was taking,
things that I was learning
how to
bring in a lot of different information and be able to summarize it
really was preparing me for the corporate world
And I wanted to pursue that. And my intention actually was
to go work
pay down some student loans, and then maybe go a graduate degree or go to law
school but I really
enjoy what I'm doing and intend to stay. Maybe I'd still go back one day.
Not to be discouraged; thinking that because they have a BA,
they're not employable.
To really think about
even in technology and social media
and even working in web 2.0, working in that industry,
they require people that can communicate, write very well
it is
you are very employable
look at
courses that
build your ability to write and to analyze information and
those will help you a lot.
The best career advice that I've received is
don't only prepare yourself academically
taking the right courses, but prepare your personal brand. Get a lot of
experiences in college or university
Volunteer extensively. Build a repertoire of skills over and above what
you've taken in terms of coursework
and put together a portfolio of your strengths
so that when you go to your employer and they look at you and say, "well, maybe
he's not, he or she, is not competitive from
an undergraduate degree perspective, if you're compared to, say a business
degree,"
you'll be ready and you'll have a tool set of answers
to say "yes, I can do a lot of
of what is expected of a commerce student."