When I first entered AFM, I really had no idea what I wanted to get out of it. I’ve always been a poor long-term planner, so for first year, my goals were – find a job, do well in courses, and have a good time.
Luckily for me, opportunities were abundant. There were club crawls, info sessions, peer mentors, and enough info emails to overload any inbox. In my first year, I joined ACE Consulting Group, an organization that’s shaped both my career and my personal interests. With the help of my upper year peers on ACE, I was able to get a first job that helped steer me into my next few co-ops. Along the way, I joined the Student Venture Fund, worked at a venture capital firm, consulted for both startups and big corporations, and eventually ended up in my 4B term, successfully taking home a Concept $5K prize.
Upon reflection, I realized how unexpectedly critical that journey has been in making the Concept $5K a reality. The courses and clubs helped me get the consulting experience that led me to identifying a problem I believed in. The Student Venture Fund provided me the venture experience that helped me figure out how to stress test my idea and sell to potential clients / judges / investors.
As much as the Concept $5K was a great achievement for me and Neil, it was also a testament to the wealth of opportunities and resources available in our school. SAF is no longer just the place you go to if you want to become an accountant. It’s no longer just for traditional finance roles like banking or trading. SAF has helped me achieve success in consulting, venture capital, and entrepreneurship. AFM is still a stellar program for accounting and financial management, but that’s not all it is anymore.