ladies and gentelemen,
i've been recommended for graduation with honours distinction in green business management!
what a good way to end off my "last" year of school. i say last because, well, someday, i'm going to do a masters. i just have no idea when. or in what. sustainable leadership at guelph comes to mind. but.. that's far in the distance.
now onto things that matter: the job hunt.
i had a few interviews before i left for vegas oh right, i went to vegas. i'll talk about that in a bit.
1) an in-person interview with a publishing company for an administrative internship for 2 months, full time. it paid. not much, but it was money. i didn't get it.
2) a phone interview for a data analyst position at a research firm. full time. it paid. not an internship. this was a real job. i blew the phone interview, like, hard. and they still wanted to meet me (score!) so yeah, that happened.
3) another phone interview for a hotel for something i'm not even sure what it was but they called it an internship. this fell through immediately since they were looking for someone that needed a co-op. well, fuck. list that in your job posting! ass.
4) lastly, was a phone interview for summer receptionist place at a specialist organization. it was your standard, full time, summer, minimum wage crap. whatever. i didn't get it.
i had the in-person interview for the data analyst position today and things were going ridiculously well until they told me that they weren't hiring right away and probably wouldn't hire someone new until the fall. well, fuck. why even bother putting up a job posting and pressing for interviews if you're not gonna hire until 4 months from now? god damn. i don't get it. maybe that's just their way of politely telling me to fuck off. it seemed like something i'd be pretty rad at, too. ugh.
did i mention before that i had an interview with a tour guiding place? yeah, that was a weird one. they only paid minimum wage. i never heard from them but it's my own fault for not following up. i honestly just didn't give a fuck. i'm worth more than minimum wage. and even though i highly enjoy tour guiding/customer service crap, i wasn't good enough. hey yeah, fuck you too.
this wasn't meant to sound as negative as it does. but this is my life for the next well.. forever. until i get a job. there's a shred of optimism left. i'll make it through.
i applied to ten other jobs today. i start training for the temporary conference job tomorrow and have 18 hours of work over 2 days. so, i make some money. plus getting paid for 5 hours of training. it's all minimum wage, but i don't care. it's easy and it's fun. i'm happy they hired me on. 7:30am start time sorta sucks though.
oh right, vegas!
maybe i mentioned this before. maybe i didn't. my family booked tickets back in january for 5 days in vegas. it was pretty cool. highlights include seeing lots of stuff, doing lots of stuff, and eating lots of stuff.
monday: got to the airport at like 6:30am for an 8am flight (ughsdklhskjlgasd) and flew to vegas. checked in at the hotel vdara and went somewhere on the strip for lunch. walked around for awhile trying to figure stuff out. maybe went to the pool? i don't know. we passed out early. saw the fountains at the bellagio.
tuesday: walked up and down the strip looking at various casinos, hotels, and things. gambled on the blue jays losing against the orioles and won a shit ton of money. thank you, jays, for losing. had afternoon beers with my brother at a sports bar and watched the game. went to a world famous expensive sushi restaurant for dinner (nobu) but felt like absolute crap. ate anyway but couldn't enjoy it until nearing the end. would go again but it's fucking expensive. amazing sushi though. had an early night after 'cause i still felt like crap.
wednesday: left the strip and went to red rock canyon. did the tour. went to the red rock canyon indoor climbing gym and spent the afternoon there. i didn't want to leave. it was just amazing rock climbing and gorgeous tattooed dudes with muscles and beards everywhere. heaven. went to the stratosphere and walked around there a bit. was going to have dinner in the revolving restaurant but didn't; too expensive. had happy hour in the lounge instead. walked down that end of the strip a bit and went to circus circus amongst other places. then headed back to vdara and an amazing takeout manadarin chicken salad. passed out shortly after.
thursday: went to check out fremont street. walked around there. tried to go to insert coins but it was closed. had lunch at the patio place next to it. came back to the hotel for a nap and a change. headed out for an early dinner and then saw cirque du soleil's love. great show. went to a pizza place in the casino after. stayed out a bit and saw the strip at night and a couple of the hourly shows on the strip. then back to the hotel.
friday: slept in, packed up all our shit, and checked out of the hotel. gambled away the last of my money before heading to the airport and flying back to buffalo and hanging out in niagara for 2 days. got back to toronto monday morning.
didn't get to experience a whole lot of nightlife, but still a neat place. got a lot of weird stories to tell friends about the trip that maybe aren't exactly meant for a blog post.
las vegas: complete
even though you think you're kind and good at heart, you're just the sum total of a bunch of bad decisions and stupid behaviour.
Apr 30, 2013
Apr 4, 2013
feedback
as a culminating paper for a class this semester, i had to write as many words as i wanted on the program, courses, and internship component.
and now, for your reading pleasure, i present to you:
a review of the last 8 months of my life just shy of 4,000 words.
note: names have been changed.
Conclusion of Semester One
Internship Placement
and now, for your reading pleasure, i present to you:
a review of the last 8 months of my life just shy of 4,000 words.
note: names have been changed.
This feedback
paper reviews each semester followed by comments on how the semester should
have been structured from my perspective and where the program needs to improve.
The internship placement is reviewed and how the course material can be applied
to the internship and future endeavours in the sustainability industry. The
paper concludes how the internship placement should be carried out next year to
set the Green Business Management program apart from other environmental and
sustainability post-graduate programs.
Semester One
In the first
semester, the program requires students to take five courses: an introduction
to sustainability, development theory, eco-productivity, corporate social
responsibility, and green marketing. I began the program with optimism for
interesting course material, great teaching styles, and a working internship
placement.
GBM702: Sustainable Development: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Dr. Naveed
taught this course. The format of the course was no different than any other;
two “debates”, a midterm, and a case study presentation. We had readings most
weeks that rarely anyone completed – and we were honest about not reading them.
I graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Tourism and Environment
which focused on sustainability for four years and also graduated from a Graduate
Certificate in Project Management – Environmental. I was well immersed in the
sustainability concept but was still required to take the course.
I expected that
admissions would accurately judge the backgrounds of the students entering into
the program and place them into the courses which made sense, rather than
placing those with an environmental education into an introductory course. I
couldn’t understand the logic behind this, especially when the professor
teaching openly admitted to not having much of a background in sustainability.
However, it was too late into the semester when I was told that I likely could
have been exempt from the course for “advanced standing.”
Many of us
purchased two expensive textbooks for the course. One textbook was used for the
assignments and the other textbook was used one time for a reading then tossed
aside. Dr. Naveed was adamant that we would use the textbook again, but we
never did. A positive to the course was a guest speaker from the Marketing
department at Steam Whistle Brewing who explained the organization’s
sustainability initiatives that help to reduce costs and waste. A skill I can
take away from this course and apply to the internship at The Globe and Mail is
public speaking through the debates and case study presentations.
GBM701: Development Theory and Sustainability Models
Jim ran
this course exceptionally well. Although there was very little “teaching”
involved, Jim offered a format for the course and feedback when needed. We had
summaries of learning material due every week that allowed for reflection on a
different level, from both what Jim had taught or through the guest speaker’s
material. The majority of the course was structured through self-learning around
broad topics that let the students decide the direction of the topic, whether
in teams or individually. The course was
split into two sections – a group paper and presentation and an individual
paper and presentation.
Jim’s vast
network of industry leaders was helpful in the learning process and in the
internship search for a few of us who were in need of a placement. We were able
to see real people in the sustainability industry making change happen, as well
as job positions and openings in these organizations. Although I am unsure if
Jim taught other post-graduate classes previously, his initial 8,000 word
individual paper as a final project for the course during exam week was not the
best idea. Many of us struggled with the grading of the course, even when the
paper was reduced to 5,000 words. Several classmates expressed that they had
never written a paper of that length and with the amount of workload from the
remaining courses during that time period, 5,000 words was a definite setback.
The addition of
Bob Willard to guest lecture an entire class was a nice treat and I have been
using his theories as the basis for many of my projects throughout the year,
both in The New Sustainability Advantage
and The Sustainability Champion’s
Guidebook. Again, despite Jim’s best efforts, the take away from this
course relevant to The Globe and Mail is enhancing public speaking skills and
the ability to network with industry professionals. The research involved with
the two papers is indirectly applicable to The Globe and Mail but could be
utilized on the Green Team for research on waste and recycling initiatives. “Development
Theories & Sustainability Models” is a course name that needs to be
modified. Since the course was self-directed, Jim taught a very limited amount
of theories and models – such as systems and structures governing – but made
attempts to reiterate these concepts at every chance.
GBM701 Eco-productivity in the Workplace I
This was the
pre-requisite of two courses taught by Brett, one in the first semester
and one in the second semester. Brett discussed the concepts of the 7 green
wastes and demonstrated how to give sustainability a monetary value in order to
receive attention from organizations and CEOs. I found this course to be the
most valuable to me, as previously I had never viewed sustainability theory in
a business sense for reducing costs and maximizing profits. This course would
have been more valuable if my internship components didn’t fall through and I
was able to use information from the organizations for the assignments, rather
than Brett’s assigned case studies.
Brett’s classes
were an open dialogue of ideas and discussion. His assignments placed value on
effectiveness in time management, reporting, researching, presentation skills, and
PowerPoint presentations. The midterm and final assignments in the course could
be directly applied to The Globe and Mail’s operations in their current state
of green waste and the future state to demonstrate solutions of where the
organization could reduce costs to increase profit using sustainability
initiatives.
GBM704: Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Ethics
Bob's
course on Corporate Social Responsibility was an interesting concept with the
end goal of the course to complete a CSR report for your partner company. This
would have been a great opportunity and project to undertake if each student in
the program had a working internship by the time the final project was
completed. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen and several students, including
myself, were forced to complete a case study CSR report or team up with other
students with their partner company. This course would have been more effective
if there were deadlines for each section of the CSR report, rather than the
finished report amounting to 80% of the final grade in the course.
Bob stated that
there isn’t one company in the world that is ISO26000 compliant and that made
me wonder why the course is being offered in the Green Business Management
program if no organization is interested in using ISO26000 certified CSR
reports. I’m sure that this course will be an addition to my resume – to say
that I can complete an ISO26000 certified CSR report, if necessary. However,
since I did not have my internship set up by the end of the course, I was
unable to use data related to The Globe and Mail. The information in the CSR
report is something The Globe and Mail could have used for their organization’s
current state. We are also still waiting on the grades from this course to
ensure we can graduate from the program. Spending an entire semester on a
course where the final project is worth 80% of the grade and not knowing
whether you have passed the course can lead to a few anxious students hoping to
graduate in April 2013.
GBM802: Green Marketing and Consumerism
Margaret
was the professor of this course. GBM802 had a good concept and a solid
textbook which made up for lectures that were a bit vague at times. The course
was to use internships to overlap projects and assignments, making an attempt
to gain more experience and real-world application with the courses and
internship placements. The first paper was based entirely on the internship
company for the year. The remaining assignments were meant to do the same,
except when internships fell through and I, once again, was required to partner
up with a colleague to complete the projects.
This course
covered a variety of topics in marketing and business that could be useful for
The Globe and Mail or other organizations who desire a sustainable marketing
plan – which I can now complete for them. I found the course to be interesting
but when classes are back to back in a two and a half to three hour span
(nearly totalling six hours of straight class), minds tend to wander and the
focus is no longer present. This course will be a stepping stone to help me
begin an entry-level career in sustainable marketing activities if I’d like to
go into that job direction.
Conclusion of Semester One
The underlying
notion of the Green Business Management program emphasized a working internship
where students could gain real world experience in the sustainability industry
at various partner companies. When internships fail due to administrative
errors or communication breakdowns, students are at a loss at what to do and
continue the program missing out on opportunities in applying internship data
to projects and assignments.
If the program
coordinator is to place students at companies accordingly, the program
coordinator should ensure that those company supervisors are aware of every
detail of the internship, including the schedule (one day a week), the
student’s workload in other courses, the student’s knowledge of sustainability,
the student’s prior work and education experience, and what the student is to
gain from interning at the company. The internship company should also let the
program coordinator and student know exactly what the projects will be to
complete, specific timeframes for completion of projects, and demonstrate
flexibility and empathy with the student, as the internship is a learning
opportunity.
Each professor
in the first semester had a different way of teaching; some taught from
textbooks, some taught very little, some had specific formats and page lengths
for assignments, and some had minimal project specifics. Each professor also
had a different policy for submitting assignments in hard-copy or soft-copy
format. In a sustainability program, one would assume that nearly every
assignment submission would be via email or Blackboard. Unfortunately, this did
not happen as much as I would have liked.
What each of the
professors had in common was the end of semester workload, which sent most
students into a sleep deprived state for about two weeks. Seeing as how Green
Business Management is a part of the Faculty of Business at Seneca College,
one would assume that professors have a better understanding of time
management. This would not the case. A balanced workload throughout the
semester for each course would have been extremely beneficial for both students
and professors.
Relating to time
management is the horrible scheduling of first semester. Seneca College
is a commuter school and students in the program commute many hours in order to
get to class. This was extremely tough at times for those who lived far away
from campus and had to deal with traffic and bad weather to arrive on time for
an 8am class, and only one class for that day. I would have preferred a
schedule with several classes in a day (just not back-to-back scheduling) to
maximize the time at which I am commuting and on campus. Several classes in a
day forces students to get to know each other outside of a classroom setting
which allows the program to bond, growing as a group together. I felt GBM did
not develop to its full potential until late in the semester due to these
scheduling conflicts.
The program
should have scheduled a feedback focus group in the first semester. This way,
key professors and colleagues would be aware of the program’s faults and where
they cold improve for the second semester. This would also give students a
chance to speak their minds critically about the program as a whole and offer
solutions to challenges faced throughout the first semester.
Semester Two
In the second semester, I was
enrolled in the second eco-productivity course, sustainable leadership,
ecopreneurship, and sustainable business plan. I was exempt for “advanced
standing” in Margaret’s second course, GBM703: Sustainable Management.
GBM800: Eco-productivity in the Workplace II
Brett’s second
course has been, so far, structured about the same as his first course. It
continues to place monetary value on sustainability and includes more
calculations for a carbon footprint, part of one of the projects I’m working on
at The Globe and Mail. Finally, I’m able to use information from my partner
company in the assignments for the second semester, upon starting at The Globe
and Mail in January 2013. The Globe and Mail can benefit from these projects to
reduce waste and improve profits.
Brett
incorporated a few guest speakers this semester, including Bob Willard and
employees from the Ministry of Environment. Originally, there was a discussion
earlier on in the semester about a “field trip” to Evergreen Brickworks.
However, I think due to inclement weather, holidays, course material, and
scheduling conflicts, the field trip is not happening. This is unfortunate as I
think hands-on learning and out-of-the-classroom learning is a great way to
gain experience in the sustainability industry. Brett also talked about writing
the GHG emissions exam to become GHG certified – something that would set the
program apart from other environmental and sustainability post-graduate
programs. I don’t think that went ahead either. I think the certification is a
great idea and hope that it can be part of the curriculum for next year’s
students.
GBM801: Sustainable Leadership
This course was
the best course of the entire program, taught by Michael. The open
dialogue and discussion format of the course worked so well. The readings every
week were interesting and relevant to the course material. I believe that
self-awareness is critical to success and that Michael demonstrated this
through his lectures and assignments.
The course gave
the opportunity to connect our placement companies through every reading,
assignment, and discussion – and by the second semester, each student had a
working placement until April. Reflecting each week on my internship placement
organization kept me grounded in the projects I’m working on at The Globe and
Mail. Reviewing the employees and culture at The Globe and Mail and my
experiences as an intern to the readings in the course was an excellent way to
learn about leadership styles.
GBM803: Ecopreneurship
Peter
openly announced to the program that he has very little background in
sustainability, yet is teaching an entrepreneurship course that focuses on
sustainability. The main project is a semester-long fake sustainable business
from inception to implementation to pitch and beyond. I imagine this would be a
better course suited to actual business or entrepreneurial students rather than
Green Business Management. It is not in my plan to begin my own business even
though the group project has both negative and positive aspects to it.
Submitting a
business plan on the fake business meant that two business plans were to be
submitted for two different courses with two different professors and each
professor not wanting the same format or layout. The business plans were also
submitted following each other in two weeks. This made it difficult to
understand what parts were actually required in writing a business plan.
Following the
40+ page hard copy business plan was the implementation plan: a 100+ page hard
copy document of every government, bank, and marketing form a business needs to
start. This did not go over well with Green Business Management students. The
final project is a marketing blog, virtual trade show, and “Dragon’s Den” type
pitch to “investors.” I’m looking forward to the pitch as what I’ve learned
from the entire program so far is that sustainability is all about selling yourself
and what you plan to do for the organization so that they buy-in. I enjoy my
fake business idea and hope that one of the investors will buy into it as much
as I have throughout the semester. However, the only take away from this course
is the pitch – since pitching ideas and proposals to The Globe and Mail is
important for success and employee buy-in.
The name of the
course “Ecopreneurship” needs to change. Whoever designed the courses and
course names needs to understand that putting “eco,” “green,” or “sustainable”
in front of a course name doesn’t make it a “sustainable” course. Call it what
it is – entrepreneurship. Not every course name needs to reiterate
sustainability if the program and underlying concepts of each of the courses
are actually about sustainability.
Peter helped
students with their cover letters and resumes. He brought a different
perspective into the course by utilizing networking, social media, and
technology. He offered insightful tips for job interviews, as well as new social
media websites that are on the rise. I’ve never had a professor so
technologically and social media oriented, so that was a nice change.
GBM804: Sustainability Business Plan
As previously
mentioned, this business plan was entirely different compared to Peter's
business plan. Michael's version was to keep it short and simple – the
shorter, the better. I think the idea of the course was to stress proposals to
organizations for sustainability initiatives, but I doubt that if I were to
contact The Globe and Mail and/or The Globe and Mail’s Green Team outside of
being a student intern at the organization, a proposal presentation would not
go over very well.
The course
didn’t have much “teaching” and was possibly meant to be self-directed. Class
time was never used appropriately. I believe the course has potential to be an
excellent addition to the program curriculum if it is taught by a professor in
the sustainability industry with a background in writing business plans. At
least, this new professor may be able to offer a sustainable business plan
template for the internship placements (even though there are too many to
choose from). Again, this course suffers from awful course naming, as there was
very little “sustainability” involved in the course. I like the idea of the
capstone paper and I hope it offers insight into where the program needs to be
improved in future years.
Conclusion of Semester Two
Semester two
experienced many of the similar problems as Semester One. Class scheduling was
still terrible. Commuting to campus for early 8am classes was now Tuesday to
Friday and dealing with the winter weather did not help. Classes for me were
once a day for almost three hours. This meant I was commuting two hours a day
for three hours of class. Professors with little to no interest or background
in sustainability were teaching courses in the program. Course names were
misunderstood and confusing. Professors continued to want hard-copy and/or
soft-copy versions of projects and assignments. Professors had terrible time
management and piled on the workload once again in the last two weeks of the
semester, rather than trying to balance the coursework over the semester. Many
of these problems could have been avoided with a simple feedback session at the
end of the first semester.
Most of what
I’ve learned during both semesters can be applied to the job title I’m hoping
to get in the future as a sustainability project manager. Brett’s courses will
be extremely valuable to selling sustainability to organizations and Michael's
leadership course will help me continue to develop as a great manager and
leader in the long and short term. Working on business plans and carbon
footprint reporting at The Globe and Mail will add to my resume list of tasks I
can complete for any organization, as well as sustainable marketing plans,
ISO26000 certified corporate social responsibility reports. Every course
enhanced my presentation and public speaking skills which are valuable for my
future endeavours in the sustainability industry.
Internship Placement
In the beginning
of the program, I had an internship placement set up at Metrolinx. I was happy
and excited to start at the placement with a partner classmate. Eventually,
there was a communication breakdown between the Metrolinx supervisor, the
program coordinator, my partner, and myself. What Metrolinx was asking for and
what my program coordinator was asking for were always two different tasks. By
the third discussion with Metrolinx and first on-site internship day, it was
impossible to understand exactly what the organization wanted and how we were
supposed to carry out what they wanted, since we were just beginning the
program. My partner and I were overwhelmed with Metrolinx and decided to end
the internship.
This sent the
two of us scrambling for another internship and left to our own devices to find
a suitable placement. After weeks of searching for a placement and continuing
to come up empty handed, I was thrown into The Globe and Mail as a second
intern. However, by this time it was nearing the end of the first semester and
I didn’t actually start the placement until January 2013.
I believe that
many of us in the program enrolled in the program to gain first hand, real
world work experience as part of the internship. Several internship placements
failed during the semester for one reason or another and left students without
a working placement for weeks or an entire semester. Some internship companies
were located extremely far away for students. These internships were picked by
the program coordinator – students were unable to choose their placement unless
the one chosen placement for that student had failed.
Since the
internship placements play such a large role in the program, they should be set
up and confirmed immediately within the first month of the program. The
placements should be required to know exactly what it is they are getting into
upon signing up with the program. Instead of spending one day a week at the
placement, students should be able to spend two or three days a week on-site at
the internship, with the rest of the time during the week devoted to class. One
day a week at a large or small organization does not work well for productivity
and students do not gain any insight into the company’s environment and
culture.
All placements
should be located within the TTC and GO Transit lines to be accessible for all
students inside and outside of the Greater Toronto Area. This is especially
important for students who do not drive and their only means of transportation
is by public transit. Students should have the ability to choose their own
placement and ensure that the placement is somewhere the student wants to intern.
The companies should allow students to work on environmental and sustainability
projects that relate to the program. The placements should also be flexible in
providing data and information for course-related projects and assignments, if
possible, to enhance the learning experience.
Alternatively, I
believe the internship placement could be modified entirely. I would change the
internship to be extended throughout the year. The internship could remain as
one day a week at a placement, followed by a full-time summer (paid) employment
at the company for 3-4 months. I think this is the best route and would set the
program apart from all similar post-graduate programs at universities and
colleges. This would also help many students secure entry-level positions
directly after the program is completed.
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