Working a Job Unrelated to your Major
Aakanksha’s first year as an international student was hectic. She enrolled as an English major, but after spending a few semesters in the program she decided to switch into a double major in psychology and linguistics. But academic decisions weren’t her only struggle. Shaken after falling victim to a financial scam, she wanted to avoid all financial literacy programs and guides that reminded her of her situation.
However at the same time, Aakanksha was pondering her career options. She had discovered a field that would link her two majors perfectly: speech language pathology. And like most students searching for work experience, she was determined to land a job that directly coincided with her career aspiration. Becoming a Bank Advisor with RBC was not that, or so she thought! As this was the first work term she landed, Aakanksha originally assumed that she would have a “short stint in banking”. Yet it was an opportunity that surprisingly provided her with relevant experience that would bring her closer and closer to her speech pathology goals.
Work Search
Aakanksha was originally interested in finding positions in the psychology sector with Arts Work Experience. Unfortunately for her, there was a lack of callbacks to a number of her applications.
“I had reached a point where I was like, “oh no, I’m not getting jobs in the Canadian marketplace at all,” she recalls.
However, Aakanksha’s Work Experience Coordinator was still confident that she would be able to secure a work term. She encouraged Aakanksha to apply for all the positions that she was interested in – even if her work experience didn’t conventionally fit the job posting’s requirements. She followed her Coordinator’s advice, applying to a wide variety of positions that appealed to her, including a posting for a Banking Advisor. She was hesitant to initially apply due to her lack of experience in finances – even her knowledge on the topic was still rocky after she spent her first year actively avoiding the subject! Nonetheless, her Coordinator reassured her that she didn’t have to meet every single requirement of the job posting. Everyone has transferable skills from their past experience, especially Arts students. Combine that with a positive attitude and you have a great framework for the base of your application.
That’s when Aakanksha received a job offer for the Banking Advisor position with RBC. After studying the job posting, she was intrigued by the stability that the position offered; the organization had opportunities to continue working part-time after the completion of a work term. Not only that, but Aakanksha highly valued the benefit of being able to finance her education through an internship. After weighing the benefits, Aakanksha signed the offer of employment with RBC.
Work Term
As a Banking Advisor, Aakanksha’s responsibilities included meeting with clients individually and assisting them with issues that they wouldn’t be able to solve from a quick walk-in. “I work downtown, and our clientele is largely made up of immigrants and students who are just starting out with all of this.” From providing credit education to helping with clients’ estate decisions and looking at retirement planning, all while completing her yearlong workplace training, there was no shortage of learning opportunities.
Of course, while starting a position in completely unfamiliar territory, Aakanksha first experienced moments of doubt in her position. Working alongside older colleagues in her branch who were more experienced in banking brought a sense of pressure. But Aakanksha acknowledged that this feeling was internal and didn’t let it impact her work. “If you’re starting with a new company, you get a lot of time to learn about them.” Aakanksha’s employers were patient and also provided a wealth of knowledge, training and guidance.
Aakanksha had created a list of goals to help her learn and grow throughout her work term; one of them being financial literacy. She was determined to help prevent other people from falling victim to the same types of money scams that she had been subject to when she first started university.
“You get a lot of knowledge that you need to apply to yourself as well.The population I was connecting with was immigrants and youth and I qualify for both. So it was just like, ‘Wow. I wish someone had sat me down, told me all of this about Canada– I would have not gotten scammed in my first year.”
Aakanksha’s experience as a Banking Advisor provided her a diverse set of transferable skills that she is confident will help a future in the psychology field. How exactly? “Banking therapy”, she claims.
“A lot of [it is] how you deal with people, because money is a sensitive subject. People can lose money in one swipe or gain money in one swipe. And both situations are emotional. So there’s a lot of interpersonal skills you develop.” Dealing with highly sensitive situations and stressful cases had reinforced her ability to handle serious conversations.
But on the other hand, how did her job relate to her linguistics major? Aakanksha reflects on the mentality that being a linguistics student brought her; the respect for all languages. That, combined with a basic understanding of tone and sentence structure. Her client demographic included immigrants and refugees, the latter of which she found her linguistics background came in handy for communication. “They might not be as comfortable communicating in English, [and so] you think of ways to bridge that gap.”
Aakanksha was the first one in her branch to incorporate Google Translate into meetings where she and her client would take turns conveying their meaning on the translating tool, helping improve their communication. At the end of the day, Aakanksha’s fascination with languages and her efforts to simply say hello in a client’s fluent tongue forged impactful relationships with clients. “The minute you say hello or something in their language, it’s a point of connection. They understand that you respect them, even though they don’t speak English to that level.”
Post-work Term
Reflecting on her time before university, Aakanksha recounted the discouragement she faced when deciding to pursue an Arts degree. “A lot of that could just be my culture in India. You know, it's a bit of a hierarchy. If you do your sciences, you know, you're the smart kid. If you do commerce, you're in it for the money. If you do Arts, you can’t decide on anything. And now you're stuck. Which is not how it goes. You know, now that I'm in banking, sometimes I look back and I'm like, ‘So you remember when you told me if I don't do science, I won't earn money?’ And yeah, again, that could be a disadvantage for some.”
But Aakanksha is positive in the many benefits of an Arts education. “There's always an advantage where, when you do Arts, there's a lot of the social sciences that you get exposed to. It does give you a more empathetic edge, which ultimately in whichever sector you're working in, it does come into play because you want to interact with people, you want to form meaningful connections so that they think of you and opportunities arise.” Her time as a Banking Advisor definitely helped strengthen her empathetic edge.
From clientele work to using empathy, interpersonal skills, practicing confidentiality and patience and understanding serious topics, there was an array of transferable skills that Aakanksha was able to evolve during her work experience. That’s one of the beauties of Arts Work Experience: it encourages students to take chances and to not be afraid to try new things to develop their professional growth. The versatility of an Arts degree can open doors to a diverse range of opportunities that you never would have expected!
This article was written by Jacklyn Rocha, the 2022-23 Arts Work Experience Communications and Program Support Intern.