[Music] foreign today's episode and to learn more about your career Journey taking a step back could you show us how your education and career experiences shaped the path that you're on today definitely yeah so I can start maybe with a little bit about my educational background so I grew up in Ottawa Ontario and I I went to school at Carleton University I did a degree in political science and a minor in history and I sort of took that not knowing exactly where I wanted to be in my future or where I wanted to take my
career after school but I knew that I loved writing I kind of was interested in politics to a certain extent as well so I wanted to continue to develop my knowledge there and my writing skills so after that I joined the Navy for a few years and then I think what really shaped me or kind of put me on the path I am right now is deciding to move across the country with my then girlfriend now fiance to Vancouver and I you know I didn't necessarily have maybe a sound plan although sometimes I think it
takes a little bit of you know taking a risk sort of how I did I'm really he's putting yourself out there and you know I was very fortunate to come across RBC they have a career launch program is what it's called so I did that for one full year and through that program that's where I met my now boss actually yeah yeah that's awesome thank you for taking us through that journey and I love that it involves risks and I'd also would love to know how that current career path differs from the expectations that you
had for your professional Journey at a young age yeah so I mentioned you know I joined the Navy right right out of the university and I come from a military family so I think from a very young age it wasn't necessarily understood and I don't consider you don't have that sort of a family where it was like a you know very militant mindset we'll say but to some extent I always thought that maybe hey I can just follow My Father's Footsteps and do that so I think that that's really how it differed I was you
know very set on kind of you know keeping the military tradition going along there however as I mentioned I took what opportunities came my way I sort of jumped on those and and took advantage of them and I'm really fortunate to be in the position I am now yeah totally yeah it's really interesting to look back at what you expected to achieve and then compare it to what you did achieve and it's nice that there's some similarities there and you definitely have a lot of achievements Thomas in just three years you've held diverse positions at
RBC including marketing and citizenship advisor customer service representative and you're currently a coordinator for marketing and citizenship so that's really amazing and I would love it if you could share the strategies that have helped you successfully transition between those roles at RBC sure so I'll start with saying yeah the marketing and citizenship advisor type role it was it's very similar to the one that I'm in actually right now it was just sort of more of a temporary position as I sort of bridge the gap from being in the RBC career launch program into being a
customer service representative so yeah I stayed with our BC at that advisory position just so I could land my feet within another role within the organization so that happened to be with direct investing so RBC has you know direct investing the open investment accounts I supported with some digital online navigation when you're in your account that type of good stuff and then a year later the the coordinator position and a more permanent role opened up on the team that I am on now and the one that I was on at the end of that career
launch program so just to get to your question now I think sort of the strategies that helped me successfully transition but it's actually right in the role's name customer service was actually a huge thing that I think that I developed while I was in that representative role and it's something that's really translated over into the current role that I'm in and it's not something you would often think of but you know oftentimes in with a lot of different internal Partners whether they might be senior leaders or a lot of different external Partners as well so
so just I think upholding that great customer service aspect it has been super crucial and then another thing that I think's really helped me transition fluidly between the the roles that I've been in within RBC is sort of always striving to be you know my authentic self so bring whatever ideas I do have to the table and not shying away from you know is this right is this wrong you know I'll throw it out there to the team for discussion yeah totally it's awesome that customer service is what drives you to identify positions and the
company that you want to subscribe towards and that you also achieved those that's awesome and is that also would you say what motivates you to excel in your current position or is it primarily driven by the company's goals or the positive impact on the community yeah it's definitely the positive impact that I get to see in the community you know just having lived here in BC now for I guess just a little bit over a year it's been so great to sort of interact with a lot of different partners years and just really see even
with our own employees right to just see the smiles on their faces and to see you know the positive impact that we are making so that would be definitely my number one driver for sure yeah yeah I find I'm driven in the same way as well and in terms of impacting the community it also leads me to my next question regarding your time with RBC and also with a boat swaying for the Canadian Armed Forces so that's really incredible and I'm really excited to get into that could you provide us with insights into your role
and what inspired you to pursue it with the Navy for sure yeah so I mean as I mentioned a lot of it I think stem from again coming from a military family and maybe not entirely sure what I wanted to do after my University degree I think that I also wanted to travel you know quite a bit afterwards and it was a great way to sort of actually get paid to travel and see a lot of different places around the world you know sailing with the Navy it was such a great experience and and that's
sort of I think what really drove me to pursue that the second part of the question was how would you advise our listeners to balance pursuing career goals and personal goals at the same time it can be difficult for sure so I think that in terms of balance I I always I like to wake up and do something for myself first before I actually start the work day so that I know that I am having that balance so that could be you know something as simple as taking my dog for a walk but I think
that that sort of really grounds me and then as well just just always making sure that you know I know this might sound a little silly but like you know making sure you're eating during the day making sure you're standing up just taking like five minutes here there for yourself kind of really grounds you and doesn't make you feel so isolated like you know it's just work work all the time right yeah yeah totally well that's not silly at all it's actually really inspiring that your career didn't stop you from committing your time to something
that you cared about and got something your family cares about and representing them and it's really great Insight that our listeners can learn from and hopefully apply to their own Pursuits as well so my last question for you today Thomas is do you feel that the skills you acquired during your time with the Canadian Armed Forces have been transferable to your work at RBC considering the importance of key skills for success in the industry what advice would you give to Young individuals seeking to acquire these skills for sure I love this question because definitely a
lot of the skills that I I did sort of learn gain with the Canadian Armed Forces are totally transferable I think you know a couple that come to mind right off the top of my head are discipline organization you know hard work so those are just you know three they sound again simple but they're I think they're really important and being part of the military it really enforces those skills so I guess the the advice that I would give to Young listeners is you know and it's something my own managers provided with me before is
don't shy away from the project that might be hard or seem unachievable you know go head on to it and you might not exactly know how you're going to approach something but that's where most of your learning comes from right when you're uncertain about different things and it really tests your abilities and kind of helps you grow different skills so that would be one of my biggest things and it's something that I like to strive to do myself is sort of attacking those uncertainties so that I come away and come out of it knowing a
little bit more or understanding where I could have gone differently if I were to attack the same project the next time around yeah totally don't shy away for opportunities and especially at illuminate we really encourage entrepreneurship and Innovation so that sort of all stems from the same idea that you mentioned so I love that and that concludes our last question so I just want to thank you so much for your time today Thomas and your wise words as well it's been really fun chatting with you and I'm really excited about the possibility to be working
with you and karma in the future totally okay well thank you so so much for having me I really do appreciate it [Music]
