When asked to be a TRU career mentor his answer was YES. When asked to volunteer at multiple events a year, his answer was YES. When asked to be Vice-Chair of the TRU Alumni & Friends Board, his answer was….you guessed it, YES.
Adil Hosenbocus, BBA ’11, Manager – Accounting & Assurance at BDO Canada LLP, has a tough time saying no to getting involved with the community. He currently sits on:
- TRU Alumni – Board of Director/Vice-Chair
- GenNext Kamloops – Board of Director/Sponsorship Chair
- Community Futures Thompson County
- BDO Community involvement committee – Chair
Hosenbocus was a co-op student with BDO in 2008 and was hired full time with the company upon graduating from TRU’s School of Business and Economics in 2011. He then fast tracked the Chartered Accountant of Canada program to achieve his CA designation in just one year, a designation that normally takes 2.5 years to attain.
Last year, he won the 2014 BDO CEO Award of Excellence – a national award presented annually to an employee that embodies BDO’s vision to make a difference through exceptional commitment to clients, the BDO Kamloops team and the local community.
Aside from his academic and career accomplishments, it’s clear that Hosenbocus has a passion for helping his community.
He has been involved with the TRU Career Mentoring program for the past three years where he has provided career advice and direction for countless students.
“I love being able to provide advice and share my experience with students. When I was at TRU we didn’t have all these opportunities that the students have now to meet with professionals and gain an understanding of what it is really like working in the real world. I had no clue what accounting was actually like and what accountants do and how it all worked before I started working at BDO. I like to share that aspect of it with students so they have a better idea what to really expect with this profession. Also I like to promote the co-op program and how valuable it can been for students,” said Hosenbocus.
TRU Networking 411 Career Mentoring Event
The TRU Career Mentoring program provides opportunities for students to meet with industry professionals to gain career knowledge while learning how to network in an informal environment.
Last year at the TRU Athletics Career Mentoring event for student-athletes, Hosenbocus met volleyball player Brianne Rauch, one of the few accounting students in attendance. He told her about the TRU co-op program.
“Brianne sent me her resume after the networking event and there happened to be a summer co-op position that came up at BDO. I contacted Brianne to let her know about the opportunity and she ended up getting an interview and then getting hired. She worked for us for 4 months this past summer and is now back at TRU finishing her last year of school. We have already hired Brianne back to start full time and complete her CPA designation at BDO starting May 2016. So it really worked out for both of us,” he said.
When asked what advice he would give to students attending Career Mentoring events, Hosenbocus had some great tips.
ADVICE FROM ADIL –
- The most important thing by far is – ATTEND THE EVENTS! You never know who you could meet there or what kind of advice you could get that could help you with your career path. It never hurts to network and learn more about the different companies and professionals. (ex. Brianne went to that one event and now she has a full time job, I took the same path where an accounting professional at an event told me to join the co-op program and I did right away and that’s how I got on with BDO and I have been here for 7 years)
- Be yourself – the main part of these networking events is to socialize with professionals at the events and get to know more about them. I always like it when I am talking to a student and it feels like we are just having a regular conversation. I get to learn more about them and I get a chance to share my experiences with them. I love the students who just are themselves and can carry on a conversation, it doesn’t even have to be about accounting. Those are the students that I remember when I leave any networking event because I enjoyed talking to them.
- Don’t be afraid to ask questions – It’s always good to ask questions to learn more about the professions of the mentors. I always like to explain what we really do on a day-to-day basis because I had no clue what it was like when I was a student.
- Take advantage of the mentor’s advice and experience – Everyone’s path to where they got in their career is different, so there are many different paths students can take. It’s always interesting to learn about different professional’s career paths and maybe there are things you can relate to. (I still do this at every networking event I go to when I meet someone new)
The first TRU Career Mentoring event is coming up on September 23, 2015 for student-athletes. We are still looking for career mentors to volunteer. If you are interested in volunteering or attending any TRU Alumni & Friends events, please contact us at alumni@tru.ca or check us out online at: www.tru.ca/alumni/events.
