LED Spotlight: Toronto Association for Business and Economics Makes a Road Trip to Laurier for a Panel on Careers and Networking

 The LED was thrilled to host three Board members from the Toronto Association for Business and Economics (TABE) at Laurier on Monday March 2 for a discussion about careers in economics, the role of mentoring and networking in the profession, and the types of things TABE can offer for students.  The panelists – Natasha Apollonova, Jim Whitestone and Sylvia McGratten – all have long and varied careers that have spanned quite different areas in economics and finance. They emphasized that a key strength of training in economics is that it can be used in a lot of different places and industries, so that you can tailor a career that has variety and fits your own interests and skills.  They urged students to think about taking advantage of their time at university to develop a range of skills, including quantitative skills, communication skills, and also soft skills like managing relationships with a variety of people. Students’ questions at the end got really into the meat of several important economic issues of the day, including detailed questions about carbon pricing and cap and trade schemes, what role there is for different energy types in decarbonization, and what sorts of skills are needed for infrastructure finance analysis. 

A big thank you to the panelists for coming on a road trip to Waterloo, and to the students – particularly including students from the nearby University of Waterloo – for joining us for the evening. We look forward to continuing the close relationship between TABE and Laurier in the future.

The LED used the evening to ask Natasha Apollonova, a graduate from Laurier’s MA in Business Economics program, about her experiences in the program.  Natasha came to Laurier after completing her BA in Economics at Western University. From management consulting to policy, forecasting to government relations, project management to directing research, she really has done it all. She started off as a consultant at Deloitte, then IHS Global Insight where she did economic impact analysis.  Then she moved to TD Bank’s Economics unit where she coauthored reports on various industries and did forecasts for commodity markets and the auto industry. She was Director of Economic Development and Assistant VP at the Toronto Region Board of Trade and VP Economic Development and Smart Cities Lead at BDO Canada, Senior Manager Government Relations at Technation, a co-Founder at Sigma-Helix, and is now Manager of Research at Canada Infrastructure Bank.

 
Natasha Apollonova, Manager of Research,
Canada Infrastructure Bank

Why did you choose Laurier’s MABE program?

As a recent immigrant I had no Canadian work experience before arriving at Laurier, so the co-op program was a big attraction. The courses were also very practical and applied to the real world.  Careers and Co-op were super helpful in providing almost a concierge service for students in helping them find jobs.  All of that made a big difference in helping me land my first job in the middle of a recession. 

As well, I really appreciated the smaller size of the program.  There were only 10 or 11 of us in the MABE program at the time – so it was a close-knit group. The size of the program meant that students could talk to anyone in the faculty – either economics or business profs. I remember that they were always open to questions, and helpful with no judgement.

What was your MA research paper on, and how did it affect your career?

I went to talk to Pierre Siklos before I really knew what I would do my research on, and he suggested a topic – forecasting recessions in Canada using leading edge empirical techniques.  That thesis landed me a job interview for which I was flown to do a presentation at the main office of a large consulting firm in Boston.  It was all Pierre Siklos. If it wasn’t for Laurier I wouldn’t be where I am. 

What advice do you have for current students?

Economics can be applied in so many different ways, and I’ve had a chance to use a lot of them over the course of my career.  TD Economics, for instance, was 100% what you learn in macroeconomics.  I used microeconomics a lot more in my consulting and policy work. And now I’m back in a position that is really all about research, which means finding interesting research questions and figuring out the best ways to answer them. So it feels like coming back full circle to the types of things I was doing in my Master’s research paper under Pierre Siklos’s guidance.

You don’t know how you’re going to end up using what you learn when you’re still a student, so it’s really important to have curiosity and learn about a wide range of things.  You really need to develop a base so that you can keep learning wherever you end up. 

It’s also worth working on other skills, not just content – adaptability and resiliency in particular. You need to be able to keep learning new skills, which means taking risks and making mistakes.  Your journey doesn’t end with an MA – it is just a beginning. 

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