Toronto

I have never been so excited to see a Zellers and Home Depot before. Oh how I missed Canada. Box stores, malls, excess space, trucks, English signs, and modern buildings. All things which I didn't realize I missed until I saw them on my drive in from the Toronto airport.
My taxi dropped me off at the Intercontinental Hotel on Front Street, right beside the Rogers Centre and the CN Tower. It was such a beautiful hotel. My first order of business after checking in was ordering room service. I was starving. A few minutes before that arrived, RBC Investment Banking gave me a call on my hotel phone. This interview went great as I had been eating/breathing/sleeping this investment banking book for the past day. They also said they would get back to me asap about the next step (hoping to take advantage of the fact that I was in Toronto).

I forced myself to stay awake until 11pm (jet lag was kicking in), but unfortunately still woke up at 4am. I tossed and turned for a few hours and then finally gave up and went for a workout in the hotel gym. Thank goodness it was 24 hours. I killed some time in there, and then headed down to the Club floor to enjoy my complimentary breakfast. Then I killed two hours reading the paper and my IB book until my parents arrived!! I had told them I would be in Toronto for the weekend, and being the fabulous parents that they are, booked a trip down to visit me! At this point, even if I bailed on the TD interviews, I was getting a free trip to see my parents. It was a win-win weekend in my eyes.

I then spent the day meeting with a friend who currently works at TD to get some advice, and doing some last minute reading. My parents went for a late lunch to give me some undistracted time with my books. At 4:45pm I headed over to the TD building for the reception, which was from 5-7. This was a "meet-and-greet" for all of the candidates interviewing and current TD employees, including those who would be interviewing us the next morning. This went GREAT. I was the first one there, so had a chance to talk one-on-one with a lot of the TD employees before other candidates arrived. Everyone I met was extremely nice, asking me about my flight in (they all knew I had come from Amsterdam somehow), and immediately my nerves for the next day vanished. My friend Grace who currently works in IB at TD came up and introduced me to 4 of the 6 people who would be interviewing me the next day. It was nice to have a face to the name (I had been given a schedule of my interview times upon arrival), and realize that they weren't as scary as I had built them up to be. Halfway through the reception, the head of the Global Markets division gave a speech. If I hadn't already wanted to work for TD, I did now. This guy was unreal! He was so passionate about TD and his job and our jobs, it was contagious! I was about to start cheering him on he was so good. Anyways, after he spoke I went up and introduced myself, thanked him for flying me in from Amsterdam for the interviews, and that I thought his speech was very inspiring. After that I continued to mingle. I slowly realized I was the only candidate from outside of Ontario who was interviewing. There were 16 people in total, and only one other girl interviewing besides me. They were from Ivy, McGill, Queens, and other top Ontario universities. Let's just say I felt very out of place. The only thing I had going for me was that I got flown in from Amsterdam. Once the other candidates heard this, they thought I was a big deal (if they only knew). The evening ended very well, and I headed back to my hotel.

My parents and I then went for dinner around 7:30 (I didn't eat at the reception, you know the whole awkward chewing and talking thing). I got a burger, fries and dessert. Apparently being nervous makes you hungry (who are we kidding, I would have eaten that much on a normal day). After dinner we went back to our hotel, my dad left to go grab something, came back and Nik and Steph were with him!!!! WOOHOO. This was the best surprise EVER! As much as I just wanted to hang out with them, I basically just went to bed because I had to be up at 7 for interviews the next morning.

I arrived at TD at 8:15am, and met 7 of the other candidates in the boardroom on the 10th floor. There we sat until 8:30 when our interviewers started calling us in. We each had 6 half hour interviews back to back (with analysts, associates and managing directors) between 8:30 and 11:30. I am happy to say that the studying paid off because the interviews all went great! I left there feeling like a million bucks. Even if I didn't get the job, I knew I had done my best and at least recovered from my first round interview. I went back to the hotel and went for lunch with my family! It was so nice to just hangout with them and relax. I have the best family in the world. Then we went back to our hotel and went in the hot tub and the pool. Once back in our room I received an email from my original first round interviewer (who I still hadn't met yet), asking when he could give me a call. I said anytime, and soon after he called my hotel room. Long story short, he said I really impressed the interviewers and I was a unanimous hire! I couldn't believe it!! It was such a good feeling, and I knew I would take the job right then and there, but told him I would read over the contract first. He had it couriered over to my office, and I signed and sealed it the next day! I will be moving to Toronto next August to start with them full time!

To celebrate we headed off to Golden Thai for dinner with some friends and family, and then off to the bomber game. Mom and dad brought bomber paraphernalia for all of us, so we were decked out. You can see pictures on Facebook. Grace and Justin (two of my friends who currently work at TD) came to the game as well, and had heard I talked to the head of Global Markets at the reception. Apparently nobody talks to him, and they were surprised I had. Well good thing I didn't know that before hand, because he was very impressed that I had talked to him and they heard I left a good impression on him! Sometimes it pays to be not in-the-know.

On Sunday we walked around Toronto, went shopping for a bit, out for dinner and then off to the airport. It was a great weekend overall. The only thing that would have made it perfect was if Mark, Jay and Steve were there too. Next time for sure!

Now I am back in Amsterdam with Sel, back to the grind of school, and still feeling on top of the world. We decided it's hard to stay motivated with school knowing our grades don't really matter anymore. We are very blessed to be in Amsterdam right now, both have amazing jobs lined up for after graduation, and have amazing families who have supported us through it all!! Our lives are amazing.

Sorry if these updates have been long. If you've made it this far, a gold star goes to you!

Job Search

Where do I begin...

For those of you who don't know, Selena took a job offer at RBC in New York doing investment banking (what she was doing previously in Toronto, London and New York). This was such a big decision and it was very exciting when she officially sent in her acceptance! As she was making this decision, I realized my future plans were still up in the air. All big banks hire a year in advance, so if I wanted any chance of working at one of them upon graduation, I would have to start applying ASAP. So last week I went on the U of M website and started applying for some of the job postings by banks for full-time positions next fall. I sent in an application to HSBC, RBC and TD for various positions. My first email back was from HSBC on Friday the 16th, saying I had made it to the assessment round. This was for a job in Commercial Banking, not my first choice, but an option none the less. I completed the 1 hour online assessment and within a day had been contacted to do a phone interview. I set this up for Sept. 27th.

Then I got an email from TD on Monday the 19th to do a phone interview for an investment banking position. This in itself is crazy, because I have had NO prior work experience in investment banking, and after talking to people in the industry, it is rare that they hire students who haven't had any summer or co-op terms. The downside to this great email - they wanted to interview me in a few short hours. At this point I knew nothing about the job and the interviews for this position are notorious for eating you alive. Well thankfully Selena knows all things investment banking, so we dropped everything and she tried to teach me as much as she could about investment banking in about an hour. For some reason I had a really big peace about it, I wasn't nervous, and I felt pretty confident going into it. I had also been praying a lot, knowing that if God didn't want me to get this job he would not let me get to 2nd round interviews.
Let's just say that this will go down as THE WORST interview of all time. It was like pulling teeth, a train wreck, scratching nails on a chalkboard. Everyone involved just wanted it to end (including Selena who was listening through the wall). I did pretty well with the personality and fit questions, but completely failed on the technical questions. I had no problem telling them when I didn't know something, but instead of moving on (which is what you would expect) they just kept digging deeper into the unknown! My feeling after the interview was that it was more of a tutorial instead of an interview. They just sat there teaching me and helping me get through the answers, it was like they wanted me to understand it. If I was them I would have just given up on me. Well after 45 grueling minutes, the interview ended and they said they would contact me about 2nd round as soon as they finished with in person interviews at the U of M the next day. Selena burst into the room and we were on the ground laughing. It was all we could do at that point. It was all just too hilarious.

After the interview I received an email from RBC Global Markets requesting a phone interview as well. I set one up for Tuesday evening, thinking it couldn't get any worse than TD. This interview went better. It was more based on markets and my opinion then on specific technicals. He also said he would get back to me about the next step. After I got off the phone I had an email from my interviewer at TD, who asked if I would be able to stay up for a few more hours as he was caught in a meeting. I agreed, wondering why he couldn't just put me out of my misery over email. He finally called at around 1am (remember the time difference), and gave me some feedback on the interview. He said as nicely as he could that my technicals were a bit rusty. He had somehow looked past that though and wanted me to come in for 2nd round interviews. TD would be giving me an all expenses paid trip to Toronto for the weekend. WHAT. It's not like I sucked and was from Toronto and could come in for free, or that I was even in Winnipeg, they were flying me in from across the world. This was definitely a God thing. I got off this call, went to bed (because I had a presentation in my 8:30 class the next morning, which we killed), and then Wednesday night booked my flight to Toronto.

In the midst of all of this planning, I received an email from the RBC investment banking division, who also wanted to set up a phone interview. This was getting a bit ridiculous. I told them I would be MIA for most of the next day because I would be flying to Toronto. They said that was no problem, they could wait until 8pm on Thursday evening, 10 minutes after I would be getting to my hotel. Perfect.

Thursday rolled around, I packed my bag, packed Selena's investment banking book and left for the airport. I spent the next 8 hours on the plane learning everything I could about investment banking (and every so often talked to my seat neighbour, who grew up in Winnipeg, went to U of M, moved to the states recently and is best friends with Teemu Selanne's wife).

To say the least, my week of job searching opened up way more doors than I ever would have thought. The best door that was opened however, was the one by TD. Stay tuned for my trip to Toronto...

Prague

Hello hello!

First a few catch-up items, which you may see more often than not thanks to my fantastic memory.

1) We found an amazing church out here last Sunday called C3 and we met some girls who invited us to their flat for lunch. We are going to try and meet up with them every Sunday after church, which we love because they are all Dutch, so we'll get a good taste of how the locals live. They have been so great to hang out with.
2) We met three girls from Germany that we went for dinner with to this really cute Mexican restaurant on Thursday. After our dinner we went on a hunt to find Cafe Winkel, home of the "best apple pie" in Amsterdam. Lets just say that there is no false advertising here.

Now for Prague! Our flight left on Friday night and we were greeted at the airport by Filip and Jan, our couch surfing hosts (if you don't know what couch surfing is, check it out). They were SO nice and we were pleasantly surprised to find out they drove a bmw suv. As we pulled onto the freeway Filip turned on his music, and what you ask, came on? Eminem. Yes, I felt like I was back at home driving with Mark or Jason. It was so nice to be back in a car after so much time on trains, metros, buses and bikes. They took us to his flat which was in a really nice building, and had two sleeping bags all set up for us on this huge couch. It was SO nice! It was about 9pm and we hadn't eaten, so we grabbed the tram into town a bit and went to this hidden gem for dinner. Their friend Thomas joined us, who was also a great time. Filip and Tomas's English wasn't as good as Jan's so making conversation was a bit of an adventure. We headed back to their place after dinner, watched an episode of Friends, and called it a night.

The next day we gave them a list of everything we wanted to see, and it looked something like this:

1) The Charles Bridge
2) Petrin Hill
3) Prague Castle
4) Prague Old Town Square
5) Astronomical Clock
6) Wenceslas Square
7) Municipal house
8) St Vitus Cathedral
9) Old Jewish Quarter
10) The National Museum
11) The National Theatre

 I am happy to say that they found us a FREE (we love the F word) walking tour that covered all of these spots and more. The guys not only told us about the tour, but came on it with us! The tour was fantastic because it gave us a history of all of these sights and let us appreciate Prague so much more. Filip and Tomas even learned a thing or two! I have pictures on Facebook of everything we saw, so check out my page if you can. We started our day of sightseeing at around 10am and didn't finish everything until about 7:30pm. It was a LOT of walking (which Filip pointed out every so often by falling onto the ground), but it was a beautiful day so we didn't mind. After everything the guys took us to this restaurant right on the water that had these amazing beach volleyball courts surrounding it and a stage where a Czech band played and there was a big break dancing show. There were hundreds of people just hanging out, many of which had just ran in the Prague marathon that day through the city. It was such a nice way to end to our day!

After dinner we headed back to Filip's flat and crashed. Our plan was initially to go to this 5 story club and watch the sunrise on the Charles Bridge (advice from Steph), but we decided we were way too tired once we sat down on our bed. Thankfully though Tomas had jumped in the shower already and was really keen on going into town, so we forced ourselves to get ready after lying around for awhile, and headed back into town around 1:30am. Yes, we left the house at 1:30am for a night out. Europe clearly never sleeps. We got to the 5 story club which was indeed an experience. We checked out all of the floors, each plays a different genre of music, and settled on the fifth because there were seven guys who were really good dancers having a little dance off. Filip knew some of them because he himself was an amazing dancer, so we sat and watched for awhile. I couldn't believe how good they were! After we had our fill of inspiration, we headed to the first floor which was playing radio hits, and danced ourselves. It was HOT. We were sweating within seconds, but having so much fun! Tomas and Filip were actually really good dancers, something you rarely see at home (sorry guys). Around 3:30am we needed some fresh air, so we decided to go for a walk over the Charles bridge. It was so nice at night and we met this guy Thomas from Belgium who said we can stay at his place when we go there and that he'd make us waffles! True Belgium waffles, can't wait!

We headed back into the club for another hour of dancing until 5am when they started kicking people out. We headed back to the bridge and killed an hour until the sun started coming up and Sel took some really amazing pictures (also on facebook). Thanks for the advice Steph! It was definitely worth waiting up for.

Well thank goodness we crammed everything into one day, because we didn't get to sleep until 7:30am on Sunday and we woke up at 2pm, just in time to get dressed and head to the airport. We will be repaying the favour to Filip, Jan and Tomas in two weeks because they are coming to Amsterdam and are going to stay with us! It'll be nice because it will force us to be tourists while they're here and show them around the city.

Overall Prague was even better than we had planned or imagined. We are in the midst of booking more weekend trips, so if you have any suggestions please let us know!

Some fun facts before you go:

1) Prague is the beer drinking capital of the world (on a per capita basis).
2) Pilsner was created in the Czech Republic.
2) It was the first (unofficial) country that Hitler invaded in World War 2.
3) Hitler loved Prague and wanted to retire there one day, so he put a lot of money into preserving the buildings. That is why it is still in such good shape today when compared with other European cities.
4) Defenestrations of Prague involving the Hussites and the Catholics were called such because defenestration literally means to throw things (or people) out of windows, which is what the Hussites did with the Catholics on two separate occasions.
5) Franz Kafka (famous Jewish author) was born in Prague.

 Who knew you would actually learn something from this blog.