Meet John

I'm John. I'm a fourth year student at the University of Waterloo. I'm a Collateral Officer in the Global Wholesale Services department of Scotiabank. I wanted to work for one of the Canadian banks, that was my goal. I was told from other co-op students who had worked here and who had enjoyed their work terms that Scotiabank was the most solid bank to work for.

I'm currently studying accounting of finance with a minor in economics, so my placement here at Scotia aligns almost perfectly with what I'm studying. It adds practical applications to the theory that we learn in the classroom. Compared to my other three work terms I'd say I enjoyed this one the most - mostly because of the responsibility.

In our department, we collect security deposits for the trades that we have with other banks and I watch over about 15 large international banks. Any large swing in the market will affect the day-to-day activities and the values of all the trading instruments will change. I find what really helps me is my analytical skills, attention to detail, and mathematical abilities.

When I started I had about one week of formal training, where I sat with a colleague and he took me through his day-to-day activities. After that I was given counter-parties of my own. My supervisor is great actually- I'm allowed to come in and bother him any minute of the day, and if I have a request, I can just walk up and talk to him. It's helped me learn a lot.

My prior three work terms were not in the financial industry. I worked at the government for a while and then I worked at a manufacturing firm. I tried out the financial industry and now that I see what it's like, I really want to be here all the more.