Name: Nicola Chivers

Company: TD Bank Group

Position: HR Analyst

Employed: 2 years

Degree: Honours in Bachelor of Human Resources Management

What drew you to HR within the financial services industry?

The HR program at York University caught my interest for many reasons: the courses aligned well with my personality, and there was an abundance of specialization avenues, but with a defined career and certification path.

How did you find your current position?

I joined TD as part of an Ability Edge Internship (Career Edge Organization) in which I completed several rotational assignments across Corporate HR. I was initially offered a contract position with the Learning Technology team, which I gladly accepted. Several months later, I was invited to join the Talent Management team in a permanent position as a Specialized HR Analyst.

Tell us a bit about your responsibilities.

My duties have evolved dramatically as I joined the team in the middle of an ongoing implementation project. Initially, the focus was to deliver, promote, and transition knowledge from our testing team to the frontline users and long-term support team. Recently, I've been working with business leaders to provide analytic measures of success, challenge, and opportunity.

What's the most challenging aspect of your position?

Managing expectations and staying on track. In a large corporate environment, the stream of emails is constant and it is a challenge to determine and communicate which requests align to the team's objectives, and to balance my ability to provide assistance with my capacity to do so.

What is the most rewarding part of your job?

Resolving problems, whether that involves sharing technical knowledge, troubleshooting computer issues, or delivering solutions to business partners through more formal project work.

What do you think it takes to be successful in this career?

Passion for learning combined with do-it-yourself enthusiasm and undying persistence. When given a task, always do some background research before going back with questions. This keeps you informed and your manager will appreciate the higher-level questions and the ideas you can now contribute.

What are your future career aspirations?

My ideal position would involve idea generation. I excel at brainstorming and enjoy the challenge of analyzing a tricky situation and offering potential game-changing solutions. I'd also like to be a mentor, offering insight to inspire, influence, and shape perspectives of newer employees.

Any advice you have for students looking to land their first job?

Enthusiasm is your greatest asset; always focus on possibilities, not roadblocks. If your brain is focused on the reasons it won't work, it doesn't think of ways it could. Know what makes you unique, infuse this trait into your ÔÇÿelevator speech' and use it to articulate your worth when asked Why should we hire you?