How One Alumni Mixer Changed a Career
A little small talk at an alumni mixer sparked a big career move. Davis Yates (BMgt ’16) and Julie Paquette (BMgt ’21) both attended the Calgary Alumni Mixer last fall. Julie was working as a CPA at Deloitte, while Davis was leading Wrapped Media, a mobile vehicle-wrap marketing company he had co-founded. By chance they sat at the same table and a pivotal conversation began.
Davis attended the mixer to connect with fellow alumni and recent graduates. Although his growing company meant future talent was on his radar, his focus for the evening was on meaningful conversations and strengthening ties within the alumni community. When Davis spoke with Julie, he knew right away he wanted her on the team, “She was just obviously very charismatic. She had some aura to her.” While not yet knowing her personally given their studies at the Faculty of Management didn’t overlap, the tight-knit alumni community served as the perfect connection point, Davis recalls as he sought to gain more information on the impressive recent grad, “I talked to people that knew her, and confirmed that I wasn’t alone in thinking she was pretty extraordinary”.
Despite Julie’s background as a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) Davis knew he wasn’t hiring for the resume alone. He was hiring a person the network had already vouched for, and one who could combine a considerable accounting background in a role that demanded more: account executive.
Davis goes on to share, that Julie impressed with a strong track record achievement and interpersonal skills. “The hardest thing in hiring is finding people and trusting the information you get about them. With the UBC Faculty of Management alumni network, you have proxies to figure out – is this person great? That gives you a lot more confidence.”
From CPA to Sales
For Julie joining Wrapped Media and pivoting careers was not an easy yes. She had spent years dedicated to accounting, achieving her CPA designation, and establishing herself with Deloitte. Leaving accounting for a role in sales and marketing felt, at first, like walking away from what she had built.
She recalls, “I had a few back-and-forth moments” as she considered a role that was a major shift in career trajectory “And then I’d have moments where it just kept creeping up, it got me really excited.”
This wasn’t a decision made overnight, she spent a few months thinking it through, weighing what the move would mean for her career and giving herself the time to trust her own judgement before committing.
In the end it came down to something more difficult to quantify than a job title. This combined with the opportunity to connect at an alumni event that meant “I felt like this was someone that would support me and help me do what I wanted to do,” Julie says. “It was more of a gut check.”
The more Julie learned about Wrapped Media, the more her enthusiasm for the opportunity grew. Researching the company after that first conversation, she found a team culture that impressed her. “Davis and his co-founder Ian Feil are doing something really cool, they’ve built an amazing team,” she says. She had also heard about Davis’s reputation firsthand before they’d even met: a university friend had interned with Davis earlier and came away speaking highly of the experience. Seeing what he had gone on to build only reinforced her instinct that he was someone who could help advance her career.
“Network is your Net Worth”
Julie’s advice navigating today’s job market: get in the room.
When speaking about AI and the hiring process, she notes that employers are finding it harder to identify the right talent amid a growing number of highly polished resumes. As a result, companies are placing greater value on referrals, personal connections and trusted recommendations. “It’s cheesy, but your network is your net worth,” she says. “Especially at a business school the size of the Faculty of Management where you can get to know people”.
Julie exemplifies putting a network into action. Her first job out of university came from a connection she made on a business trip organized by the then Management Student Association (MSA), now the Commerce Student Association (CSA). It was there that she connected with a Deloitte hiring manager. A coffee chat followed, which led to an internship and ultimately a full-time offer.
Her advice for building your network as a student is simple: show up, and don’t be afraid to lean on the fact that you’re still learning. “Everybody wants to say yes to a student,” she says. “Once you’re graduated, you’re an adult, it’s a different dynamic. That window is a real advantage while you have it.”
What are Employers Looking For?
Davis offers a complementary view from the hiring side. For junior hires and co-op students it is not always technical experience that stands out. He specifically looks for three traits: smart, hardworking, and humble.
“There’s a lot of people that don’t hit all three,” he says. Those traits don’t always show up on a resume either, but the clearest signal can come through from extracurriculars, volunteer work, or how they carry themselves in a case competition.
If there’s one underrated skill Davis wished more students would develop earlier on, it’s resourcefulness. “The more senior hires typically don’t come to us with problems, they come with options,” he says. In contrast, junior hires, often stop at “this didn’t work.” His advice: before flagging a roadblock, sit with it. Come up with three or four possible paths forward, along with a pros and cons list for each.
Looking Back
When both were asked about what advice they would give their first-year selves they both landed on similar sentiments.
Davis wishes he’d done less, better. Case competitions, clubs, job applications, and a packed social calendar, he says he often didn’t do any one thing as well as he had wanted to. “If I were to look back, I’d say slow down a bit, pare down what you’re doing, do it right,” he says. “But it got me where I am today.”
Julie reflects on spending too much of her time asking everyone else what she should do instead of trusting herself. “I wish I would have taken a little more time to ask myself: what do I actually want?” she says. “I found my way there eventually. But I spent a lot of time forming my own opinion based on other people’s opinions.”
That reflection came full circle for her the moment she decided whether to leave accounting for Wrapped Media, in the end, Julie wanted to challenge herself and with Davis and the team he had built, she saw an environment that could do exactly that: fast-paced, more opportunities for collaboration, and a role that allows her to be creative. And while the move was a pivot, she was confident the discipline and rigour of her CPA training would carry over into her success at Wrapped Media.
Why does this matter to Current Students?
Their story isn’t a one-off. It’s what the Faculty of Management is continuing to build as it expands its co-op program and deepens partnerships with employers across a variety of industries. This partnership is alive in our alumni as Davis says, “We’re trying to be more integrated with universities, we hire co-ops and new grads pretty consistently. So, I love doing stuff like this.”
The takeaway for students isn’t that a single conversation guarantees a job offer. It’s that the alumni network exists to create these moments and that showing up, staying curious, and being willing to have a conversation at an event can change the trajectory of a career in ways a job board never will.
It speaks, Julie adds, to how far Davis has come since his undergraduate days, from student to founder to the kind of leader others want to follow.
More alumni events, mixers, and opportunities to connect are on the horizon this year. As Julie puts it, “You really don’t know who you’re going to meet, or where it’s going to lead. Just get yourself out there.”