Today I got to learn all about what my dad did at work. Every year all of the grade nines in Canada have the option to experience what there mom or dad do all day. This year was my turn to see what my dad does. He works at RBC as a institutional portfolio manager. Since most of the dad’s who work there have multiple meeting with clients and employees and can’t afford to lose a day of work they organize the day full of games that teach you more about what your dad does.

To start the day off, I woke up bright and early and went out for coffee after I went to my dad’s office and dropped of my coat. Here’s a picture of where he works:

All 6 of the kids that were there met in a room where they had very nicely laid out various beverages. They thought it would be a good idea to start our day off with learning about stocks and funds for an hour, after awhile of watching a PowerPoint I was starting to learn something about pension plans! After the presentation we played a game where we had to pitch an invention to a fake investors, then once they funded of us we had to come up with a number of what it would all cost. Once everybody had come up with there idea we had to pitch our invention again to a share holder. Once all the numbers where added up we were given two dice that we needed to roll a seven or higher other wise we would lose money and potentially go bankrupt , of course every time we rolled the dice we would get 4 so in the end we declared bankruptcy!

Right after that we had a person come talk to us about how he got to where he was and what he had done in his career. I think this was my favorite presentation because he brought Timbits! The person who had presented to us had started his career off as a Olympic athlete, his dream was to be a track runner but unfortunately he injured himself and wasn’t able to continue so he decided to take up bob sledding where he actually competed at the Olympics for Jamaica! After his career in bob sledding he decided to study kinesiology but oddly enough ended up in finance! This taught us that not everybody knows where they are going to be at the beginning of there career.

After that we got a lunch brake where we went out to a Japanese  restaurant, then to the number one ranked gelato place in the world!

When we got back from lunch we played jeopardy that involve some pension plans and stocks! After a while of that somebody else cam in a talked a retirement plans, she had a website open where we created our own retirement plan. After that my dad toured me aaround the office, I also learned that where my dad works they hold the title of being the largest stock holders in Canada! Once we had tours the building the day was over!

When we where finished we had to fill out a mandatory piece of paper and interview people to find out more about the different areas of your parents work, so here’s a picture of mine

I think I enjoyed learning about the technology they used in the office because it was interesting to see which software and hardware company’s where the best! To tell you the truth I never actually knew what my dad did until this morning, In the end it was really surprising to learn what he actually did! I think that with all the information I actually took away, I would think about getting a job in banking and investing! I think that if I had to choose a career I would want to study medicine, and become a veterinarian. All of the jobs I learned about today where all a big part of stocks so when everything crashed in 2007 it was lots of hard work and stress to bring everything back up and fix it all, I think that would be the only negative part of having this type of job.  This was a great experience that really influenced me and made me really think about what career path I want to choose and what aspects to look for when finding the perfect job for yourself.