This week’s Conversations with Goodman guest is Goodman graduate Jacinta Vanderheyden (BBA ’13), who talks to host Susan LeBlanc about how her experience at the Goodman School of Business led her to a great full-time job after graduating.

During her time as a student, Vanderheyden became very involved in co-curricular activities and worked her way up at the Goodman Business Students’ Association (BSA), the umbrella organization for seven other Goodman student clubs.

In her fourth year, Vanderheyden took on the vice president human resources role where she oversaw volunteer coordinators and played an instrumental role in planning the University’s involvement in the annual 5 Days for the Homeless campaign where students volunteer to sleep outside for five nights to raise awareness of at-risk youth and youth homelessness in communities across Canada.

The campaign, which raises both monetary and food donations for Community Care of St. Catharines and Thorold, was a stepping stone for Vanderheyden’s career. In her student leadership position, she established relationships in the local business community while she raised corporate sponsorship funds for the campaign, which ultimately led to her first post-graduation job.

From there, she moved to HBC where she now works as a talent and development manager. She credits the start of her career in human resources to her time at Goodman where she customized her experience to fit her career goals.

“Not being in co-op, I ended up building my experience whether it was through outlets like clubs, being the VP HR, conferences and competitions, and gaining employment on campus,” she said. “I also built my experience around making connections in the community.”

Her advice for current students is to make the most of their university experience.

“The people you meet, the skills that you gain, the experiences that you have are comparable to none. The most important thing is to make it an experience and do that by getting out there, exploring and getting to know all the different opportunities that are in front of you.”

This podcast is the latest in the Conversations with Goodman series which is produced by the Goodman Marketing, Communications and Alumni Relations team and features guests from the Goodman community.