WCM | The Virtual Hustle

By WCM | April 24, 2020

A Note from WCM: We are here, working from home and adapting to a new normal like all of you. We continue to hustle in honouring our programming and developing new content to continue advancing and supporting our incredible community of students, professionals, sponsors and partners.  Our communications are being regularly delivered with updates on our work, advocacy and new initiatives, shared across our channels. In crisis we find our strength, individually, as firms and as an industry. If ever there was a time to unite, it is now.


Return to Bay Street (RTBS) - we extended the application period to Monday, April 27th for our renowned returnship program Return to Bay Street. This week we successfully hosted over 100 prospective candidates for an educational and engaging half day informational webinar conference. Be sure to share information on RTBS with those in your network who are interested in relaunching their capital markets careers. Transform someone's career today.

NEW High School Educational Video Series- in support of online learning for high school students, WCM's Senior Manager of Student Programs, Victoria Miller, has developed a new video educational series titled "5 Questions with..." launching early May, 2020.  Through this series, high school students are about to learn a lot more about capital markets, which explores 10 different paths from high school to the launch of a career in finance. All students from across Canada will be able to access this exciting new digital content to help them discover the variety of roles and opportunities available to them in our industry. Spread the word to any high school students in your network. 


WCMElevate
- we continue to honour our WCM Elevate curriculum virtually to program participants. With 90% attendance rate and engaging Q&A sessions, our panelists offered valuable insights into how they have managed to reach the highest ranks of their careers and how to navigate through uncertain times in their posts. 

WCMAspire - our programming has been and will continue to be hosted virtually via Zoom webcasting with future sessions set for the remaining duration of the program. With high attendance and engagement, we hosted a webinar session led by industry professionals as they shared their views on 'what they wished they knew early on in their careers'.


WCM's Professional and Student Mentorship programs - have continued to progress well with mentor and protegee meetings being held virtually or by phone. Wisdom sharing and the human connection has proven to be especially rewarding at a time of self-isolation.

NEW Virtual Events- as we adapt, we empower our community to continue learning and growing. We have been working on the development of new virtual programming to support the professional development, training and skill building of our WCM community:

Learn the Art of Effective Virtual Communication (April 29) - this webinar, facilitated by business communications coach Neil Grammer will focus on how to improve your presentation and communication skills and how to create a consistent approach to effectively communicate in a virtual world.  

Development Plans in Uncertain Times (May 28 & June 4) - in partnership with executive coach Susan Richardson, our second new program offering is a three part event series.  Beginning with the globally recognized Facet5™ personality assessment, Susan then takes program participants on a deep dive of their assessment results and completes the series with a session on how to build out your professional development plans.  

WCM and The Marquee Group | Technical Skills Virtual Workshops - Still in the planning stages, these workshops will include both Excel and Python educational content as well as an overview of Capital Markets. Sessions will offer professional development and training opportunities for new professional entrants and summer students. With our first 8 hour training session Python 1: Core Data Analysis set for May 20-21. Other sessions and details to follow soon, stay tuned!  


WCM Research - suggests that the path to progress is rooted in delivering equality to all. The study investigates how different demographic groups, including gender, ethnic background and sexual orientation, experience the workplace and recommends a new frontier toward equality.


Champions of Change - our 2020 Champions, those who are proving themselves to be a driving force behind equality, will be virtually celebrated and recognized this summer. We have already begun planning for Gala 2021 where we will be thrilled to recognize our 2020 and 2021 Champions of Change in person at the event.


WCM's CSO Katie Squires-Thompson offers insights on how to make working remotely work for you, in a recent and timely interview with 'the thread's' Xenia Chen, a blog with content curated by conversations with working women. 

Now that's hustle!

What is your reaction to the fact that the 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women will be chaired by a man?