Centennial College has a long history of setting its graduates up for success, and sometimes, those accomplished alumni return to help the next generation put their careers in motion.
When it comes time to transition from being a student to starting a career, it takes more than just skills and knowledge. It takes the kind of career connections you can only get from networking with professionals in the field. And that’s one of the things that Centennial College’s Grad Month, happening this March, is all about, connecting students to graduates, so those connections can be made.
One of those accomplished graduates is Loveraj Grewal. An international student, Loveraj came to Centennial from India for a postgraduate in International Business Management, and has gone on to work in higher education, helping connect international students with international learning to help support them in achieving career success.
When it comes to networking, Loveraj typically connects with Centennial College students through Ten Thousand Coffees, a networking platform to connect students and grads with alumni and industry professionals. Here’s how Loveraj got to where he is, and why networking is so integral to his, and your success.
A Student without a Network
Before coming to Canada, Loveraj would take a Bachelor of Business Administration in India. In his own words, his attempts to turn his education into a career were held up by the fact that he didn’t engage in any networking at all during his high school and undergraduate programs.
“I was totally naive when it comes to what’s in the industry, what's in the business world,” Loveraj admits, “because where I come from, both the professional and family culture is that we are not first allowed to work during our high school days, even take volunteer jobs.”
“When it comes to getting a job, understanding the industry and finding opportunities, it was hard because we had no idea what networking is,” he adds.
“Because I was still not sure of what it is that I wanted for my life, I thought maybe it’s a good idea to get a job and learn from hands-on training,” he says, about what he did after that first round of schooling. “So after six months of a job, I knew and decided that I would want to enhance my skill set by further adding onto my education.”
Making Centennial Connections
Upon coming to Canada, and taking International Business Management at Centennial, Loveraj would experience a culture shock in more ways than one, but it was something he’d soon turn into an advantage.
“The first semester, the first three months I had no idea what I was doing,” he says. “In terms of education, yes, I had an idea. I connected with the faculty very well, and made really good connections with my peers, but I was overwhelmed with culture shock from the diversity of students from all around the world in the classroom, and learning about them.”
After a few months, things would settle down, and he’d discover one of his programs biggest assets: The students he was learning with
“The students that I was studying with, they were amazing,” he says. “You learn more from your peers than you actually learn from the textbook, because it was a professional program.”
“I only had six, seven months of experience after my undergrad, so I could relate very little to what I was learning, because of that less professional experience,” he explains. “But students in my classroom were 10 years older than me, they had seven to eight years of experience. And they’d come from Columbia, Dubai, Qatar, Bahrain, or other countries. They would give examples from their previous experience on topics that we were discussing, and it would make more sense than just reading the topic itself, because I could visualize what they were saying about a case study from their real life experience on this particular topic.“
Starting his Career
During his schooling, Loveraj would finagle a placement that would see him working at a food manufacturing company in Ontario, where he’d learn about sales and event launches, then an internship at Western Union, where he’d learn about foreign exchange. In terms of his post-school career, though, he emphasizes that there was no planning on his part, and he was spending time trying to find his niche and passion.
“I used the hit and trial method, and the learn and grow as you go method,” he says. He knew two things: What he liked and didn’t like.
“I loved working with people, and I hated logistics and finance,” he says.
“It's very important for students, once they're done with their studies, to learn about themselves as quickly as possible,” he says. “What's my potential? What is it that I like to do? What is it I would want to do in life? Because I know my strengths, I wanted to get involved in work opportunities and projects, both in my personal and professional life, that revolve around those strengths.”
“I know that my niche is higher education,” he says, as an example. “It is my passion industry.”
Where he’s at Today
“Today, I'm doing multiple things,” Loveraj says. “The first thing I'm doing is a full time job working as a functional consultant, which is very challenging for me, because I don't come from a technology background, and this is a SAAS based organization, it sells ‘Software as a Service,’ and their market is higher education. The reason they hired me is because I come from a higher education background, so they saw my expertise, and that my strengths lie in the scope of work of a functional consultant.”
“At the same time, I have two companies that I'm running right now,” loverajhe continues. “One is called GradWins Consulting, because I wanted to give back to the international student community. So I opened a company, and it's a very new project, so I wouldn't talk much about it. But just to give you a quick hint, we support international students, or those who want to come to Canada. And the first and foremost way is to eliminate the guesswork from their academic and career journey. The guesswork that I did for myself, I don't want the students to do that.”
“And the second company is an immigration and education company, which is located in India,” he says. “I'm one of the directors of the company, and we focus on academic and career counseling, study visa guidance, and language classes.”
He’s also working on various other small projects with friends and family, and even has his own YouTube channel.
Networking with Ten Thousand Coffees
“There were things that I could have done better, like using the resources at Centennial,” Loveraj admits about his time as a student, “but I was not able to, because there was no planning done at my end.” Still, he did engage in a bit of informal networking with his fellow students, and the faculty he learned under. And after he graduated, he was eager to pass on what he knew to other students, something that would eventually lead him to Ten Thousand Coffees.
“After I graduated, but before the graduate networking sessions, and before Ten Thousand Coffees, I was already networking with individual students,” he says. “I was connecting with students via LinkedIn, students from Centennial would reach out to me. I was doing it pro bono, just out of my passion, just to help someone.”
“But the moment I found out about Ten Thousand Coffees, it was amazing,” he says. “I was trying to connect with one student at a time earlier. But with Ten Thousand Coffees, I was able to connect with a number of students from Centennial, thanks to Centennial having a hub there.”
“I built a profile, started connecting with people, and then made a lot of connections with students,” he says. “And trust me, it's not just one way, it's a two way thing. So I also learned a lot from a lot of students at Centennial,”
“Some of those students come with 15 years of experience, more than I have,” he says. “So they learn something from me, but I learn a lot from them during our conversations.”
“I wish I knew about this back in 2010,” he says. “I would have made a profile and made more connections, because that's very important for a student to build connections and networking.”
The Most Important Tip
As a veteran of networking, Loveraj has two important pieces of advice to share with students looking to make important career connections.
“The mentality of an average student, when it comes to networking, is to find a job,” he says. “And that's not the right approach towards networking.”
“The end goal is to learn whatever you want to learn about the industry, about a person, about a skill set, about a job role or responsibility, or in general anything, and just start building a relation,” he explains.
As his second tip, he says that networking is a two-way process. “So whenever you're networking, instead of looking into only what you can gain from that person, you should find something that you can give to that person, as well. What value can you bring on the table, or add to the conversation? That's what networking is for me.”
“How you get to know what you can bring to the table is by knowing about yourself, when you self-explore, you have self awareness,” he says. “If you know about your strengths. And there are tools that you can use to find your strengths, such as the StrengthsFinder Test, which is a scientific tool to find your potential, and then switch it on.”
Words of Wisdom
“I'm still learning. So what wisdom could I bring to the table?” Loveraj says, before settling on the importance of constantly learning.
“Learn from challenges and change is what I'm going to say,” he says. “You don't have to just adapt to a change. You have to grow with the change. It’s not just about adapting, it’s about growing with the situation. The mentality a student should have is how they can learn from that challenge or that change.”
During Grad Month, there will be plenty of opportunities to take Loveraj’s advice to heart, as Centennial College will be hosting virtual and in-person events that will include networking opportunities with alumni, a perfect opportunity to follow his footsteps into finding a career that fits you.