My Story: Michael Petrin

1) During the summer of 2014, I had the pleasure of interning at ATB Financial in the
Strategy & Operations division. I constantly experienced the wow factor throughout my
internship as I was amazed with the high employee morale, educational diversity and
overall unique culture of the workplace. From this moment on, I knew that ATB Financial
was not your typical bank, and that my post-graduation goal would be to return as a team
member. I recently attended the ATB 101 Student Mixer and I had the opportunity to meet
Christopher Hamel (Associate Director, Diversified Industries) and
Maximiliano Herrera (Director, Corporate Banking). Through our
conversations I was impressed by their level of enthusiasm for the business,
and how they genuinely wanted to be involved in transforming the banking
landscape and delivering specialized corporate financial services to the
Alberta community. Given Christopher and Maximilianos wealth of
knowledge and their passion for corporate finance, I feel as the Associate
Director Internship would provide a tremendous learning experience and
would continue to give me the wow factor in learning something new and
meaningful every day especially in an environment that embraces
intellectual curiosity.
2) In my first year of business school I was elected to be the Vice President of
Finance for Mount Royal Universitys AIESEC chapter. AIESEC is an
international student-run non-profit organization that specializes in youth
leadership development and international internships. My position required a
tremendous amount of responsibility as it was my fiduciary duty to ensure
compliance with AIESEC Canada and in maintaining the long-term financial
health of our organization. Throughout my tenure as VP I participated in a variety
of national leadership conferences (see bottom right picture in Guelph, Ontario)
and gave talks on youth leadership and financial innovation. This experience
provided me with the opportunity to develop my personal confidence, business
communication skills and entrepreneurial mindset.
3) Trust is arguably the most valuable business commodity and is also a large driver in winning
deals and retaining clients. Trust is developed by being relentlessly committed to servicing
your clients regardless of the nature of the business environment or economic climate. I
*Displayed strongly believe ATB Financial has gained the trust of Albertans by being cognizant of their
pictures financial needs and aspirations. We must realize that if trust is damaged, it is often
summarize irreparable. I personally build trust in my working groups by establishing good
my work communication practices. It is important to create an environment where people can be
experiences, comfortable, confident and safe in order be themselves. When proper communication is
extra- established within working groups, innovation, problem solving and productivity are the
curricular ultimate benefiters. I believe that there is no complex formula when it comes to getting
involvement things done; however, I do believe that in order to accomplish tasks and objectives, one
, hunger for should establish goals (short-term, medium-term, long-term), network with others and be
learning relentlessly committed in order to achieve their set goal or desire. For example, prior to
and starting my undergraduate I realized how competitive the business industry is. I promised
leadership myself that I would be extremely active in pursuing extracurricular activities and internships
roles to supplement my coursework, develop a broad skill-set, and to improve my
competitiveness as a new-graduate. The culmination of my work
experiences, extracurricular involvement, awards and recognitions were the
product of being relentlessly committed and having a vision.