Terry Louie - Bachelor of Commerce in Entrepreneurial Management (BCom)
New friends and new networks, and the degree, will open doors you’ve never imagined.
Working almost two decades in retail has been a rewarding career, but I knew excelling at my job would take higher education. Being a leader in what you do requires more than on-the-job training and life experience — it also requires a solid academic background.
Born and raised in Vancouver, I spent 14 years after high school working at A&B Sound as a sales manager before switching to Harry Rosen, a high-end men’s clothing store. Retail management requires long hours and is demanding work, while wearing many hats; hiring, training, accounting, customer service and IT services fall on my shoulders.
As much as I enjoy retail work, I want to generate more business opportunities in my life and have the skills to take advantage of anything I pursue. My wife encouraged me to go back to school, but I needed to keep working and have more flexibility than traditional university life.
We researched different schools, and Royal Roads University’s Bachelor of Commerce program was perfect. It is a two-year completion degree, and a few prerequisite courses in B.C. and Alberta got me up to speed, but being accepted in was in large part due to my years of management experience.
Royal Roads had a good reputation, and my clientele at Harry Rosen reinforced that. When I mentioned I was a student at RRU, many of our (generally wealthy) customers either were alumni or had heard positive things about the university.
After being out of school for almost half my life, being back in class was a serious shock to the system. But the team based learning smoothed the transition back to student life. It was great to make new friends and to network with people with similar goals.
The online portion of the degree was tough. It meant finding a balance between work, spending time with my family and doing homework every night. To be honest, coming to this beautiful campus for our three residencies was like a vacation. Well, a vacation that allowed me to focus solely on schoolwork.
The skills I learned at RRU will apply to the short and long term to support the goals of my organization. I want to do my current job exceedingly well. If other opportunities come up, I’ll see where that leads me.
I would say to future students, be prepared to commit to two years of late nights and studying hard. But make sure you manage your time to have a work-life balance. It’s all worth it in the end. New friends and new networks, and the degree, will open doors you’ve never imagined.
