From France to Finance

Victor Crindal ’14
Major: Business-Finance

Tell us about your journey to Concordia.

As soon as I applied, the International Admission staff were outstandingly warm and welcoming, and I felt at home before even being here. The process was smooth, personalized, and made it very easy to make meaningful connections as soon as I arrived.

How did your student experiences prepare you for what you are doing today?

Little did I know before Concordia that everything I would get involved with in this community would prepare me just as much as the classes I decided to take. As a liberal arts college, I had a chance to experience different classes and meet many people, American and international, with different backgrounds. From taking the Religion and the Body course, to studying ethics and leadership, to helping with the operations of a coffee shop on campus, to getting involved with the international student body – all of this has prepared me to be a more meaningful leader in my current role, and I see it as an important contributor to my future dreams and projects. Had I known it would carry so much weight in my life moving forward, I might have done even more!

What is your current job?

I’m a freelance business and financial consultant and work for companies like Orgallic. I’m also a culinary cook at Disney World. I started this freelance position in 2015, but it took more and more weight, and I am hoping to focus more of my time on it. Having a global and ethical perspective of the world of business and finance combined with the broader understanding that liberal arts disciplines allowed me to gain, has been at the core of what I do as a consultant. The Offutt School of Business was also key in preparing me for the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) examinations. Prior to this position, I also worked as a Starbucks store manager. My experience at Concordia’s coffee shop not only helped me obtain the position, but it also prepared me to more tactfully manage my relationships with different stakeholders of the company and gave me a broader understanding of all the things involved in running a business besides what is learned in a classroom. It allowed me to be pragmatic right from the start.

What do you find fulfilling about your work?

People have often asked me why I do what I do. Their point seems to be the following: With your background and your experience, you should be making a lot of money on Wall Street right now. The truth is, despite the fact that I am very ambitious by nature, Concordia taught me the importance of doing what you love in a meaningful way. In my current position (and previously at Starbucks), I have the opportunity to serve communities around me to make the world a better place overall. All of that puts enough food on the table, and I still have enough to travel and enjoy life to the fullest extent. Besides, this interesting phenomenon has been happening: Every time I take a vacation, I end up at Starbucks, working on my freelance job from my laptop. When you do what you love, in an environment that you love, with people that you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life.

A big factor to my current fulfillment is the recognition that my work is meaningful. When I was at Starbucks, I dove into the company mission “to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time” and I look to continue that in my new job. I strive every day to help people in my community to move forward, mindful of how that impacts other communities around the world.

^{Published November 2018}