Notable Public Servants: Kirsten Dupuy, Former ISED Co-op
Sonja Zoeller, Board Co-Chair at IPAC Victoria, discusses working in public administration with Kirsten Dupuy
This is a regular feature of our newsletter, in which a member of our editorial team interviews a notable public servant. Read their bios at the bottom of the article.
Your first co-op position was with the clean tech team at Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada. Tell me a bit about this position.
That co-op was split up into two parts. I started as a four-month co-op student over a summer term, and that time was focused on working on an independent project where I was looking at the financial performance of clean tech companies in Canada. I spent a ton of time looking at financial statements of public clean tech companies and then wrapped up the term by writing a big report and presenting my findings to the team.
After that, my supervisor kept me on for another part-time co-op term as I finished my last few classes. In that position, I was doing work that is more typical of a policy analyst, things like writing briefing notes and doing research on various topics.
That sounds like great experience. It’s not typical to be able to work on a big research project over a long period of time.
It was an interesting role, but there were also a few challenges that came with it. In most analyst roles, like the one I’m in right now, you have daily or weekly deliverables. Whereas for this position, I was working on one project for the entire four-month period. I had to create strategies to hold myself accountable by setting my own deadlines and my own interim deliverables.
I started each week by writing out to-do list and setting targets for myself to complete tasks, so I could check it off on my to-do list. Without setting those targets for yourself, it’s easy to get a bit lost.
Do you have a sense of how the team utilized your report?
Not many people on the team had a business background, so that was the value I brought – because I had a business minor. I was able to be a resource for business questions. I think the report became a good stepping off point for any future research the clean tech team needs, because now they have this framework for how to go about it.
Tell me a bit about your current role?
Now, I work on the infrastructure and renewable resources team at BCI (British Columbia Investment Management Corporation). I started out in a four-month co-op term and then was kept on as an analyst. I work on the portfolio management and insights team. We look at our portfolio as a whole, and a lot of the work I do is on reporting and monitoring, focusing on the quantitative elements where I'm doing different calculations to measure performance. There's also a qualitative element where I'm doing reporting and presentations.
You’ve now worked with two very different organizations, with different structure and mandates. How has your experience differed working in these two positions?
The two co-op positions, ISED Canada and BCI, were very different experiences. I think one of the main reasons for that is the difference between remote work and in-person hybrid work.
In terms of the actual work that I was doing, one of the biggest changes I noticed very quickly in my co-op position at BCI was how much more responsibility I had. The work that I was doing as a co-op student at BCI was work that needed to get done. If I wasn’t there doing it, then an analyst or someone else would have to do that work. Whereas the work that I was doing for the federal government was more of an independent research project that was designed for me, in the sense that they tailored this project to my skillset. At BCI, I felt there was more responsibility, and I felt a bit more involved in the day-to-day operations as well. The work at BCI was also a bit faster-paced, whereas with the work at the federal government there was a little bit more process involved.
Can you talk a bit more about the challenges of being a co-op student and working remotely? What were some of the strategies you used to overcome those difficulties?
When I was working for the federal government, it was entirely remote. I was in Victoria, BC, and their office was in Ottawa, ON. One of the things I found challenging was being able to connect and communicate with team members. It’s just not the same virtually, and it takes so much more effort, especially as a new member of the team, versus when you're physically working in an office with people, you see them in the coffee room, you chat with them. You have more social interactions. It makes a huge difference.
And because I was working on that independent project, there were days where I didn’t interact with anyone else on the team. I mitigated that by setting up virtual coffee chats with people on my team. I know that's a big thing in the government. I think it’s really important, and it definitely helped.
Do you have any advice for employers of co-op students?
BCI’s co-op program is really awesome in the way that it’s set up. I met so many other co-op students and it felt like I was part of this community. It was helpful as a young professional to be able to talk to peers who are in a similar position. BCI organized social events and lunches for the co-op students and that allowed us to spend time together in a social setting. I’m still friends with some of the people that I met through that experience.
I also think it's valuable when you start a new position to take the time to learn more about the company or the institution. BCI did a really good job of onboarding and exposing the co-op students to all the different asset classes and sides of the business.
Shifting gears, let’s chat about your post-secondary training and education. How you think your education helped prepare you for these positions?
I completed an honours degree in mathematics and a minor in business. It’s an interesting question because I’m not working in mathematics – I’m not working in academics. The business minor gave me a good, fundamental background to be able to tackle both of these roles. When I was working for the federal government, my project was looking at the financial performance of clean tech companies, and it was really helpful to have taken accounting classes that gave me a basic understanding of how to look at financial statements.
There was still a lot that I had to teach myself and learn on the job, but I think that's the case with any position. And then obviously, moving to BCI and entering the world of finance, having that baseline understanding of business structures and business concepts was very helpful. Finance is a really broad subject. And I think the business minor only has one finance class, so I still had a lot to learn.
In both roles, I was doing computation and quantitative analyses and the mathematics major certainly helped prepare me for that. But I think ultimately mathematics is very theoretical. Most of my classes involved high-level logic and problem solving. And so, obviously, I’m not using graph theory and combinatorics in my day-to-day work. But those kinds of classes gave me a problem-solving skillset that is useful in in any industry, and in business especially.
What about some of the softer skills that we all need working in these large organizations?
When you first enter the workforce, you realize how important interpersonal skills are. For instance, knowing how to communicate effectively is huge. I gained a lot of these skills from the part-time jobs I had through university. I worked in restaurants, and those jobs are all about communication and teamwork.
That’s one difference between mathematics and business education. A lot of business programs do a really good job of touching on those soft skills and training, like networking skills. Math is a bit different, it’s much more focused on the academics.
As you enter the workforce, you realize just how important it is to be able to make interpersonal connections. Being an effective team member is about so much more than just your ability to produce good work. Communication is critical. People appreciate if you are inquisitive, ask questions, and show that you’re eager to learn, especially as someone who is newer to a role.
I’ve also learned that paying attention to detail is a skill that people really value. You have to have personal accountability for your job as well as your how you interact with people.
Do you have any advice for recent grads or new professionals just starting to think about starting their job search?
Co-ops are one of the best things that you can do. It helps you get to know what kinds of jobs are out there, what paths you can take, and gives you those early connections with people working in your field. You also need to learn how to network. There is so much power in just talking to people. But no one really tells you that when you’re going down an academic path.
It’s hard for anyone who's graduating to know exactly what they want to do, and I think the best way to figure it out is to try different things. That’s why I recommend co-ops so highly.
Don't narrow yourself off too soon. If I had done that, I would have gone straight from undergrad into a PhD in theoretical math, and then followed a career path of teaching and research, because I thought that's the path I should take. I'm so grateful that I kept my options open and tried different things, because I don't think that would have been the right fit for me. You don't need to know exactly what you want to do when you graduate, keep an open mind and be willing to try different things and try new opportunities.
Where do you see your career going from here? What’s next?
Right now, I'm studying to get my Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) certification. I write my level one exam in February, and that’s one of the first stepping stones for me. I would also like to go back and do my master’s degree at some point.
For now, I'm really enjoying working at BCI. I’m quite surprised by how much I’m enjoying finance. One thing that I would love to incorporate into my career in the future is to focus on the environment and climate change, which is a big topic in finance right now. I can see myself pursuing a master’s program that focuses on finance and climate change.
Kirsten Dupuy completed an eight-month remote co-op with the federal government’s Clean Tech Team at Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED). Kirsten has since joined British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI), the leading provider of investment management services for B.C.’s public sector and one of the largest asset managers in Canada. In her role at BCI, Kirsten works as an analyst within the Infrastructure and Renewable Resources team. Kirsten graduated from the University of Victoria in 2023 with a Bachelor of Science in Honor’s Math and a Minor in Business.
