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When your company offers you the means to achieve your ambitions, take the chance and turn it into an opportunity to move up the ladder.
Senior Tax Manager Olivier Levesque shares his story about how by jumping feet first into what life throws our way, we can move forward successfully.
What makes your career path unique?
The summer I obtained my bachelor’s degree, I did an internship in taxation at the Chicoutimi office. The team must have seen something in me, because I was offered a consultant position before I even started my master’s degree. In my second tax season, I was invited to comment on the federal and provincial budgets on the radio. That was the opportunity that launched my career.
I loved this experience and, the following year, I was offered the chance to participate in the government budget analysis during the lockdown. For two years, in 2018 and 2019, I was there with my team at the lockdown and was invited to discuss it in various media outlets.
I was also invited to co-host the 2019 partners’ meeting and make myself known to the firm’s partners. By saying “yes” to an interview (even though I wasn’t sure I was up to the task), I opened doors to several projects that I am passionate about.
That’s the beauty of working in a team like mine. Regardless of my title, years of experience or age, I had the support of my bosses to go for it.
What do you think is the key to success?
If my story can teach anything to people starting out in an accounting firm, it’s probably that, to be successful, you have to seize every opportunity, internally and externally!
For me, success is far from being measured by my title. If you’re satisfied with being a manager or consultant, you’re confined to one role. To move forward, you have to go beyond responsibilities and expectations. You have to create tasks for yourself, always say “yes” and, most important, make sure you deliver something you can be proud of every time.
Whether the project is big or small, it’s worth the effort because you never know into whose hands it might end up. In my experience, it’s very rare to sow a seed and nothing grows, it’s just some things take time!