Redwan Baba (Full-Time MBA, ’22) made a smooth transition from his first career to a second, unrelated one, and he credits Rotman’s Flexible Internship Program with some of this success.
Redwan Baba (Full-Time MBA, ’22)
“In my internship, I definitely learned how to apply principles of finance in real time and look at business opportunities with an investors mindset,” Baba says.
Baba studied civil engineering at the University of Toronto, and was previously employed by Stantec, an engineering consultant firm. He enjoyed his work, and was part of some exciting projects, like Google’s Sidewalk Labs in Toronto - a large-scale urban plan to modernize Toronto’s waterfront. But during that time, he also started to get involved in personal investing, and that’s when Baba really began to acquire a passion for finance.
“I'd always found business and financial markets to be interesting,” Baba explains. “But once I started working and had some of my own money to really put into the market, I naturally started paying more attention and really enjoyed learning more about what makes a great business, and what makes a great investment.”
He says he enjoyed engineering, but it wasn’t where he saw his future. “I started to think more about business as a career, and especially consulting or finance. I liked how the field can be so open-ended. You can work across broad industries, well into your career.” In 2020, Baba enrolled in Rotman’s Full-time MBA.
This is why Baba says Rotman’s internship was particularly useful. He did his at SLC Management, an asset management arm of Sun Life.
At Rotman, internship opportunities fall between scheduled classroom time, and are typically 12 to 14 weeks, with varying opportunities across sectors. Students work with career coaches to find suitable roles.
Rob Woon-Fat was Baba’s career coach at Rotman’s Career Services. He says Baba was an excellent candidate for his internship at Sun Life, largely due to his diverse extracurricular and volunteer experience.
“Redwan's competitive advantage for his internship at Sun Life was in his ability to blend his leadership experience as captain of the Tri-Campus Soccer Team, his dedication to community service with organizations like Islamic Relief Canada and his analytical and problem-solving prowess honed through projects at Stantec,” Woon-Fat says.
“This unique combination not only demonstrated his versatility but also aligns perfectly with what Sun Life seeks in a prospective intern – a dynamic person with strong leadership, analytical and community-oriented skills.”
Rotman’s Flexible Internship Program is a key ingredient for an MBA student’s overall path to success, Woon-Fat says. “Students have the flexibility to apply classroom knowledge in real-world settings, honing their skills through communication and reflection,” he says. “With comprehensive feedback and coaching, the internship ensures students are well-prepared for the challenges of the business world.”
Today, Baba works in Toronto as an Associate for Oliver Wyman – a management consultancy that helps companies optimize business operations and accelerate performance. He’s on their private capital team, helping private-equity firms conduct due diligence on potential target companies - this involves developing a deep understanding of the target company and the target company’s market. Over the course of these projects Redwan will be responsible for conducting analyses including market sizing, assessing the competitive landscape/right-to-win of market participants, and understanding the broader impact of macro trends on the companies that the clients are looking to buy.
Redwan says his time at Rotman, particularly certain classes and his internship, really helped prepare him for this role. “The private equity course at Rotman along with the internship at SLC Management helped me understand the financial and private markets landscape.”
“These experiences opened my eyes to another entirely different career path.”
Written by Meaghan MacSween | More Student Stories »