Hougen assembled a 25-minute PowerPoint presentation, explaining his background and what monetary advisors do – planning, investing, and mentoring shoppers, after which maintaining them on monitor. Greater than 150 college students attended, and he ended up answering questions for an additional 85 minutes – 40 minutes after the presentation and one other 45 minutes with college students milling round.
“The scholars actually needed to know: ‘The place’s the on-ramp? Who will we speak to?’ It was so very sensible,” Hougen instructed Wealth Skilled, noting there have been a spread of questions, however that was the preferred.
“I went to Simon Fraser College enterprise college within the late ‘80s,” he continued. “I want someone like me would have come to the college and done the talk that I did. I’d have come into the enterprise sooner. On the time, I didn’t know something. My dad and mom weren’t super-wealthy, so I didn’t have a connection to the business. So, I believed: ‘right here’s my likelihood. I may do one thing like that’.”
The enterprise was so successful that Hougen and his employees at the moment are working with two Calgary universities to do the identical factor subsequent spring. He additionally plans to return to Thomson College each two or three years, as soon as there’s been some pupil turnover.
Whereas the extent of engagement was extraordinarily excessive, many college students have additionally reached out to him on LinkedIn since – nonetheless asking questions – regardless that he steered they speak to Raymond James’ human sources employees.