Business Administration Experience Carries Railroader to Management Position

When Jonn Olson was just 18 years old, he joined CP Rail (now known as Canadian Pacific Kansas City Southern, or CPKC) shortly after his high school graduation. After thousands of miles on the rails as a conductor, however, he wasn’t happy with where his career was going.

“I was looking to make a change,” he says. “There were a few reasons, work-life balance. I just wanted to make a change in my career path. I had put my resignation in there in May of 2022, and I wasn’t sure where I was planning to go at that time.”

Four months later, Jonn entered Assiniboine’s Business Administration program. “I thought the program would put me in line with a career that would be most aligned with my interests,” he says. “I was originally going to go into financial services, but then I switched to accounting in my first year.”

Two years later, Jonn graduated from the program, and crossed the stage at our June graduation ceremony. During his time at the college, he also served as the Assiniboine Students’ Association President for the final year of his studies.

“It’s a great program. It sets the students up to succeed. The soft skills that you gain, the experience that you’re gaining in it, it’s all relevant to the workplace.”

“Having experienced a workplace before I came back to the classroom, I was able to relate what we were being taught back to what I had seen in the workplace.”

Jonn feels that the Business Administration courses he has taken at Assiniboine have helped him to better understand management practices from his days at CP Rail.

“I’ve seen the relevance of information that we’re being taught,” he says. “Being able to relate it back to something and go ‘well, that’s why they operated that way,’ or ‘that’s why they did something that way.’ It made sense, and having that connection helped me much more.”

Like many Assiniboine students, Jonn has a job waiting for him following graduation and, though he thought he was leaving the railway industry two years ago, he will be returning to CPKC Rail. This time, in a management position.

“I’ll be going into the operations side,” he says. “That is, back with the trains. It’s the same area where I was, but it’s in a different capacity now.”

As to why he chose to return to CPKC, he says that “CPKC is an excellent employer. I really like the rail industry and I’m a fifth-generation railroader. I hope to go as far as I am able to with the skills and abilities that I have obtained through working at CPKC as a conductor and what I’ve learned in the classroom at Assiniboine.”

For those entering the Business Administration program, or those considering the program, Jonn has some helpful advice: “Make the most of it. Show initiative. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Assiniboine, the Business Administration program, the way it sets up students for success, there’s so much potential there with what we learn.”

“With Assiniboine, if the student is willing to put in the work, the effort and show the initiative, where they go in their career, it’s off the charts.”