[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Giles_Ryan1.jpg” caption=”Ryan Giles, a third-year commerce student, is working as a treasury operations assistant. Photo courtesy of Ryan Giles.”]Making sense of dollars and cents is what Ryan Giles does as a treasury operations assistant at McMaster's Downtown Centre. The third-year commerce student plans on pursuing a career in the financial field.

“My position is fun, exciting, it changes every day and it is constantly a learning process,” says Giles, who has been working full-time over the summer and will continue to work part-time when he goes back to school in September.

His responsibilities include researching market prices for investments given to the University, checking the accuracy of investment transactions, developing and maintaining a filing system and computing rates of returns.

Working as a treasury operations assistant gave Giles the opportunity to apply what he learned in school. He also developed a better understanding of how the University's cash flow, pension plan and investments are managed.

“Ryan brings a very positive and friendly personality every day, not just to us, but to everyone on the fifth floor,” says Annette Di Diodato, Giles's supervisor. “He is efficient in any project we have given to him.”

In addition to his work and academic responsibilitites, Giles is also the public relations associate for the 29th McMaster World Congress, an international business conference that will be held at the Hamilton Convention Centre in January 2008.

The student job profile is a weekly series about students working on campus.