Business – Management and Entrepreneurship graduate builds a career through curiosity and connection

Posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2026

Albatoul Abusneina at Convocation. When Albatoul Abusneina decided to join the College’s Business – Management and Entrepreneurship (BME) program, she expected to gain an aptitude for practical business knowledge and skills for a career in entrepreneurship.

What she did not expect was for her time in BME to reshape the way she understood business and how the relationships she built along the way would help pave the path for her next opportunity. Her experience at the College was “way more important than I expected going in,” and her program “gave me skills and frameworks to practice that I still use now.”

A pillar of her experience at the College was her work as a research assistant at the Social Innovation Lab. The role gave her a firsthand introduction to social enterprises and helped her to see how business can be used as an agent of positive change, not simply to generate profit.

“It fundamentally changed how I think about business and what it means to be an entrepreneur,” she said.

Abusneina recently began working as an associate business and project coordinator at Revolution Data Platforms, an opportunity that came about from a contact she had made early in her College career.

“I met the CEO at my very first networking event,” Abusneina said. “He was a panelist, and I asked him some questions afterward. I kept in touch because I admired how he spoke and how logical and thoughtful his answers were. I could tell he was someone I could learn from. Months later, when this role opened up, he remembered me and referred me for it.”

Networking, according to Abusneina, “opened way more doors than I ever expected,” which she chalked up to a desire to connect with people she genuinely liked and respected.

While studying, she also took part in a once-weekly leadership program called Mindtrust, where she connected with peers and mentors and got an even greater understanding of what it meant to be a leader. This was “such an invaluable experience,” said Abusneina.

She was additionally invited to speak at an Ottawa Salesforce user group event and, in 2024, participated in the Crunch, a pitch competition for entrepreneurs that saw competitors from the College, La Cité, the University of Ottawa and Carleton University.

When asked what advice she would give to current students, she highlighted going to events even when the benefit might not be readily obvious.

“Show up to things even when you don’t know why yet,” said Abusneina. “I’ve gone to events just to learn, and connected with people simply because I liked them, and that’s opened way more doors than any strategic networking ever could. You can’t plan that kind of thing; it [just] happens when you’re paying attention and being real with people.”

Additionally, she suggested that graduates should not wait for the “perfect” job and should instead take opportunities that will help them realistically achieve their goals.

“I took on opportunities that weren’t exactly what I wanted for the rest of my life, but I’ve never taken on anything I wasn’t interested or passionate about in some shape or form,” she said. “Say yes to the random stuff, speaking opportunities, competitions, events, whatever it is, you never know what it turns into. And mostly, just be yourself, the right people will naturally gravitate towards you.”


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