An innovative Canadian technology and consulting firm has brought its operations to Winnipeg, and along with it, ample opportunity for Red River College Polytechnic graduates.

Traction on Demand (ToD) announced an expansion of its offices to Winnipeg in early 2021. Since then, the certified BCorp has hired dozens of Manitobans with plans to onboard even more. As an RRC Polytech industry partner, many of these hires are Red River College Polytechnic grads.

Headquartered in Burnaby, B.C. with operations across Canada, the United States, India, New Zealand, and Australia, ToD is North America’s largest dedicated Salesforce integrator and consulting firm. May 2021 marked 15 years for the company, and they recently welcomed their 1,000th “Tractionite” to the team.

Two of these Tractionites are Red River College Polytechnic graduates Anton Stroy and Richard Schentag, who joined the company in May 2021 after graduating from the Business Information Technology program in December 2020.

In their roles as developers, Story and Schentag develop custom features for the Salesforce platform and support technology implementation and integration for clients and organizations.

ToD focuses on creating a healthy, positive work environment for its employees, an aspect that both Stroy and Schentag notice and appreciate about the job. While the company has shifted to a remote work environment, their efforts to maintain culture, collaboration, and communication have resulted in the creation of new products, like Traction Gather, a digital engagement hub where weekly internal meetings are held for all employees across the globe.

Traction strives to create a place of belonging, friendship, diversity, accountability, and equity with each other as Tractionites through justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) initiatives. It also aims to harness the power of community to celebrate the inclusion of all humans and to leverage business and relationships as a force for good.

“Traction has a very good culture—it puts people first, and I like this about the company. I was worried when I graduated, as I wanted to find a company where the culture is good, and I wanted to fit in,” said Stroy.

“They make a conscious effort to build culture and trust among the team,” agreed Schentag. “We dedicate time each month to have a one-on-one with another team member. They also want us to set career goals every year. If your team isn’t the right fit for you, you can move to a team that better aligns with your career goals. It’s a great place to excel and to learn.”

As Business Information Technology students, Stroy and Schentag took courses in full-stack web development, mobile application development and business management. They learned both the technical skills and career development knowledge needed to succeed in their industry.

“It’s a great program because it’s not an easy one. I think one of the things it prepares you for is understanding that you need to work hard,” said Stroy.

“You can maybe learn a similar set of skills in another program, but it will take you a take a year and a half longer. It’s a really condensed program, so you have to be prepared to learn a lot in a little amount of time,” adds Schentag.

They both point to the program’s required professional development courses as particularly useful when looking for jobs after graduation. In these courses, Stroy and Schentag learned to efficiently manage their time, give formal presentations, write a resume, and impress at interviews.

“It was absolutely worth taking those classes and I’m happy that I paid attention. Those things were very useful—I use them literally every day now,” said Schentag.

During his time in the program, Schentag secured a paid internship with Optimiz, a Toronto-based company that specializes in IT service management, workflow automation, and infrastructure monitoring, where he believes his role as an associate consultant helped him land his job at ToD. 

Stroy completed a co-op position as a security analyst with the Government of Manitoba. Here, he gained valuable experience working as part of a team, improved his communication skills, and advanced his familiarity working in an office environment. He too credits his position in getting hired so quickly after graduation.

Looking ahead, both Stroy and Schentag are excited by the opportunities ToD can provide for Winnipeggers, and Red River College Polytechnic students in particular.

“It’s a great career, there are so many directions to take, and it’s free to learn new skills,” said Stroy. “Salesforce is the number one CRM platform right now in the world and it’s growing fast. Many jobs will be created in the future.”

Profile by Riley Chervinski (Creative Communications, 2016)

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