Changing careers can be daunting, and even more so after you’ve established yourself in a career for a few years. Most of your contacts are in your initial industry, and switching careers usually involves more continuing education on your own time with personal sacrifices, not to mention ensuring it doesn’t interfere with your current career. Once you do have the education behind you, you need to make the move. I did just that.
This month I’ll be celebrating 13 years in the professional workforce. After six companies, two promotions and an MBA somewhere in the middle of all that, I constantly remind myself to run my own race.
I had sold my previous business and was looking to start a new one. I spent about 3 years searching for a business that could make money and have a good growth rate. This included going back to Ryerson to complete my MBA; I felt an MBA would give me a different point of view and help me evaluate my business opportunities.
Before I graduated in 2006 with a B.Comm, major in finance and a minor in marketing, I thought I knew exactly what my career path would look like. As it turned out, there’s more to life than an office on Bay Street and the allure of dollar bills.
There’s a lot written about reinvention these days. Most of the editorials are about companies. The drivers are those who fix their businesses before they break. The passengers are the ones who avoid reinvention for as long as they can, and the roadkill are the companies that never deal with transformation or leave it so late that the business is already toast.
Continue reading “Attention baby boomers: Are you ready to reinvent yourself?”
Whether you’re a new graduate, an established professional or somewhere in between, lifelong learning is something we can all aspire to. Now in its second year, our Alumni Blog has become a valuable source of career advice for alumni, by alumni – a platform to share ideas and build connections. As 2017 comes to close, we’re looking back to our favourite lessons from the past year.
Continue reading “Best of the blog: A 2017 recap”
After years of unintentionally complicating my career path, I learned some valuable lessons. I studied Food and Nutrition at Ryerson and went on to work as a clinical dietitian, and later, still within the food industry, in PR/communications and business operations. All the while, even though I enjoyed many aspects of these jobs, I felt lost and unfulfilled. I also had serious misconceptions about the possibilities of my degree.
Continue reading “6 steps to get your dream career”
The post-grad real world is both exhilarating and challenging; I’m constantly growing both professionally and personally. Although I graduated in 2015, my learning continued outside the classroom. One of my top takeaways is to think about collaboration more seriously in the workplace. Continue reading “4 reasons why collaboration is the way of the future”
People are the foundation of any organization and are essential to the bottom line. I began my career in finance, but after taking a few Human Resources contract roles, my passion grew because of the value it brought to an organization. Continue reading “10 hiring tips from an HR insider”
When I am hiring for an entry-level position and see a degree on an application, my first reaction is, “Good. What else?” The reality is that a university degree is simply no longer very unique. There are, in fact, more than twice as many students attending university today as there were in 1980, and the proportion of Canadians with a degree continues to rise sharply every year. While a university degree has always been proven to be an effective baseline for the job market, it is becoming increasingly necessary for graduates to prove their value to employers above and beyond their degrees. Continue reading “How new grads can demonstrate value beyond their degrees”
