Education & Learning:

• Bachelor of Arts (Psychology–Honours)

• Completed certification to become a Certified Career Strategies.

• Attend conferences, workshops and training seminars each year to improve skills and enhance knowledge about career advising and planning

 

I remember listening avidly to my family members on Friday nights as they sat around and planned their careers and developed businesses. My cousins and I never lacked for family advice about what we should be doing with our lives. I’m sure that inspired me to want to help others—especially as I listened to the stress of my friends while in university who had no idea what they wanted to do. I have always been curious about human behaviour and development and the ability to thrive and succeed in the world.

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Employment Experiences:

• I worked in a family-run fast food restaurant. I learned about working with the public and loved the ethnic diversity of our neighborhood.

• Late in the second year of my undergraduate degree I was in the university career planning office and asked if I could volunteer with them

 

All of my jobs revolved around helping people—even the early ones working for my family in fast food. As an undergraduate I was able to do “real” research work with our on-campus career planning centre and experiencing firsthand the struggles that many students face when trying to plan their careers after their undergraduate degree. As a volunteer in the career planning office, I began to learn about the incredible diversity of career options that are available to students that many of them knew nothing about. This sparked my interest in pursuing career counselling as a career.

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Community Experiences:

• I worked for three years as a volunteer in a not-for-profit community-based counselling practice. One of the main drivers of this not for profit was providing career skills training for their clients—many of whom did not have a high school diploma and were dealing with mental health and drug addiction issues.

 

Volunteering for a nonprofit assisting their clients in building resumes and preparing for interviews reinforced for me that career advising was the path I was meant to follow after completing my undergraduate degree.

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Contextual Experiences:

• I think it was good that I stayed home to attend university; it allowed me to pursue volunteer opportunities that I would not have been able to if I had needed to work full time to support living on my own

 

I think growing up in a large family that had recently moved to Canada helped me develop the empathy I need for my clients. Seeing my family start from very little and succeed in business and life has been the best encouragement for me to follow my own career path.

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Relationships:

• I had a really great mentor in the university career planning centre. She also had an undergraduate degree in psychology and was incredibly patient with me as I figured out my own path.

• The best supervisor I ever had was the one at the not-for-profit agency. We’re still in touch and she’s someone I can always turn to for professional advice. She’s always calm and full of good suggestions.

 

While I was trying to finish my degree, a close cousin was laid off and I took the skills I had gained while in university to help her build her resume and look for new work. It was so rewarding when she found a new job that was even better than her old one.