Career Crossroads: Recent Episodes
Jonathan Collaton
Getting to where you want to be in your career is not always as linear as we might think. Not everyone picks one career path and sticks to it for the rest of their lives, and lots of people are confused about what they want out of their career. On Career Crossroads, host Jonathan Collaton explores the stories of everyday people who have made pivots along their career journey. Starting with the question 'what did you want to be when you grew up?", they discuss all the jobs they have had, the people that influenced them, and both the expected and unexpected decisions that led them to their present career. They reflect on how sometimes we have these 'crossroads' moments where we must pick one thing over another, and they dig into the reasons why those decisions were made. The episodes are about the guests and their career stories.
All good things must come to an end. It's been a wonderful journey over the last 3+ years but today marks the end of Career Crossroads.
In this final episode of the podcast, I discuss why I'm saying goodbye and thank those who have helped me make it this far.
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
#100 - Like most kids, Mike developed his musical tastes as a teenager. He liked a wide range of bands and one day decided to try and mash up a couple of his favorite songs and publish the mix on YouTube. That simple action had a much bigger impact than Mike ever could have predicted. It was the first step in launching his YouTube channel which at its peak had over 325,000 subscribers and was getting up to 2 million views per month.
In this interview, we talk through Mike's early career plans that led him to university, the ride of his YouTube channel, and why he left it behind to begin a career in Student Affairs.
Find Mike's YouTube channel at youtube.com/@MagikMikeOFFICIAL
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
#99 – As Betty Xie headed toward post-secondary education, she had a plan: study math because that would lead her to a good job. The closer she got to starting classes, the more she realized that while that was practical and she had a talent for it, she wasn’t actually interested in math and the career options it would provide. Instead of looking at studying something similar but more interesting, Betty decided she wanted to explore perhaps the farthest areas of study from math - cinema studies and contemporary Asian studies.
Upon graduation, she followed parallel paths of film creator and arts administrator and further education until burnout finally hit and she realized she needed to make a choice. Her experience with further education led her to realize that while she could help organizations as an arts administrator, it was when she was helping individuals that she really thrived. That realization led Betty to her current path of career coaching with a specialization in helping creatives.
Find Betty on LinkedIn, Instagram, or on her website at xiebetty.com
You can also find her on The Everyday Talent Podcast and take her Creative Career Archetype
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
98 - Matt Cooksey ended up in his first career because he was following a family member's footsteps, and it took him almost a decade to realize he wasn't happy. He was always chasing something - more money or a promotion - that would make him happy, right?
It wasn't until he unexpectedly broke down that Matt that Matt realized that staying on that career path wasn't going to make him happy no matter how good it seemed like he had it. That breakdown was the beginning of a journey that helped Matt discover who he really was and what he really wanted, and it was during that journey that Matt came to the realization that assisting people to figure out what makes them tick was his true passion.
Then, in his 30s Matt ventured back to school with a new plan and a new purpose. Was the pivot the right choice? Absolutely. Listen to Matt's interview for the full story.
Find Matt online at matthewcooksey.com
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
#97 - Getting a law degree and passing the bar is quite the task, so it's not often people go through all that work only to leave their law career behind. That's what makes Stephanie Chan such an anomaly - she did exactly that. Today, I talk to Stephanie about how why she left law behind and what prompted her to found Home to Home Advisory Services and myCareBase.
To read more about Stephanie’s companies or get in touch with her, use the links below:
- Home to Home Advisory Services Inc.
- myCareBase
- stephanie@mycarebase.com
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
#96 - As Mike Gallagher spent his teenage years filming his friends skateboarding around the Metro Vancouver area, someone took notice. A high school teacher recognized Mike’s aptitude for film and developed an independent study course that allowed Mike free reign over the school’s media equipment. It didn’t take long for Mike to become hooked and as he approached graduation he applied to the Art Institute of Vancouver’s Digital Film and Production program. The plan was for Mike to live out his dream of working in Vancouver’s continually expanding film industry.
The early years of Mike's career as a production assistant were a GRIND. Long hours, inconsistent work schedules, and low pay doing the work no one else wanted to do certainly wasn’t glamorous but Mike looked for opportunities where he could learn from those around him. He was watching and he was learning. Once he had a few years of experience under his belt Mike knew he was ready for something more so when he got a call for his next PA gig he said ‘no, what else have you got?’ The answer to that question was the props department and it was there that Mike got to flex his creative muscles while continuing to learn from expert prop masters – true veterans of the industry.
Over time, the lifestyle of the film industry began to eat away at Mike’s personal life and he saw a potentially complicated future in the family lives of many of his colleagues. After a particularly difficult night on a set in below-freezing temperatures, he realized he needed a major change and the next day he called his parents to let them he was moving home because he was going back to school. That decision propelled Mike into a new career that has given him the opportunity to work on video game franchises like Electronic Arts’ NHL and UFA titles and allowed him to rub shoulders with athletes like Connor McDavid, P.K Subban, Connor McGregor, and Demetrious ‘Mighty Mouse’ Johnson.
How did Mike do it? Listen to his Career Crossroads interview to find out.
Find Mike online on LinkedIn or at www.mikegallaghermedia.com
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
#95 – When you go to a tech conference like Collision, you might expect that all the founders attending to showcase their companies have deep roots in the tech industry, My experience at Collision, however, shows me that is not always the case.
In this episode, you’ll head my conversations with Austin of Seaube Software, Kaleda of Kilo, and Adam of Elo Gaming as we discuss how their careers have taken them on a winding road that unexpectedly led them to Collision.
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
#94 - This week’s guest on Career Crossroads is Kelvin Beachum, a professional football player who plays left tackle for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League. As an 11-season veteran who has played in over 150 NFL games, you might think that Kelvin lives and breathes football but the truth is that Kelvin is not just a football player. Outside of football, Kelvin is an investor and philanthropist with a specific interest in ending hunger around the world while also spreading information about science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) to people who have never considered careers in those areas.
As the eighth oldest offensive lineman in the NFL last season, Kelvin knows football isn’t forever and during our conversation, we chat about his rise to the NFL, how he gotten involved in so many areas outside of football, and how he’ll continue to use his knowledge, platform, and resources to make the world around him better long into the future.
Find Kelvin online at:
- kelvinbeachum.com
- @kelvin.beachum.jr on Instagram
- Kelvin’s LinkedIn profile
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
#93 – When Sam Demma started his undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto Scarborough it didn’t take long for him to realize that while he might be in the right place, he was there at the wrong time. Had he put enough thought into his programs of study? Was he just going to school because that’s what he was supposed to do? These were questions running through his mind, but ultimately, he was thinking about what he really wanted; to build his own business motivating youth to take action.
Sam already had plenty of practice speaking to high school students from his time running PickWaste, a volunteer organization that mobilizes youth to pick up litter in their communities, and he felt like motivating our youth is what he was meant to do. So, Sam had to make a choice. Stay in school and find the right academic path, or leave to start his entrepreneurial journey?
To find out what path Sam took at his academic crossroads, listen to my interview with him on Career Crossroads today.
Where to Find Sam online:
- samdemma.com
- @sam_demma on Instagram
- @sam_demma on Twitter
- @sam_demma on YouTube
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
Twitter: @jcollaton
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
#92 - When clients come to Soma Ghosh to help them with their careers, they often want support in getting out of an untenable situation. As a Career Coach Soma can certainly help them move to a new job but if there are unaddressed underlying issues outside of their 9-5 they may end up feeling the same way soon enough. That's why Soma likes to go deeper to find the root of the problem because helping clients find 'the next thing' may only be a temporary solution.
As a Career Coach in London, England, Soma brings an international perspective to Career Coach Conversations. During our conversation, we talk about:
- How her interest in mental brought her to career coaching
- Three themes related to career pivots that she's noticed recently
- How high school students aren't getting enough career support at work
- Why we should all tell ourselves not to worry so much
Links in this episode:
- Find Soma online at somashosh.com
- Follow/connect with Soma Ghosh on LinkedIn
- Follow @the_careerhappinessmentor on Instagram
- The Career Happiness Podcast
#91 – Every good magician has a stage name and Dan Chan is known as ‘The Millionaire’s Mentalist’. He has earned that name after a career of performing at events for wealthy tech moguls from companies like Twitter and Amazon but when he was first starting out he was making balloon animals at children’s birthday parties.
That’s because magic was not Dan’s first full-time job. After getting a degree in Finance from the University of California, Riverside, Dan was hired as one of the early employees at PayPal – before the merger with Elon Musk’s X.com – and Dan worked his way up from Customer Service to the Finance department. After 13 months, Dan’s path split dramatically from members of the ‘PayPal Mafia’ who went on to found companies like YouTube, LinkedIn, Yelp, SpaceX, and Tesla. Instead of staying in the world of tech, Dan committed himself to magic full-time and now, 20+ years later, he reflects on his career journey on Career Crossroads.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Danchanmagic.com
- Millionairesmentalist.com
- Follow Dan on Instagram @danchanmagic
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
90 – Today’s episode of the podcast isn’t an interview- it’s just you and me talking. Now that we’re two months into the new show format, I wanted to give an update on how things are going and let you know about the podcast’s record-breaking month of May.
I also want to talk a bit about the importance of preplanning to take time off and my own experience with it. The best month in the history of the podcast came during the month, I was paying the least attention.
Take a listen and let me know what you think.
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
Twitter: @jcollaton
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
89 – As a first-year offensive lineman on the University of Waterloo’s varsity football team, Ben Brown was supposed to be living his dream. With the support of his father, who had been his football coach, Ben received a football scholarship to an excellent school and was excited for the next chapter of his life. Before Ben’s university career began, however, tragedy struck as Ben’s father passed away. Suddenly, Ben was carrying the weight of his and his father's dream all on his own.
Despite this incredible hardship, Ben pressed on and outwardly, had a successful first year of university. His grades were good and he seemed to be happy, but internally Ben was struggling. He decided that he needed to step away from the football team and take a term off school for his mental health and when he came back, it did not take long to realize he no longer saw a future in his program of study.
With the help of a career counsellor at the university, Ben found a new path in an unexpected place that involved leaving the university behind. Now, years after graduating from Conestoga College, Ben is living a new dream as a firefighter.
Listen to Ben's Academic Crossroads today to hear the whole story.
When you know you want to change your career but you are unsure of where to go, you might seek the help of a professional. Chris M. Wilson, this week's guest, struggled to find the help he was looking for and that challenge led him to dedicate his life to helping people going through similar struggles.
As a career coach, Chris helps people find clarity in what they really want because without that you can't move forward. Before we talk about that, Chris walks me through the early part of his career as a helicopter pilot and mechanic and why he felt he needed to move on from that field.
Find Chris on social media and YouTube at @iamchrismwilson
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
87 - What's would you do if your ability to do your job disappeared overnight? How would you react?
That's a question Andy Thibodeau wrestled with in March 2020 when Covid-19 shut down his career as a public speaker. As a 25+ year veteran of the industry, this was the only job Andy had ever really known and in the span of 48 hours, 31 bookings cancelled and his ability to make an income evaporated.
As Andy struggled with this new reality and the recognition that he was a people person who could no longer be around people, he visited a friend one last time before we headed into lockdown. Something that friend said gave him the mental slap he needed to act and less then 5 days later Andy had a new job lined up to provided him with both the income he needed, and the interaction with others that he craved.
Hear about Andy's career crossroad on this week's CC Shorts episode.
86 -If you told 20-year-old Josh Green that he was going to be a business consultant in the future, he would have thought you were joking. How did he end up a business consultant when he was well on his way to a successful career as an actor and improv comedian? He was getting regular work, making more money than most actors he knew, and even had scenes in movies with Ice Cube and Danny Glover.
As 20-year-old Josh would soon find out, the way you feel today may not be the way you feel tomorrow, and when that happens you need to know what else interests you. It took years of travel and teaching abroad for Josh to realize that he wanted to be his own boss, and the best way for him to do that was to run his own company. Moving back to his hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Josh set to work on making that a reality.
This is the story of how over the past 12 years....
- Josh went back to school as a mature student to obtain a Bachelor of Business Administration (his second degree)
- Created, sold, and/or shut down many successful (and sometimes unsuccessful) businesses from a wake park to dog walking to cookie cough and beyond
- Ultimately, realized his passion is in helping other people through the process of navigating the difficult world of taking an idea for a business and turning it into something real
Everyone has a story to tell. Listen today to hear Josh's.
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Links from the episode:
- The Tangible Plan
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
85 - Attending university can change your life. Sometimes, in ways you don’t expect. For Frank Chen, coming to Canada from his native China to study at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) was a way to get into a stable career, while also making his parents proud. To satisfy both desires, Frank chose to study accounting and he was successful in his studies.
During one of his co-op terms, however, Frank came to the realization that he wasn’t passionate about accounting. When he shared this knowledge with a colleague who was also from the co-op program at UTSC, Frank was informed he wasn’t the only one who felt that way. The more they conversed, the more they realized that a lack of love for accounting wasn't the only thing they had in common. Both of them were interested in entrepreneurship and it didn’t take long for Frank and his colleague to decide they were going to start their own company.
That is how Frank, a university student, became the co-founder of Sumer, a grocery delivery service in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From the challenges of running a startup as a university student, to the difficult decision to shut it down in 2022, Frank and I talk through what he learned from his Sumer experience and how he is applying those lessons today.
More importantly, Frank and I discuss how accepting that he lacked passion for what he chose to study taught him a lesson that has influenced every decision he’s made since then.
Links from this episode:
- Ideas Can’t Wait Podcast
- Find Frank on LinkedIn
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
Twitter: @jcollaton
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
#85 – “What can I do with my degree?”
This is one of the most common questions asked by students who have nearly finished pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into completing a difficult academic program and are now realizing they are unsure of what comes next. With a decade of experience working as a Career Counsellor at the University of Toronto Scarborough Academic Advising and Career Centre, and another decade of experience prior to that in Toronto Employment Centres, Wei Huang is well equipped to help students navigate this question.
Wei’s biggest piece of advice? Reflect on your values; they will guide you in determining what careers fit what you are looking for.
Listen to our conversation for the full story.
If you are a student at the University of Toronto Scarborough you can book an appointment with Wei by calling the UTSC Academic Advising and Career Centre. For everyone else, email her at findyourwaycareer@gmail.com
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
Twitter: @jcollaton
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
83 - In the early days of his career, Brian Millado jumped between jobs in the Department of Student Life at the University of Toronto. He wasn't jumping because he didn't like his roles, or because he was chasing higher pay; he was jumping because he was continually offered the chance to work on different programs as his skillset was in demand. Things were good. Until one day, they weren't.
One day, Brian looked around and realized that all his peers knew what their next step was....but he had no idea what was next. He had exhausted all areas of interest and suddenly, he didn't see a path forward in Student Life.
In this, the first CC Shorts episode of Career Crossroads, Brian and I discuss this moment in time where he hit a dead end. We walk through the emotions of his situation, how he overcame it, and what advice he has for others who experience a similar crossroads.
If you'd like to get in touch with Brian, you can find him here on LinkedIn.
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
Twitter: @jcollaton
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
#82 – Chris Lewarne is well known in the Toronto fitness community as one of the trainers at Barry’s Bootcamp, helping people achieve their fitness and health goals. Fitness, however, was not the path Chris set out on when leaving high school.
Growing up, his family struggled financially, and Chris worked some awful jobs as a teenager to help contribute. With those experiences pushing him forward, he dreamed about the financial stability a high-paying career could provide and as a successful student, he chose a career in law to help him achieve his goal. Upon graduation, Chris was obsessed with making his way to New York City and it didn’t take long for that to happen; his first job offer was with a corporate law firm in NYC and Chris jumped at the chance. Then one day, Chris’s life changed. It changed so profoundly that he quit his job at the law firm without any real plan and spent the day wandering the streets of New York.
Ultimately, one of the worst experiences of Chris’s life set him on a new path that brought him back home to Toronto, years later. Listen today to hear about:
- What it was like working in corporate law in New York City
- What prompted Chris’s move from law to fitness
- How Chris ended up back in Toronto
- How his new career led him to become a contestant on Canada’s Ultimate Challenge.
Links from this episode:
- Follow Chris on Instagram @the_cuddlycanadian
- Take a class with Chris at Barry’s Bootcamp’s Richmond studio in Toronto
- Watch Canada’s Ultimate Challenge on CBC Gem
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
Twitter: @jcollaton
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
Today, we get vulnerable. In this short and final episode of the chronicles series, we discuss what new episode formats are on the horizon and talk about how this series has driven forward Jonathan's public speaking work.
Despite the good news we share, there is plenty of work still to do. If you're invested in the Career Crossroads journey, this episode is a must-listen to.
Referenced in this episode:
- Chronicling Career Crossroads #1 - The Career Crossroads Crossroad
- New Podcast Episode Formats Explained
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
Twitter: @jcollaton
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
When products change, their marketing has to change: that's the core of the fourth episode of the Chronicling Career Crossroad series. But how to market something that is still in flux? It's not a question I can answer on my own so I need to bring in an expert.
Enter Ronak Patel. As a business owner, former guest of the show, and a friend, Ronak is the perfect person to bounce ideas off of. Listen to our conversation about how marketing and promotion are changing in an ever-evolving social media landscape and how getting a 'rubber stamp' could be a game changer for Career Crossroads.
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
Twitter: @jcollaton
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
Content is king.
You've probably heard or read that phrase over the last decade with the rise of online content creators, but the origins of the phrase can be traced to magazine editing in the 1970s.
What does that have to do with this episode? Well, content is the subject of Chronicling Career Crossroads #3. For a podcast, every episode is considered content, but in the context of the Chronicling Career Crossroads discussion, what content is really king? What is the best content available and how can it be utilized in a different way? Those are the questions I look to answer in this episode.
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
Twitter: @jcollaton
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
When this episode was first conceived it was titled “Research – or how to make sure what I’m doing isn’t a waste of time”.
As the episode title was….simplified, the core idea for the episode stayed the same: research. In order to determine if the planned Career Crossroads pivot is hitting the mark, I need to find out if the audience I intend to support (high school students, university/college students, and young grads) will actually benefit from this content.
To find the answers to these questions in this episode I speak to three people:
- Denise, a retired high school Guidance Counsellor
- Wei, a Career Counsellor from the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC),
- Tara, UTSC’s Director of Alumni Relations
Listen in to hear their takes on what young people know and need to know about their career trajectory, and how Career Crossroads can help them.
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
Twitter: @jcollaton
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
How do you handle change?
Sometimes it’s forced upon us, and sometimes we just know it’s time. Sometimes change is needed.
That is where I’m at with Career Crossroads. It’s changing. It’s evolving into something better and I’m going to take you along on the journey through that evolution.
This is the first in a five-part series I’m calling Chronicling Career Crossroads. Without spoiling too much, it talks about where Career Crossroads and I have been, and where we’re going. Whether you’re a faithful listener or stumbling across the podcast for the first time, I think there’s something in this episode for everyone.
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
Twitter: @jcollaton
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
#75 – Although he would never do it, Claudio Teixeira could probably pull a Frank Abagnale and fake his way through flying a jet aircraft. That’s because Claudio has over 5000 hours in the ‘sky’ on the Boeing 777 simulator that is the crown jewel of his company, uFly Simulator Inc, which exists to entertain, help people get over their fear of flying, and train soon-to-be pilots.
For years before he started the business, he would spend his evening playing Microsoft Flight Simulator flying between Toronto and New York, or setting the auto-pilot overnight so he could take off from Rio de Janeiro before going to bed, and land in Toronto when he woke up in the morning.
With such a passion for flying, why did Claudio never become a pilot himself? Well, that’s a long story involving his father's gas station business in Brazil, multiple border crossings in the cover of darkness, and a window washing empire in Toronto.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy my conversation with Claudio.
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Find uFly Simulator Inc. online at uflysimulator.ca or on Instagram @uflysimulator.
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To support Career Crossroads, click here
To leave Career Crossroads a review, click here
You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroadspodcast.com or follow us on social media
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
Twitter: @jcollaton
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
#74 – As the creator of the 40th podcast in the world way back in 2004, Evo Terra has had an impact on the world of podcasting for almost two decades and was recently honoured as a 2022 inductee into the Podcast Hall of Fame. You might imagine that someone given that honour makes a career in podcasting, and while that is true now, podcasting as a ‘career’ was not an option for Evo until the mid-2010s.
On a recent episode of Evo’s own podcast, Podcast Pontification, he mentioned some of the jobs he has had in the past. Tire sales….advertising…travel blogging….I knew Evo must have an interesting story to tell so I invited him to share it on Career Crossroads. Luckily for me, he was willing to tell his story, so sit back, relax, and listen to Evo walk me through all the twists and turns of his career.
Here’s where you can find Evo online:
· Evo’s Twitter
· Podcast Pontifications
· Sounds Profitable
· Simpler Media
Also mentioned in this episode are previous Career Crossroads guests:
· James Cridland
· Lindsay Graham
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To support Career Crossroads, click here
To leave Career Crossroads a review, click here
You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroadspodcast.com or follow us on social media
Instagram: @career_crossroads LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast Twitter: @jcollaton TikTok: @jonathancollaton
#73 – Have you ever wanted to collect data on wild jaguars or help rehabilitate a monkey with a broken arm? Well then let me introduce you to Hailee Hallas. Along with tree-planting in northern Ontario, studying these animals were some of the first employment opportunities she received in her young career after completing an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies from Carleton University.
Despite how amazing these jobs may seem they were not without their drawbacks. Little pay and massive competition made that industry incredibly difficult to break into beyond short-term contract roles. Given that, Hailee decided that a more specific education would help her in the future, so she headed off to Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland to obtain her Master of Science.
With her new degree in hand, Hailee obtained a job as a Field biologist studying bird and bat mortality on wind farms. As an outsider looking in, it would seem that her further education had paid off and her career in conservation was well underway. How then, did Hailee come to enter an entirely new career as a Police Officer just three years later? That is a long story and you’ll have to listen to the interview for the details.
Also discussed in our conversation is how Hailee has been able to balance employment opportunities with another passion of hers – travel. Having visited more than 30 countries by her 30th birthday, Hailee tells me about how the flexibility of her first career allowed her to enjoy her life, even if that career didn’t provide the financial stability she eventually sought out.
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To support Career Crossroads, click here
To leave Career Crossroads a review, click here
You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroadspodcast.com or follow us on social media
Instagram: @career_crossroads
LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast
Twitter: @jcollaton
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
Career Crossroads is back after an unplanned break! Before we get into some new interviews, I’ve got some updates about why there has been such a long break as well as some information about some other projects I’ve been working on.
After you've listened, check out my wife and I's new travel vlog on YouTube - Jon and Tash Travel
#71 – In 2016, Jenn Harper founded Cheekbone Beauty despite having no previous experience in the cosmetics industry. This was a major career change as up until that point she had worked exclusively in hospitality and in wholesale foods, leveraging her strong relationships with chefs to succeed.
So why cosmetics? What changed? Well, in 2015 as Jenn was learning about her Indigenous grandmother’s experience in residential schools she had a dream. In this dream she saw “native little girls covered in lip gloss” and as soon as she woke up, she grabbed her laptop and started making notes. She did not yet know what she would call her company, or what skills she might need to make it successful, but she knew she needed to make that lip-gloss and she knew she had to work ethic to achieve her goal.
In this episode, Jenn tells me about the jobs and experiences that led her to Cheekbone Beauty and all the things she’s had to learn over the last six years to make her company such a success. With Cheekbone’s sustainability efforts, support of Indigenous youth and women, and general success as a business, it’s clear Jenn made the right choice when confronted with her own career crossroad.
You can read more about Cheekbone Beauty and browse their online store at www.cheekbonebeauty.com.
Follow Cheekbone Beauty on Instagram at TikTok, @cheekbonebeauty
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#70 - Isil Uysal Cavelli grew up in Izmir, Turkey, and didn't have a lot of role models. Consequently, if you told her that she couldn't have a specific career she would believe you without giving it much thought. Dancing? No, she was a chubby kid and it was unlikely she would become a professional. Doctor? No, it was too stressful and required too much studying to become a professional. Artist? No, it was not a stable career and art is more of a hobby anyway.
Influenced by her family, Isil decided that what she really needed was a good stable career with a respected employer where she could separate work from her personal life, so she headed off to Istanbul to study Management. During her studies what she really enjoyed was marketing, but upon graduation, she was fearful about not getting a job quickly enough. When the job offers did not come, Isil quickly pivoted to accept a job as an auditor for a barge bank and left her marketing dreams behind. The work was far more technical than what she wanted to do but there were also many positives to working at a bank, specifically the stability and having a respected employer. She was also good at it and over time moved up the ranks to become part of a global team working all around Europe and this allowed her to travel to fancy balls in Vienna (which is how she met her Italian husband - but that's a story she'll talk about in the interview).
Eventually, Isil became unfulfilled in her career, and by now she was living in Munich, Germany. Her role had become overly technical and she needed more freedom to be creative and more one-on-one work with people. How could she pivot thought when this was all she had done? She had this one specific skill set and was a foreigner so she was concerned about who would hire her. In this episode, Isil shares the journey that led her to her career crossroads and all the steps she took to overcome it.
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To buy a copy of Isil’s new book, The Gift of Being Unfulfilled at Work, click here.
Join her workshop, Unwrap Your Gifts on April 17th, 2002 from 4 PM - 7 PM CET. Register by clicking here.
You can sign up for Isil’s newsletter here, and listen to her podcast, Unique Careers, Unique Lives, here.
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#69 – Priya Sam grew up in Regina, Saskatchewan, and was torn between two interests. Should she explore her interest in teaching, something she developed entirely on her own, or should she work towards a path in journalism, a career her parents suggested she had a specific skillset for?
In this episode, we talk about how Priya chose journalism, and how she ended up teaching in South Korea for six years immediately following her post-secondary education. We hear about her rise to becoming the co-host of CTV’s Your Morning News and the things she noticed about the industry that led her to leave it behind – at least for now. Priya also tells us how someone with experience in journalism ends up working at Hoostsuite as a Solutions Engineer and how she gets to utilize the transferable skills she picked up from her broadcasting career on the daily.
This episode is for you if you want to learn:
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How putting in extra work in your chosen field can pay off
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When to make the decision that it’s time to move on
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Practical steps to figure out how to pivot when you’re unsure
Find Priya on Instagram (@priyasam) and Twitter (@priyasam) or by searching her name on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Find Turning Point at these locations:
- YouTube
- Apple Podcasts
- Spotify
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68 - After eight weeks off, Career Crossroads is back! I'm rested and somewhat recovered so it's time for an update on what's been going on with me and the podcast.
This episode recaps everything that's gone on in the time I was off, including;
- Rediscovering old passions
- Some podcast achievements
- Changes to the podcast
- The future of the podcast
Starting next week we'll be back to new interviews, and in the meantime, please take a second to subscribe to the NEW Career Crossroad's YouTube channel by clicking here, or searching for Career Crossroads on YouTube.
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67 - This week is the fourth and final episode of the Best of Career Crossroads series before I return with new episodes. This week we're revisiting my interview with Lindsay Graham from March 2021.
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Composer, voice actor, sound designer, host. These are some of the words you can use to describe what Lindsay Graham does in his current career as a full-time podcast creator. He's the man behind American History Tellers, American Scandal, Business Movers, and many other hit podcasts that are part of the Wondery network, however, podcasting has really only comprised the last handful of years of Lindsay's career. Prior to that, he worked in insurance sales, marketing, accounting, and a variety of other roles that are not directly related to what he does today. So how did he go from those jobs to podcaster? You’ll have to check out his Career Crossroads interview to find out.
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In episode #3 of the Best of Career Crossroads series, we revisit my interview with Ashlee.
Being LeBron James’ first intern is a pretty cool way to start your career, and that’s exactly the job Ashlee Ammons was recommended for while attending university. All her involvement in university paid off as others were noticing her talents, work ethic, and how she was able to balance her extracurriculars with her Broadcasting, Mass Communications, and Public Relations degree at Baldwin Wallace University just outside of Cleveland, Ohio.
In her role as LeBron’s intern at LRMR Ventures in Cleveland, Ashlee took on every opportunity she was offered from answering phones to sorting mail and cleaning the office. Again, Ashlee was noticed, and her hustle allowed her to be exposed to the event management side of the business. That experience was what she needed to live her dream and move to New York City when she was hired as an Executive Assistant for the CEO of a luxury hospitality company. Over a number of years, she worked her way up in the company until she became an Events Manager and was working on events for brands like Monet-Hennessy and Coca-Cola.
With all her success also came the burnout that many people experience and Ashlee realized she needed to make a change. As she was exploring her options, she attended a conference to try and network but came home frustrated with the lack of good opportunities to make connections with other attendees. As she explained this issue to her mother, they began brainstorming and a question was asked – why don’t we create a better way for people to network and meet others at events? They got to work immediately and Miztroz was born.
Hear Ashlee tell me how she and her mother built a product that can best be summed up by their tagline - “We Connect Humans”. Along the way, they became the 37th and 38th Black women in America to raise $1 million for a start-up.
Find Miztroz online at mixtroz.com
Find Miztroz on social media at @mixtroz
Find Ashlee on social media @shemixalot87
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In episode #2 of the Best of Career Crossroads series, we revisit my interview with Kait.
Kait’s journey to her current career took her through a winding road in her late teens and early 20’s. She tried multiple educational paths and finally settled on fashion as her career of choice. But the path to being a Merchandising Manager was bumpy, and she turned to a more stable office administration role where she thrived. With a constant urge to better herself, and with the support of her colleagues and friends, she moved across the country, again, to begin a marketing program at Humber College. Going back to school as she was turning 30, she wanted to have the traditional student experience she had heard about and joined the Humber College First-Year Experience program; a decision that proved to be very beneficial to her long term. After two lectures with her Organizational Behaviour professor, she had a conversation that changed the whole path of her degree. Listen now to how Kait ended up in a career in Human Resources.
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As I take a break from posting new interviews I'll be hightailing some of my favorite episodes from the past year and a half. This is week one of the Best of Career Crossroads series of episodes. Today, we're featuring Robbie.
Robbie Berardi 's story of becoming a skilled blacksmith starts when he graduated high school with plans to work at his local gas station. With a number of twists and turns along the way, he was able to train under master blacksmiths in Germany and the United Kingdom. A number of injuries from a variety of jobs kick-started his interest in health and he is now pivoting to take on a new challenge as a Massage Therapist. Take a listen to his story.
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63 - We’ve had twelve new interviews since Career Crossroads one year anniversary so it’s time for another update episode. Let’s talk about both the good and the bad of the last three months of running Career Crossroads, and what changes are coming in the short term.
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#62 – Dakota LaMarre has never thought of his career as a way to make money. Yes, making money is necessary and yes, it’s a by-product of the jobs he has had over the years, but he needed more out of a career. He needed to find a career that would allow him to live the values his parents instilled in him when he was young: achieving his potential, doing something great, and helping people.
While he tried to figure out what career path would provide that fulfillment, he spent his free time learning and growing as a person. Even then, being a hard worker doesn’t mean there won’t be bumps in the road. Dakota’s story involves ‘accidentally’ quitting a job, getting fired from another, and buying a one-way ticket to Barcelona, all in the name of finding a career that he loves.
Did he find what he was looking for? Yes. Now, as a professional co-author, Dakota helps people put their ideas on paper, and his first book, I Love Mondays, looks like it will be the first of many in a successful writing career.
Where you can connect with Dakota:
Website: dakotalamarre.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dakota-lamarre
Instagram: instagram.com/dakotalamarre
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61 - With influences like Stephen King and Lemony Snicket, Robert Kingett, who was born blind and with cerebral palsy, realized at a young age that writing was a fantastic way to express himself. Initially setting out to start his writing career as a journalist, Robert built up a portfolio by writing about anything and everything from human interest stories to sports coverage. While he had a solid plan for how to get noticed by the big local Chicago newspapers, it didn't take long for Robert to realize that newspapers did not value the stories he wanted to write about.
As he considered how to pivot, blogging became an obvious way for him to express his opinions and educate people about topics surrounding the disability and the LGBTQ communities, a crossroads in which he sits at the intersection of.
His blog was a hit, but not with the audience he expected it to resonate with, and that opened up a number of unexpected doors for Robert. Now, he works as a web accessibility consultant as well as an expert witness for lawyers in accessibility cases. Between these jobs and his work in the Audio Description industry, Robert has built up a safety net that allows him to spend time writing works of fiction. These works allow members of his intersecting communities to see themselves reflected in the characters and hopefully, the stories will allow Robert to one day join the ranks of his esteemed childhood influences.
Find Robert’s work on his website blindjournalist.wordpress.com and follow him on Twitter @wweirdwriter
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#60 – Greg Noack was not happy with his life in his early 20’s. He had moved to British Columbia with plans to start anew after being unhappy with the options his business diploma afforded him in Ontario. He was not in B.C for long before his life was profoundly impacted on a cold morning in November of 1996. As he was walking home from work in the early hours of the morning, Greg was assaulted from behind in a random act of violence. Greg fell into a coma and for fifteen days he teetered on the brink of life and death. On day fifteen, Greg suddenly woke up with no recollection of what happened but more concerningly, had almost no control over his own body. He had lost most of his motor function control including the ability to express emotions and was reliant on a feeding tube for nutrition.
Despite his circumstances, Greg had an incredible group of people supporting him in his family and friends. All the while, there was another group supporting Greg; the doctors, nurses, and therapists who helped him on his road to recovery. This is the story of Greg’s recovery, and how these individuals led him to want to help others recovering from traumatic brain injuries.
Greg has written a book about his recovery process called My Invisible Disability which can be found at Chapters or Amazon in Canada or Amazon in the United States
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#59 – Many people know Sydney as the ‘TikTok travel sales girl’ where she’s gained a significant following (160k+) by telling stories about the crazy phone calls she received while helping people book their dream vacations. Does Sydney’s TikTok fame figure into the future of her career? No, Sydney is a realist and sees social media for what it is: a way for people to share funny stories, trends, and ultimately take a break from the pressures of their lives.
Given that, what does Sydney want to do with her life, and what has been the path that’s led her to where she is today? Listen to her interview to hear how softball, travel sales, and a job that just wasn’t the right fit have all played a part in getting Sydney into a career she loves. Along the way, we hear how intentional planning and research can both help you find the perfect fit, but still, sometimes lead you into a job where there isn’t a cultural fit.
Follow Sydney on TikTok @poorandhungry or on Instagram @poorandhungry_
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#58 – Ken Coleman is known as America’s Career Coach, and for good reason. As the host of The Ken Coleman show, a nationally broadcast radio show on SiriusXM radio, he spends an hour each day talking to people about their career struggles and how to overcome them.
The reason Ken is so effective at helping people navigate their career crossroads is that he’s been there himself. After years working in politics, Ken realized that was not the future he wanted for himself so he had some soul searching to do. In his 30’s with a wife and children he was starting from scratch and Ken knew he had a lot of work to do. When he decided that broadcasting was the path he wanted to pursue, Ken went after that goal with everything he had, including buying his own airtime on a local radio station to get experience. His hard work and talent were noticed and one job opportunity led to another until Ken landed a role working with Dave Ramsey at Ramsey Solutions. It was there that Ken was offered the chance to host his own show and reached the peak he had been working towards.
Standing on top of his Everest, Ken knew that he could do more to help people struggling with their careers the way he had. That thought led Ken to write his newest book, From Paycheck to Purpose, where he gives the reader a clear path to doing the work they love. Broken into seven stages that you will experience on your path to the dream job, Ken’s easy-to-follow advice will get you where you want to be, as long as you are willing to put in the work required.
Listen to his interview to hear more about the path that led Ken to where he is today and what inspired him to write From Paycheck to Purpose.
You can purchase From Paycheck to Purpose and Ken’s other guides and resources at kencoleman.com and follow Ken on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.
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#57 – From his beginnings in South Africa, to his education in the United States and Ireland, on to his careers in South Korea and Taiwan, Crain Padayachee has experienced more change in his 39 years than most of us will experience in a lifetime. So how does a man who purports to not like change end up living in five different countries? A combination of education opportunities, visa applications, and relationships have all played a part in his world travels and with each plane ride came the need to pivot his career.
After his childhood dream of becoming a fighter pilot due to the TV show JAG, Crian has worked in accounting, teaching, and programming. Now, after 12 years of living in Taiwan, Crian could have settled into his teaching career for the rest of his life, but he’s shifted his career once again. As the community manager for Amun, a company in the crypto space, as well as working in public relations for a well-known Taiwanese architect, Crian’s career path continues to evolve.
Curious how he pivoted his career while moving across 5 countries? Listen in to Crian’s interview to find out more.
You can listen to Crian’s Inside Crypto podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find podcasts.
You can Follow Crian on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook
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#56 – Lena Xiang is the founder of Open Classroom Experience, a virtual global innovation program for Gen Z leaders that helps them have a valuable virtual intercultural experience that prepares them to thrive in an everchanging world. This venture is relatively new and is the culmination of Lena working to determine how she could create a positive social impact on the world around her.
The journey that led Lena to Open Classroom Experience has taken her from Toronto to Shanghai, New York, San Francisco, and Hanoi, all before settling back in Toronto. In this time she’s explored the world of economics, engineering, and technology, and it’s the culmination of a lot of learning and discovery that’s gotten her to where she is today.
The best part: in high school, Lena thought she might work in animation or graphic design!
Read more about Open Classroom Experience on their website or follow them on Instagram.
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#55 – Politics runs in Brooke Crewson’s blood. From the age of five, she was helping her dad go door-to-door in his political campaigns, and at 15 she made the conscious decision to start volunteering to support campaigns she believed in. Despite that, she wasn’t 100% convinced of her future and pursued the parallel path of history and politics while studying at Wilfrid Laurier University.
When she received job offers in both fields after graduating, Brooke had a tough decision to make. Should she pursue the potentially more stable job at a museum, or keep working towards a job she’d been dreaming about since she was 15? Brooke chose an internship at the Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and immediately was hooked. Not long after, however, a change of government left Brooke without a job – an experience she’s had more than once in her career.
Brooke isn’t a quitter, and she’s bounced back each time. As she’s advanced her career, gaining new experiences in new offices, Brooke has developed a passion for creating and influencing positive public policies. With the instability of working for a government that can be voted out of office, Brooke has learned to take her extensive skill set and apply it to other areas, which has led her to work with Ryerson University’s Diversity Institute, and more recently as a Government Relations Consultant at Crestview Strategy.
What can we learn from Brooke’s career journey? Listen to her interview to find out.
You can connect with Brooke through LinkedIn
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#54 – Growing up in Canada, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States, Keith Honda had a world of options when he finished university. With his deep voice and talent for singing, Keith chose to come to Wilfrid Laurier University for their renowned music program where, as my roommate, he proceeded to wake me up every morning when he sang in the shower. Despite all the fun we had, the transition to university was not so smooth and after his first year, Keith headed back to Michigan where his parents resided at the time.
Now, more than a decade later, Keith is the General Manager of Dessert Oasis Coffee Roasters in Rochester, Michigan, and creates the rotating coffee-infused cocktail menu for the whole café chain. So how did he end up there? Keith’s story involves a six-and-a-half-year college degree, an American Idol audition, an attempt at working in real estate, and a part-time job where he found his true passion in coffee. Listen in to hear his entire fascinating story, and to hear what lessons I think we can learn from Keith’s journey.
Find Dessert Oasis on Instagram - @dessertoasiscoffeeroasters
Find Keith on Instagram - @khonda66
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#53 – Growing up in Mozambique, Jabez Ivan Joshiraj was always interested in building things when he was younger. Both cars and airplanes were fascinating and he decided that one day, he wanted to be the person behind their design. As a means to that end, when he graduated high school he headed to India, where he was born, to study mechanical engineering.
As he progressed through university, he worked on an engineering project that required him to source supplies. With this, he discovered the world of supply chain management, and that prodded him to continue to look deeper into how businesses function once they have a product to sell. Supply chain led to marketing, marketing led to sales, and suddenly Jabez was hooked. When it came time to do his placement at the end of his education, he was committed – understanding the processes of business was his new passion and he was going to pursue it, despite graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering.
Now, years later, Jabez is a business consultant working with a multitude of clients, while also running a support group for African start-ups as a way to give back to the place that he grew up.
You can email Jabez at hello@jabezivanj.con or find him on Instagram at @jabezivanj
You can find Jabez's Startup Africa - Support Group here
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#52 – The first thing Lauren Vandervecht ever thought she wanted to do for a career was be an interior designer. At the time it was the only job she knew of where she could be creative and while that career never came to pass, the thought process gives us a good indication of the direction she would head in.
With stops in retail, music, and e-commerce both in Canada and the United States, Lauren’s story is full of twists and turns. She left opportunities that didn’t feel right and went after new opportunities without fear of failure. This, tied with her ability as a quick learner, led Lauren to be given increasing levels of responsibility and in early 2020 she was working as the E-commerce Coordinator for a Toronto-based jeweler. While she learned a lot in that role, the company placed outlandish expectations on her. When she was asked to add weekends to her already busy work schedule, it was an easy decision to move on to the next thing.
This clean break provided Lauren with the time to work more fully on a concept she had been thinking about: mobile flower shops. There are plenty in Europe, but why aren’t there any in Canada? A week of research was all she needed to commit to the idea and her business, Sunday Love Mobile Flower Shop was born.
Listen to Lauren tell me about how she started her business and how every decision on her career path has led her to this point in time. A time where she gets to do a job that she loves every single day.
Follow Lauren's business @sundayloveflovers on Instagram
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#51 – Cayla Schafer has had to pivot her career more than once due to her health. Misdiagnosed celiac disease wreaked havoc on her life while she made her way through university and her illness ultimately forced her to leave her thoughts of pursuing a career in acting behind.
As she began to recover, she picked up a job serving at a restaurant in Toronto and was immediately hooked. Serving ticked all the right boxes: she could talk to people, problem solve, and each day was different. She began to see a future in hospitality and thought about how to climb the ladder and what her future would look like. At the same time, she valued the flexibility of being a server as it allowed her to work in other cities if she needed a change of scenery. Cayla found the right balance of serving while picking up opportunities as a shift leader and trainer, and everything was great - until it wasn’t. After a 5 week trip to Calgary where she trained the staff of a new restaurant while working 16+ hour days, her adrenal glands were shot. After a few days off in Toronto where she just couldn’t sleep, she was headed back to her first shift at her serving job but collapsed on the sidewalk. While the change wasn’t immediate, it was at this moment she knew that she needed to leave hospitality behind and once again pivot to another career for her health.
By this point in time, fitness had become an important part of Cayla’s life outside of her job. She had trained as a trauma-sensitive yoga instructor and had an experience at a Soul Cycle in New York City that showed her how valuable that could be to her life. As Soul Cycle had expanded to Toronto, she was able to get a job as an instructor and suddenly her path became more clear: work as an instructor there while teaching trauma-sensitive yoga on the side.
While all this was happening, Cayla had also started a blog, The Move to Heal Project. As the blog grew, so did Cayla’s ambition and she began to plan a future as an entrepreneur. She has all these skills to help others heal – why not do that while working for herself?
In February 2020 she left Soul Cycle and has been working on The Move to Heal Project full time ever since. Listen to her interview to hear the full story.
Find Cayla and The Move to Heal Project at the following links:
- movetohealproject.com
- @themovetohealproject on Insta, TikTok, YouTube, Podcasts
- Instagram: @caylameredith
- Email: themovetohealproject@gmail.com
Also mentioned in this episode:
- Food Truck Faceoff Episode – The Distillery District Duel
- David Emmerson - Overcoming Trauma Through Yoga
- Bessel van der Kolk - The Body Keeps the Score
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50 – This week marks one year since the launch of Career Crossroads, and it’s time to celebrate and reflect! In 23 minutes, I pack in all of the following:
- How I've improved as a podcaster over the last year
- I talk about whether I've achieved the goals laid out in my first episode a year ago
- I share some stats about who is listening to Career Crossroads
- I thank the people who have helped me get this far
- I discuss the future of Career Crossroads
I really can't express how happy I am with how this episode turned out and I hope you enjoy it!
To support Career Crossroads, click here
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For Ronak’s business Play A Latte, click here
For Ardi’s Fiverr Page, click here
For Helen’s coaching website, click here
______________________You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroadspodcast.com or follow us on social media
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LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast
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Twitter: @jcollaton
TikTok: @jonathancollaton
#49 – As a child, Nicholas loved to tell stories and would make home movies and short films with his siblings and neighborhood kids. He even took some acting classes and was in a local commercial in London, Ontario. However, when he reached high school, he excelled in business classes and decided to pursue a business degree at Wilfrid Laurier University without really knowing what he wanted his future career to be.
At Laurier, he decided to specialize in marketing but it was his volunteer experiences where he truly thrived. With summer jobs at the campus Student Leadership Centre, Nicholas began to consider a career in Student Affairs and even worked as a Laurier recruiter for a short time after graduating. It was during his time on the road where he reflected on what he should do with his business degree and ultimately decided that he needed to put it to work in the film and television industry. Luckily, Bell Canada, one of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies, has a Graduate Development Program where he could switch jobs every 7 months to get a better sense of the company as a whole before landing a more permanent career. He enthusiastically applied and was accepted with the hope of getting a job in Bell Media, Bell’s television broadcasting and production subsidiary.
Despite the many mentors he had at Bell, and despite him excelling in all of his roles, Nicholas was unable to find a role at Bell Media. He had to get his storytelling fix another way and joined a group that made short films on the weekends. Life went on like this for a while until one day Nicholas found a lump on his testicle that was quickly diagnosed as testicular cancer. The good news is that he caught it early and is now can cancer-free, but this health scare prompted him to really consider if he would be happy doing the same thing day to day in five years. When the answer was no, he knew he needed to make a change.
Three years later, Nicholas is entering his final year of Film School at Columbia University and working on his thesis film, Elegy for a Glacier. Listen to his interview to hear his entire career journey and how many people influenced him along the way.
Support the Elegy for a Glacier Seed and Spark campaign here and find their Instagram account here
Nicholas's Instagram: @nicholas.nyhof
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48 – Growing up in the west end of Toronto, Ben Spurr’s favourite thing to do was get together for jam sessions with his friends. What started as a way for them to hang out became something more when they realized they had the talent to make something of themselves. That’s how Ben’s band, The Coast, got their start.
Despite the possibilities of making music for a living, Ben also had an interest in furthering his education. He enrolled at the University of Toronto to study History, English, and African Studies and had to strike a delicate balance of academics with the band’s schedule. This balance was somewhat disrupted as Ben took an interest in journalism while working at The Varsity, UofT’s school newspaper, and he reduced his course load to make his schedule work.
At the same time, the band was also experiencing some significant success. With a manager and a record label, The Coast was able to book tours across Canada, the USA, and Europe and even had the distinction (I can’t convey how sarcastic I'm being) of having one of their songs in a Canadian broadcast of Jersey Shore. As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end and after touring to support their second album, the band decided it was time to move onto other ventures.
This was a turn of events that Ben was prepared for as he had kept his toe in the journalism pond while the band was touring and making music. He had stints writing for BlogTO and The Mark before settling in at NOW Magazine as their city hall reporter just in time to get a front-row seat to Toronto’s Rob Ford debacle that made international headlines. He was able to parlay that ‘trial by fire’ experience into a contract with The Toronto Star and five years later Ben is Toronto’s go-to source for transit reporting.
Listen to his interview to hear the full story of how Ben pivoted from indie rock musician to reporter for the biggest newspaper in Canada.
You can listen to The Coast on Spotify
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#47 - Mathieu Arsenault's story is one of many pivots. His early ideas of having a career in acting led to a university drama program, but he quickly realized that acting was not what he wanted for his future. While there, a faculty member led him towards an exchange program in Russia and that trip stoked the flames of his burgeoning interest in international development.
After a number of years working to help villages in Tajikistan with their food security, Mathieu returned home to Prince Edward Island with the mindset "think globally, act locally." He first worked in business and community development, but soon came up with a plan to have a larger impact on both the residents of PEI as well as the rest of the world. That plan almost led him to bankruptcy and Mathieu began to rebuild and consider where his career might take him next.
Taking the first job that would pay the bills, Mathieu was able to find some stability as a consultant, but eventually, his entrepreneurial side took over once again. This time his interests led him towards software development and he and a business partner spent a number of years developing applications.
Now, after having achieved both highs and lows in his career, Mathieu is trying to figure out what he should do next. Where will he end up? Listen in to find out.
Personal Website: mathieuarsenault.com
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#46 – Being LeBron James’ first intern is a pretty cool way to start your career, and that’s exactly the job Ashlee Ammons was recommended for while attending university. All her involvement in university paid off as others were noticing her talents, work ethic, and how she was able to balance her extracurriculars with her Broadcasting, Mass Communications, and Public Relations degree at Baldwin Wallace University just outside of Cleveland, Ohio.
In her role as LeBron’s intern at LRMR Ventures in Cleveland, Ashlee took on every opportunity she was offered from answering phones to sorting mail and cleaning the office. Again, Ashlee was noticed, and her hustle allowed her to be exposed to the event management side of the business. That experience was what she needed to live her dream and move to New York City when she was hired as an Executive Assistant for the CEO of a luxury hospitality company. Over a number of years, she worked her way up in the company until she became an Events Manager and was working on events for brands like Monet-Hennessy and Coca-Cola.
With all her success also came the burnout that many people experience and Ashlee realized she needed to make a change. As she was exploring her options, she attended a conference to try and network but came home frustrated with the lack of good opportunities to make connections with other attendees. As she explained this issue to her mother, they began brainstorming and a question was asked – why don’t we create a better way for people to network and meet others at events? They got to work immediately and Miztroz was born.
Hear Ashlee tell me how she and her mother built a product that can best be summed up by their tagline - “We Connect Humans”. Along the way, they became the 37th and 38th Black women in American to raise $1 million for a start-up.
Find Miztroz online at mixtroz.com
Find Miztroz on social media at @mixtroz
Find Ashlee on social media @shemixalot87
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#45 – Welcome back to another update episode of Career Crossroads! Taking a break from interviewing guests, this episode Jonathan is solo and provides updates on a few topics, including:
- Show Format Changes
- His Current Job
- Podcast Growth
- Emails from Listeners
Clocking in under 25 minutes, you can listen to this episode in about the same amount of time as it takes to watch a rerun of Friends. You know what happens to Ross and Rachel. They were on a break. We can move on with our lives. Put the remote down and listen to a podcast!
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44 - When Mic Tee was growing up in the suburbs of Toronto, he was surrounded by music. Hip-hop, house, and gospel were commonly heard but it was the calm relaxing feeling he got when his father played the classical guitar at home that really drove Mic’s passion. While he explored this passion, Mic also wanted to be practical so headed to Wilfrid Laurier University to get a degree in business knowing that an in-demand degree would help him get a job long-term.
At university, Mic explored all areas of music and it was during this time where he realized that a career in music was absolutely where he wanted to stake his claim. Without a roadmap to get into the music industry, and with those around Mic telling him how hard it was to break into the industry, he decided that he would do something practical that would help advance his career opportunities; further his education.
As he waited to start a post-grad certificate in Marketing and Corporate Communications, he was hired as a recruiter for his alma matter, and that one summer job turned into three years of working at the university. At the same time, Mic was writing and recording music on the side which eventually got him noticed for his writing talents. Weekend trips to Miami were the norm as Mic continued to gain experience and make connections and eventually he signed on as a ghostwriter for Cash Money Records. He had made it. He finally had stability in the career he had worked so hard towards.
Despite this success, Mic was experiencing burnout and decided to take a break by backpacking in Columbia with some friends. This trip ultimately changed his life as it was in Columbia where he met his wife, Monica, who was not impressed with his accolades and Entourage lifestyle. It was then that Mic began to realize the downsides to his industry, but he pushed onwards as it was practical to do so. Then, after another 5 years, Mic decided to fully commit to making a change so he could get back that feeling he had when listening to his dad play the classical guitar in their living room when he was younger.
Now, in 2021, Mic runs Emtee Education, an artist development and music education firm that provides artists and labels the resources needed to build a foundationally stable strategy for long-term success.
Find Mic at the following locations:
Emtee Education Website
Emtee Education is on all major social media platforms @emteeeducation
Mic Tee on all major social media platforms - @itsmictee
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43 – We all knew a Laura Easson when we were younger. That high achieving type-A personality who was always helping others who struggled in class. The one who was CLEARLY going to be a teacher when they were older. That was Laura, and combined with her musical upbringing she had a great specialty for when she started her teaching career. With a solid plan, Laura headed off to the University of Waterloo for an undergraduate degree in music, then off to Western University to complete teacher’s college.
But that’s not the end of Laura’s story…
When you have your life planned out, how do you cope with realizing what you thought you wanted, what you KNEW you wanted, isn’t what you wanted at all? You escape to give yourself time to reassess, which is exactly what Laura did when her then-partner received a job offer in California. While living in the sunshine state, Laura was without a working visa which allowed her plenty of time to volunteer and build up a different set of skills. It was these skills, and her experiences in university which she was able to leverage into a role at a start up, and soon after into a role with ApplyBoard, helping international students with their university applications.
A pivot into an events coordinator role at Conrad Grebel University College, her old residence while attending Waterloo, left Laura feeling like she had finally come back home to the place she belonged. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic put a stop to in person events and Laura’s job became unsustainable. That’s when Laura started to seriously look at turning her love of music into a career, and all the hard work she has put into that has culminated in her band, Act of Nature, recently releasing their first single.
Find Laura and her band at the following locations:
Act of Nature Instagram: act.of.nature_official
Laura Easson Instagram: laura.elizabeth.easson
Listen to Act of Nature's new single, Stop Being Like This
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42 – Growing up, Katie was practically a fish. As a synchronized swimmer, she was always in the water and as a teenager worked as a lifeguard and aquatics instructor. Given that, it only seemed natural that she would make a career out of being close to a pool. That is exactly why she has come back to synchro and aquatics multiple times since she joined the working world.
After high school, she attended Wilfrid Laurier University to get her Bachelor of Arts in History, and upon graduating started her career in aquatics. About a year in she decided to see if another interest of hers, journalism, would be another option for a future career. A one-year certificate program showed her that while Journalism was interesting, it was likely not in her future, so back to aquatics she went.
A couple of years later, having built quite the career for herself, Katie was again thinking about a change. She knew she liked helping young people learn new skills and she wanted something with more regular working hours. As others around her were suggesting she become a teacher, Katie looked into it and realized it was absolutely the right job for her. After doing her Bachelor of Education at her alma mater, Laurier, she wanted to find a job in teaching that would show her something new. That’s how Katie ended up working in Gjoa Haven, a fly-in community of 1,400 people on King William Island in Nunavut. The job fit perfectly and with a long career as an educator in her future, Katie decided to go all in. She is currently obtaining her Master of Education in Critical Studies from the University of New Brunswick as a means to continue to improve her skill set as a teacher.
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41 – From a young age, Sheldon Pereira was always good at fixing things. It started when his dad brought home his first ever computer, and Sheldon had to learn to fix it when he broke it. As he matured through high school, his interest turned more to fixing people than computers, and he had visions of attending medical school to become a doctor.
The first step in that journey was attending Wilfrid Laurier University, and while Sheldon’s overall experience was fantastic, academically things did not go as well as he’d hoped they would. As he rounded the corner towards graduation, it became clear that medical school was not in his immediate future and he would have to find a job while he continued to work on his grades. Enter: Residence Life.
Having been a Residence Don (Residence Advisor) as a student, when Sheldon found a great opportunity to work in an entry-level job in Residence Life, with people he admired, he jumped at the chance. While his future as a doctor was getting farther and farther away, he thrived in his new role and began to build up a reputation. As he did, job opportunities presented themselves and Sheldon began to carve a new path for himself in university administration. As he did, he let go of any regrets he had about the future career he had left behind.
Now, Sheldon is the Chief of Staff to the President of Wilfrid Laurier University and has recently been given the added role of Senior Executive Officer, Internationalization. In his interview, we dig deeper into how he had to re-learn how to learn to succeed in his career, as well as how he took time off from work after some personal tragedies to recentre himself.
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40 – As a teenager, Moe Abbas was a vastly different person than he is today. Unmotivated by school, it took getting beat up by some pot dealers at 16 for Moe to make the decision to improve his life. The change wasn’t immediate, but as he began to focus on improving his physical health, his education, and his relationships, opportunities began to present themselves to him
The first opportunity was as an Assistant Phone Line Repair Technician, which allowed him to leave his hometown of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to work in Kamloops, British Columbia, and then Miami, Florida. Upon returning home, at the suggestion of his brother, Moe began working at a landscaping company where he was able to make a good wage. It didn’t take long for Moe to realize he didn’t like taking orders from someone else so he quit to found his own landscaping company.
After two seasons of success, Moe decided to move on from landscaping and sold his business. A friend approached him with a commercial construction opportunity and despite no experience in the field, Moe jumped in feet first and took on a $500,000 renovation project himself. As he gained skills and experience, he was able to grow his business significantly until it spanned 4 offices across Canada.
Despite all that success, Moe was not totally satisfied. He had conquered construction but it wasn’t’ a career he had chosen; he sort of just fell into it. As he began to wonder what he should do next, he focused on the legacy he wanted to leave behind and his mind wandered to a new area of interest: technology. After a false start with his first tech start-up, Moe and his business partner pivoted to create Acadium, a platform that connects those looking for work experience in marketing with mentors who will train them.
With Acadium still on the rise, Moe is 100% committed to its success and believes he can impact the financial mobility of countless people who don’t have access to other forms of education.
Find Acadium and Moe at the following locations
Website: acadium.com
Social Media: @acadium
Find Moe: @realmoeabbas
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39 - Welcome to Career Crossroads very first update episode! This week, I decided not to release an interview as there have been some changes (all positive) in my life that I wanted to talk about. Instead, I recorded a 16-minute episode where I discuss my career and the future of the podcast.
Firstly, last week I began a new job. Given the nature of the podcast and why I started it, I felt it was important to talk about why I shifted roles at this point in time. I provide some insight into why I made the switch and what I'll be doing in the new gig.
As for the future of the podcast, don't worry, it's not going anywhere. In fact, my belief in what this podcast can accomplish has only been strengthened with the growth I've seen over the last few months. I'd like to take that growth and use it as a springboard to get this podcast into the ears of those who might benefit from it. Listen in to hear some of my plans for the future of Career Crossroads.
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38 - For Josh Zettel going to university was an obvious step, but what to do after graduating with a degree in Psychology and Philosophy was less obvious. As he was considering social work, he got a job working at House of Friendship, a non-profit homeless shelter that also provided other programming for the local community. This role helped him realize that while he wanted to help people and be able to connect, social work was not the right path and he ended up leaving House of Friendship after feeling burned out.
This was when Josh became lost. What should he do? How could he find a stable career that would allow him to connect with other people? As he struggled to find his path, he decided he should relax and enjoy life a bit, so he headed to Whistler, got a job as a night clerk at a hotel, and spent his days snowboarding. It was during that experience when he reflected back on what he enjoyed during his university undergrad and realized that sports psychology has always been an interest of his. While he hadn't seen it as a viable career path back then, times were changing so he began to look into how he could turn that interest into a career.
From that point on, Josh has been very intentional about all his decisions. His journey takes him from Kitchener, Ontario, to Adler University in Chicago, Illinois, and on to Kingston, Ontario where he now works at Queens University. Listen to his interview to hear how his passion for sports psychology has evolved and how he is able to utilize that skill set both in his 9-5, as well as in his side career.
You can connect with Josh on LinkedIn
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37 - Today on career Crossroads I talk to Jason Yap, a professional dancer from Malaysia who is currently living and working in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia.
As a teenager, Jason had aspirations to become a basketball coach but realized quickly that was not a path likely to lead to success in Malaysia. As he decided to call quits on his basketball career, a new passion emerged: dance. With his athletic ability and competitive nature, he was drawn to the sport as it relied solely on his hard work and skills and not on the success of a team. Having stared at such a late age, dance wasn’t likely to be a career option when he was done high school so instead, he looked at what options would make his parents proud. After settling on psychology, Jason began a university degree while continuing to dance on the side.
Upon graduating, Jason had a choice to make. Should he continue down the path to become a clinical psychologist? Or should he work towards a career as a performer where he had a 95% chance of being unemployed after going back to school for a dance program? Jason just couldn't shake the feeling that dance was where he belonged, and during a heart-to-heart with his parents, he explained that he just needed to know if he could make it as a professional dancer. Jason's parents were supportive and told him to pursue his dream.
After obtaining a scholarship to the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, off Jason went for another round of post-secondary education. Now, two years after graduating, Jason is a performing dancer for Divadlo Studio Tanca in Slovakia.
During his interview Jason tells me about his journey to overcome imposter syndrome, the value of mentorship, and why he decided to pursue his passion after picking up dance at a later age than most.
You can find Jason in the following locations:
Instagram: @jasonliel
LinkedIn: Jason Yap
Personal Website: Artist Website
Podcast: The Background Dancer
Dance Company: Divadlo Studio Tanca ______________________
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#36 – Growing up in New Delhi in her native India, Shelly’s family had a lot of say in the career path she chose. Despite that, Shelly was committed to working in the hospitality industry and pushed back against her family’s concerns. When she was accepted into the Institute of Hotel Management in Gangtok, her father relented, and off she went.
An internship at the Taj Mahal Hotel led to a career in the Food and Beverage department at other luxury hotels like The Imperial, serving clients like Angelina Jolie and Bill Clinton. Then, when her father’s business was struggling, Shelly made the choice to take a job through a J-1 visa in the United States, but it ended up not being the financial success she was hoping for. Back in India, she began to shift towards working with more mid-range hotels until she was offered an opportunity to work for a hotel brand that spun off from Taj Hotel brand where she got her start. By then, Shelly had worked her way up to the role of Director of Sales and Marketing and was expanding her skillset far beyond making a mean martini.
When her work environment started to shift, which began to affect her health and social life, Shelly began to consider what the future of her career would look like. Reflecting back on a plan she had if money wasn't an issue, she began to be interested in teaching Sales and Marketing to others. Knowing that would be a difficult path to forge in India, and having a younger sibling attending post-secondary education in Canada, a move overseas seemed like the right choice. Needing to renew some education before applying for Master’s programs, Shelly enrolled at Seneca College and it was there where she found a whole new passion; a passion that is now leading her down a different career path.
What is she doing now? Listen in to find out!
Connect with Shelly through LinkedIn
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#35 – Matt Sonnenberg is a man who isn’t afraid to try things. He tries something new, learns a valuable lesson, and then moves onto something else. This is a pattern that started with his childhood paper route but and continues with the multiple revenue streams he manages today.
His journey takes us through two different attempts at post-secondary education; a path that eventually led him to specialize in brass instrument repair. After a failed solo repair business, Matt ended up at a larger music store but quickly realized that the industry would take a significant amount of time to break into. Leaving there to deliver pizzas, he learned that he enjoyed working for himself where he didn’t have to rely on a schedule made by someone else, and that was enough to push him towards another entrepreneurial venture.
His first website, a place to assist those purchasing a home, taught him how online advertising worked, and his second website was where he found his niche; the toys-to-life video game genre. He got in early enough during the Skylanders crazy that his website generated $35,000 per year from advertising and affiliate marketing, but eventually the bubble had to burst. Realizing the value of getting in on the ground floor, he switched to the world of card games and started the first direct sales website in North American for the Lightseekers franchise.
While all this was going on, Matt had become a regular guest on a few podcasts that specialized in video games due to his expertise in the toys-to-life genre. His positive guest experiences led him to start a podcast of his own with some friends, and when it began to pay for itself through Patreon subscribers, his entrepreneurial side took over once again. Now, Matt splits his time between running his websites, creating Skylanders Youtube content, and working as a podcast advisor and consultant helping others get their ideas off the ground.
Matt's projects can be found at the following links:
Skylanders Website
Skylanders Youtube Channel
Lightseekers Podcast
Podcast Consulting
Podcast Better ______________________
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#34 - Steve Tyson (a.k.a Tyson) has had something like 27 different jobs in his life. From selling peanut butter cups when he was 10 so he could buy a Nintendo Gamecube, to founding Karbon Brewing Company in 2020, Tyson has often had a motivation behind each job he’s worked beyond just making money. After a number of paths through post-secondary education and a number of jobs working in stadium events management, Tyson moved into the hospitality industry where he saw a number of issues with the sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle lived by many who worked within the industry. He worked his way up the restaurant/bar management ladder trying to influence change from the inside until he realized he could help impact change on a larger scale if he wasn’t tied to just a few locations. That’s when he and his business partner founded their own consulting company, Take Action Consulting.
As Covid-19 devastated their target market, Steve and his partner found themselves with fewer and fewer clients, but it only takes one client to change things. While consulting with a resort on Wolfe Island, they were made aware of a failed brewery on the island, and that lit a spark for Tyson. What if they opened a brewery that would not only make great beer but help combat climate change and raise awareness of social justice issues? That’s how he became one of the Founder of Karbon Brewing Company, a brewery that aims to become Canada’s first carbon-negative brewery.
Listen to Tyson’s interview to hear the whole story.
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#33 – How does someone with no university degree become an executive at Facebook? That’s the story of Victoria Graham’s career over the last 20+ years. Without a clear idea of her future during post-secondary education, Victoria drifted from one university to another and eventually found herself dropping classes for lack of interest. What was holding her interest? The candle store she was working at, where she was eventually promoted to manage one of their locations. The candle store led to a job at Pottery Barn but a chance meeting set Victoria on an entirely different path. While at a party with her copywriter boyfriend, Victoria was introduced to one of his colleagues. Months later that same person called Victoria with a job offer which launched her long career in advertising and digital marketing.
Utilizing the skills she’d picked up running the candle store, Victoria thrived and spent a number of 2-year stints at a variety of companies. She was beginning to make a name for herself and that was the point when the recruiters started calling. The first recruiter brought her to California, and not long after that, she began working with Andrea Cunningham, the woman Steve Jobs had entrusted with launching the Macintosh computer in the 1980s. The next recruiter brought her to lead a team embedded at Google and shortly after that, she was approached by Facebook where she’s been ever since.
That could be where the story ends, but it’s not. Recently, Victoria had to work her way through the biggest challenge of her career when she realized she needed to make a more drastic change. Luckily, with a company like Facebook there is plenty of room for internal shifts so once Victoria figured out what she values in a career, an opportunity clicked into place. What led Victoria to transition into the role of Onboarding Experience Lead within Learning and Development? You’ll have to listen to her journey to find out.
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32 – Having literally circled the globe during the course of his career, and living in 8 countries along the way, Zach Desson would probably describe himself not as a nomad but as someone open to new experiences. Leaving his home town when he was 18 to volunteer in Peru is where his journey began before he headed back to Canada to start university as a political science student at Wilfrid Laurier University. After graduating, he spent some time working for the Red Cross but continued to look for his next big adventure. After considering becoming a fighter pilot, he decided he wanted the experience of being a paramedic, so he started school once again, this time at Centennial College.
After graduating and working for years in the heart of downtown Toronto, Zach began to feel the burnout that so many of us experience at some point in our careers. As he pondered what to do next, he realized that his recent experience had opened his eyes to some of the gaps in the healthcare system so Zach set out to impact change on a greater level.
Looking to further his education once again, he looked overseas as his French passport allowed him the privilege of studying in a variety of European locations. After settling on a European Master in Health Economics and Management from Erasmus University Rotterdam, Zach dealt with the same instability that we all did – the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, he’s found himself a job in his field located in Brussels, where he gets to work on healthcare policy.
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31 – Hailing from the Cayman Islands, Lisa Hylton has always had a career where she crunched numbers, although who she was crunching numbers for has changed dramatically over time. After doing part of her university degree in Cayman, and then transferring to the University of Georgia to complete it, Lisa began her career in accounting with Pricewaterhouse Cooper. After establishing herself at home, she then sought to take her talents abroad via a PwC exchange program. After considering New York and Toronto, Lisa eventually decided on Boston and packed up to move countries once again.
It was in there, in Boston, where she really began to shine in her field, but with all this success came sacrifice. Vacations were sparse, so after years of hard work, Lisa finally took an extended tried to the west coast and upon returning, decided that a move was in order. She packed up and transferred to the PwC offices in Los Angeles and continued with the same work ethic she has exhibited in Boston.
Years later, Lisa began to wonder what she would command if she tried looking for work outside of her company. This search led to her first major pivot as she became the controller of a real estate investing company. It was while working there that she began to understand the value of real estate and she started doing some research. Now, 2 years later, Lisa is on Career Crossroads to tell her story and make a big announcement about the future of her career path.
Lisa can be found at the following locations
Website: lisahylton.com
Instagram: @lisahyl
Podcast: The Level Up REI
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#30 – Helen Hanison has lived a life of two careers. After stumbling a little as a teenager, she attended university at the age of 21 to get a degree in Media and Communications and after spending a term during her degree working at a high-profile Public Relations firm, she was hooked. This experience led to a long career working in PR in increasingly difficult positions, in multiple cities in her native England. Despite her success in the industry, it wasn’t an entirely smooth road. The fast-paced field created a lot of turnover and she had to navigate new supervisors and new firms along the way.
Children and a move to New York City put a pause on that career but upon returning to England, she headed back to the frontlines of Public Relations. When things just seemed to not fit anymore, she headed back to school as a mature student to get a Bachelor of Psychology, as it was always the relationships with co-workers and clients that interested her about PR. Now, Helen is a successful Leadership Coach, helping people take the skills they currently have and find a new direction in which they can utilize them to their fullest potential.
Helen's Contact Information
Website: helenhanison.com
Social Media: @HHanison
Helen’s Complimentary Career Framework: click here
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#29 - James Cridland knew from the time he was a teenager that radio and technology were two of his biggest passions. Given that, he had a fairly easy time deciding where to try and get hired after high school; a radio station. In a weird twist, early on in his career he was fired and rehired by the same person, but he realized that being the on-air talent full time didn’t allow him the creativity he desired. Using his other skillsets, over the next number of years he ran a radio station website, created a media directory, and was involved in the world’s first phone app for a radio station. Then a head-hunter approached him about a job with the BBC and while he took it, it proved to be a terrible decision. Since leaving, James has found his place consulting for radio stations around the world and ventured into the world of podcasting where he now runs Podnews, a daily newsletter and podcast that allows him to utilize both of his passions in tandem.
You can find James at the following websites and social media accounts:
Podnews Website: podnews.net
Personal Website: james.cridland.net
Twitter: @JamesCridland
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#28 – Jessica Bondy has always been a natural leader and from a young age she developed a passion for helping others. Towards the end of high school, as she tried to figure out what career path to go down, she flipped open a book about careers and landed on recreation therapist. Everything about the job seemed right so she set off to the University of Waterloo to begin her education.
While excelling academically in her undergraduate degrees (she did two of them simultaneously), Jessica became heavily involved in student life, specifically in the area of housing. While she had plans to pursue a full-time Master’s degree once she graduated, a full-time job popped up in Campus Housing and Jessica jumped at the opportunity, thus beginning her career in Student Affairs.
Years later while on maternity leave from another role at the university, Jessica began to feel like she needed to make a change. After testing out many options, she realized that if she wanted to ensure happiness in her future career she needed to get back to her roots and help those in need. As she began to explore the non-profit sector, a crazy turn of events led her to become the Housing Director at House a Friendship in the Waterloo Region of Ontario, Canada; a role she is still in today.
Social Links for House of Friendship
Website: https://www.houseoffriendship.org/
Twitter: @hofwatreg
Facebook: @houseoffriendshipwr
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27 – Kristy Bernardo is the woman behind the wildly successful blog The Wicked Noodle, however, being a professional foodie wasn’t always in her future. Growing up in small town Wisconsin, Kristy didn’t have s strong sense of what she should pursue after high school although it didn’t take long for her to find out that she excelled in retail. After 5 promotions in 5 months, she was managing her own store in another state by the age of 20! Next came a move to Southern California where she lived for 16 years as she advanced her career through various companies from Payroll Specialist all the way up to Vice President of Human Resources for Wahoo’s Fish Taco. Upon having children, Kristy became a stay-at-home mom who had to learn how to cook, so she thought she might as well blog about it and this, The Wicked Noodle was born. Despite her low expectations, the blog gained a following quickly and within 6 months she was working with advertisers and opportunities were presenting themselves. Now, 12 years later, food blogging has taken Kristy farther than she ever imagined. She’s been a national spokesperson for major brands, worked with famous chefs, hosted TV shows and publish 5 cookbooks – all from a little hobby blog. Listen to her Career Crossroads interview to hear the whole story.
Kristy can be found at the following links:
Website: www.thewickednoodle.com
Social Media: @thewickednoodle
Or look for any of Kristy's cookbooks on Amazon or wherever you buy books:
- The Big Book of Instant Pot Recipes: 240 Must-Try Dishes for your Multi-Function Cooker
- Weeknight Keto: 75 East and Quick Recipes for Delicious Low-Carb Meals
- Cooking from Frozen in Your Instant Pot: 100 Foolproof Recipes with No Thawing
- Weeknight Cooking with Your Instant Pot: Simple Family-Friendly Meals Made Better in Half the Time
- Easy Cooking with Your Ninja Foodi: 75 Recipes for Incredible One-Pot Meals in Half the Time
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26 – Christine Dainard is in a vastly different place now than she was when she left high school in her teens. After not getting her diploma, she became a top 10 salesperson, nationwide, for a Canadian exercise equipment retailer. It wasn’t because she was really good at convincing people to buy things - Christine was just really good at understanding people’s needs and with her friendly and energetic personality, she was able to find solutions to their problems. After having a child and going through a divorce, Christine was looking for a change and upon evaluating her interests, decided that Public Relations was what she would pursue. After getting a college diploma, Christine put in the work to get a full-time government job that would provide her with the stability she wanted for her and her son, but after many years of hard work, the pressure of the job began to take its toll. As she struggled with what to do about a career she wasn’t happy with, a friend brought Christine to a winery in Norfolk County in Ontario for a relaxing weekend. Christine was awestruck by the tranquility of the area and literally couldn’t stop the words from coming out of her mouth – she was going to start a winery tour business. Five years later, Buzz Tour Company is Christine’s full-time career and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Listen to Christine’s career journey today!
Christine's Website: buzztourcompany.ca
Christine's Social Media: @buzztourco
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25 - Composer, voice actor, sound designer, host. These are some of the words you can use to describe what Lindsay Graham does in his current career as a full-time podcast creator. He's the man behind American History Tellers, American Scandal, Business Movers, and many other hit podcasts that are part of the Wondery network, however, podcasting has really only comprised the last handful of years of Lindsay's career. Prior to that, he worked in insurance sales, marketing, accounting, and a variety of other roles that are not directly related to what he does today. So how did he go from those jobs to podcaster? You’ll have to check out his Career Crossroads interview to find out.
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24 – Early in her professional career in India, Priyanka Ojha has moved around a lot. It started when she got her degree in mechanical engineering and was quickly recruited by Bosch to work in their diesel engine pump division. But one year into that career, Priyanka decided to expand her professional credentials and began a Masters of Business Administration in Finance. That led her to jobs in business development and employee engagement before she packed up to move again – this time to Germany where her husband’s career was located. Now working in software consulting for Deloitte, Priyanka has come a long way from where she started her career. Listen to episode 24 of Career Crossroads to hear Priyanka reflect on the career path she has chosen.
Social Links for Priyanka
Podcast: peoplesstoriespodcast.com
Social Media: @peoplesstoriespod
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#23 – Ivan Lu was driven by respect and competition to follow in his brother’s footsteps in a corporate career. To make that dream a reality he decided to get a degree in Commerce, something that would provide him with a variety of opportunities when he graduated. While in university, his internships/co-op experiences helped him realize that some of what he was studying was just not that interesting. He did not want to sit in a room and crunch numbers so upon graduating he tried to find a job with more of a client-facing role. Bouncing between a couple of jobs, Ivan found himself spending more and more time on one of his hobbies, singing, and soon realized he needed to set off down a totally different career path than the one he initially intended. Now, two and a half years later Ivan has his own vocal coaching business and is thriving.
Website and Podcast: singingsimply.com
Instagram: @singingwithivan
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#22 – Chris Johnson has an idyllic life working at his own skate shop, Passion Board Shop, in Eau Claire Wisconsin. But when he was 18, life didn’t look like it was heading in that direction. With an interest in sales, Chris decided to study business at the University of Minnesota Duluth but quickly decided the degree was unnecessary. As he had learned working at a Zoomies store in his teens, you just had to be a good salesperson to succeed in sales, and that is what he wanted to do. Chris set out to begin climbing the corporate ladder at Kay Jewellers, Helzberg Diamonds, and eventually landed at Verizon Wireless as an Assistant Manager. Then one day, he looked around and realized he didn’t like the person he was becoming and decided to make a change. How does that lead to opening a skate shop? Listen to Chris’s interview to find out.
Find Chris at the links below
Instagram: @passionpod
Podcast/Business Website: https://www.passionboardshop.com/
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21 – Raised in rural Kansas, Scott Mason would look up at the stars at night and dream of two things – disco and the big city! After finishing his undergraduate degree in Minneapolis, Scott was accepted into Columbia Law School and was quickly trying to find his place in New York. Upon realizing that his passion lay more in advocacy work, and not in litigation, he began working for the City of New York. During his 20-year career there he was involved in numerous projects and initiatives that he can be proud of but something wasn’t sitting right, and one day Scott decided to leave his job for the great unknown. While trying to figure out what was next, he began working as a small business consultant which opened up a world of opportunities that directly influence the work he does today. Listen to Scott's interview to hear his entire career journey.
Scott’s Websites: scottmasonllc.com and speakerscott.com
Scott’s Podcast: Purpose Highway
Scott’s social media: @s.scott_mason
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20 – From switching schools in undergrad to working in the Bahamas, to living in 4 states before she was 30, moving around was never something that held Sarabeth Berk back. She had never been afraid of change, from the moment she decided to shift away from her plan of working with computers in university. Instead, she went in an entirely opposite direction and studied art. Upon graduating, she loved the creativity working as an art teacher gave her and found roles that she enjoyed. At the same time, she had the desire to affect change on a larger scale, which led her to pursue first a Master’s degree, and then a Ph.D. After working for a private school, a school district, and a foundation working on early childhood initiatives, Sarabeth now finds herself educating people on the value of their career hybridity. What is career hybridity you might ask? Listen to Sarabeth’s career journey to find out.
You can find Sarabeth at the following locations:
Website – www.morethanmytitle.com
Social Media - @morethanmytitle
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19 - Growing up near London, England, Josh De Luna decided to study law in university, but not because he wanted to become a lawyer. He was busy trying to figure out who he was and how he fit into this world – law just seemed like a fun thing to study along the way that would also appease his parents' wishes. Upon graduating, Josh left for an adventure in Brazil, volunteering for an environmental NGO, but many months later he decided to come home when the lifestyle wasn’t a good fit. Thus, began Josh’s journey to find out what WAS the right fit. Watching his friend's careers take off, he moved to London and tried a variety of high-powered jobs so he could live the Wolf of Wallstreet lifestyle, but something with always slightly off. At some point, Josh realized that while he was running away from being a lawyer because it was what other people wanted for him, it actually was what he wanted for himself. After working as a bartender, and loving it, during his Master of Law degree, Josh is now in a happy place as a lawyer who lives life on his own terms.
You can find Josh's Personal Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/justjoshuahere/
Josh’s Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coconutplantain/
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18 - Growing up in Nigeria, Yemi Timson aspired to achieve greatness. Despite her parent's wishes that she become a doctor, she had an interest in accounting and economics and completed a diploma at the University of Jos. While considering further education in accounting, she began to look to the career of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Managing Director of the World Bank as a template for what she should aspire to be. A promotional video with jet skis from Eastern Mediterranean University convinced her to do a degree in Cyprus and on her first day she switched into the economics program to follow in the footsteps of Dr. Okonjo-Iweala. After 4 years in Cyprus, a Master’s degree was in the cards, and Carleton University in Canada was offering a full ride! Three provinces, her first experience with snow, and three jobs later, she is now working as an Economist for the Government of Alberta. Will she ever make it to the World Bank like Dr. Okonjo-Iweala? She hopes!
If you want to listen to Yemi's podcasts, you can find Tunuka Media here: https://taplink.cc/tunukamedia
Yemi’s Instagram and Twitter - @MyPixelJourney
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17 - When leaving high school, Jonathan Miller took the route that many would say leads to success; he went to Wilfrid Laurier University, did co-op, and graduated with a business degree. His co-op secured him a good starter job in Toronto and it seemed like, at 22, he was at the beginning of a long career in marketing. But just over a year into his career, he took a trip that changed his perspective on what mattered. Upon returning, he quickly realized he wanted more of that adventure and within 4 months he quit his job and bought a one-way ticket to Thailand. Returning from his second big adventure, he worked his way up in the world of digital marketing, but when he and his partner had the opportunity to sell their house and leave it all behind for adventure number 3, they jumped at the chance. A journey that involved living in a van, philosophy books without answers, and rock climbing across North America, left Jonathan with the urge to build something himself. Starting as a Communications Coach, he is now a successful Leadership Coach working with social impact founders in South Africa.
Check out Jonathan’s story to hear how his career has unfolded.
Jonathan's Website: www.level7.is
Jonathan's Podcast: Mindful Communication Podcast. Soon to be renamed The Leadership Gap
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16 – Ania’s career path has taken her many places. When she was in high school she wanted to be a lawyer but a guidance counsellor crushed that dream. When she wanted to go to fashion school in Los Angeles, the almighty dollar crushed THAT dream. After an amazing experience at Conestoga College, she finally settled into a career in business, however, a tragic loss led her to realize there was more to life than work. She began to look for something that would give her a better work-life balance and although she excelled at a career in insurance, it wasn’t a long-term career option for her. As Ania found herself drifting towards something where she could be more creative, she took the plunge and headed back to school as a mature student at Sheridan College for their Interior Design program. After a tense period of trying to land a steady job, she has found her fit at Wilfrid Laurier University while also managing her own design company, a YouTube channel, and a podcast.
Link’s to Ania’s projects:
Podcast: https://communitycactus.com/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/InteriorDesignHub
Business: www.interiordesignhub.ca
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15 – As a kid raised playing ball hockey on the streets of Toronto, Tyler Madarasz always knew he wanted to work in hockey. But when it came time to pick an education pathway to get him to his goal, Tyler wasn’t totally prepared. He ended up picking a program that was not what he expected and quickly realized he needed to make a change. After getting advice from a family friend, he found his way to the College of Sports Media where he immediately fell in love with the program. During his diploma, he got a placement at SiriusXM NHL Network Radio and knew he found a place he could work long term. However, upon graduating from college he faced the prospect of working his way up the ranks in small radio stations across the country to get his dream job. Where did Tyler end up? Listen to episode 15 of Career Crossroads to find out!
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14 - While cultures around the world are different, parents are all the same; they want their children to have a good life, and a stable career can help make that happen. That’s why Sen’s parents recommended that their son, a bright student, should become a doctor. The world always needs doctors, in good times and bad, so Sen took their advice and ended up as a surgeon in his native China. After a government policy change pushed him away from surgery and into the role of Quality Care Specialist, Sen moved through the ranks until he was the Director of Emergency and of the Patient Department at the hospital where he had done his training. Despite the success, some of the things Sen saw had him considering leaving China for the western world. Looking for a way to move his family to Canada, he found the Master of Public Health program at Western University and knew that was his pathway to immigration. Three and a half years after arriving in Canada, completing his Master’s degree, and working in the Canadian healthcare system, Sen reflects on how he got here.
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13 - Will Smyth (a.k.a ImperialJedi) didn’t always know he was going to be a Youtuber/Twitch streamer, but he did have ambitions to do something grand or different. Racecar driver? Radio host? He couldn't settle on one thing, so when he had to pick a path out of high school, he decided to attend the University of Guelph. The plan was to work in either law or law enforcement, but an ‘existential crisis’ led to him abandoning that idea. While taking some time off from school, he stumbled upon a YouTube video of someone who had early access to Sim City 2013, the newest version of a game he played when he was younger. Early access? He wanted early access, so he decided to try and make his own YouTube videos with the hope of getting a few free games out of it. After going back to school for Business Administration, a marketing professor heard the passion he had for his YouTube channel and encouraged him to keep growing his online content. Then in 2015 with the release of a new game, Cities: Skylines, Will was hooked. The day the game was released, he created a tutorial video, uploaded it to YouTube, and by the end of the day, it was by far his most popular video. After funding a stable full-time job that allowed him to rebuild his relationship with his father and continue to work on his content, he built up a catalog of quality Cities videos and began to stream on Twitch.tv more consistently. After numerous false starts, he finally made the jump to full-time content creator early in 2020, and now instead of getting video games for free, he's getting paid to play video games. Listen to episode 13 of Career Crossroads to hear Will’s story.
ImperialJedi Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/imperialjedi
Imperial Jedi Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TOvlogs
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12 - Kait’s journey to her current career took her through a winding road in her late teens and early 20’s. She tried multiple educational paths and finally settled on fashion as her career of choice. But the path to being a Merchandising Manager was bumpy, and she turned to a more stable office administration role where she thrived. With a constant urge to better herself, and with the support of her colleagues and friends, she moved across the country, again, to begin a marketing program at Humber College. Going back to school as she was turning 30, she wanted to have the traditional student experience she had heard about and joined the Humber College First-Year Experience program; a decision that proved to be very beneficial to her long term. After two lectures with her Organizational Behaviour professor, she had a conversation that changed the whole path of her degree. Listen now to how Kait ended up in a career in Human Resources.
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11 - Brandon was always good at chemistry and had plans to invent new materials after getting a university chemistry degree. But as university wrapped up, he realized that he did not want a future filled with lab work, so what to do? His university experience gave him the skills and the drive to work with people, so after some deep reflection, he decided a job in sales would make him happy. Utilizing the Wilfrid Laurier University Career Centre, he found a local start-up that seemed like a great fit. After gaining experience with the start-up, he was ready to move on and work towards his goal of being an Account Executive at Desire 2 Learn. Was it an easy path in getting to his desired destination? Listen to Brandon’s story to find out.
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10 - Zahra can trace her creative streak back to her time as a child, when she created products to sell to her friends. After planning to work her way into a career in psychology, she realized that she was more interested in understanding what people want. Upon the advice of a friend and some reflection, she realized that the aspect of selling those childhood products she enjoyed the most was not inventing them, but convincing friends of their value. A career in marketing seemed like the perfect way to scratch that itch. After recently switching to market an entirely new product, Zahra has creativity to spare and has directed her energy towards creating a series of children’s books and a television show she recently pitched to Netflix. Take a listen to Zahra as she tells me about her career path.
You can buy Zahra's newest book by visiting: https://queenzara.com/books/onetwosquiggle
Follow her on Instagram @officialqueenzara
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9 - As a good student in high school, Heather Patel did not have an exact goal in mind when she decided to attend the University of Waterloo. Three degrees later she had found her calling; helping others as a social worker. With a busy career and three children, the idea of having a place where parents could come together to decompress and learn from one another all while their children were entertained, was appealing. Thus, Heather’s side-hustle Play-A-Latte was born. Hear the whole story here on episode 9 of Career Crossroads.
Check out Play A Latte at: https://playalattecafe.com/
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8 - A young Ronak Patel was practical, so a career working with computers seemed like a smart decision. When he realized the passion wasn't there, he pivoted to working towards becoming an optometrist but again the passion was missing. After taking an economics course, he found his lane and worked towards his passion for marketing, entrepreneurship, and connecting with people. After a decade of honing his craft in a variety of jobs, Ronak and his wife decided to strike out on their own and take the biggest risk of their lives - starting their own business. Listen today to hear Ronak's journey to founding Play-A-Latte.
Find them online at https://playalattecafe.com or on Instagram or Facebook and Instagram @playalattecafe.
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7 - Brendon Bedford knew what he wanted; the perfect middle-class life and the chance to make a difference in the world. After finding a happy place working in politics, an opportunity arose to work at the university he called home for 4 years. He jumped at the chance for a more stable work-life balance and he finally had everything he wanted; a stable career, a house with a picket fence, and a loving wife and daughter. And yet, something was missing. One day something hit him - literally - and he had to finally reconsider the question people had been asking him all these years. After saying no for so long, he finally said 'yes' when he was asked "Have you ever thought about going into the church?" Take a listen to Brendon's story.
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6 - Aatir got his first job at 15 years old and has not taken a break from working since. When he attended the University of Waterloo, the first thing he did was get an on-campus job, which led him to consider a career at the University's Office of Advancement. But his real crossroad moment came during the winter break after his first term, where he went to an interview for a summer job that would change his life. When you know the path to your dream job, does school matter anymore? Listen to Aatir's journey to find out.
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5 - From a young age, Rachel Peters watched her mom's surgery videotapes, so a passion for medicine was always there. But after deciding to get an undergraduate degree in history, how does someone end up in a career as an Occupational Therapist? Rachel's story involves an overseas graduate school and work rotation that sparked her interest in becoming a neuro-specialist. After studying and working abroad for 7 years, she moved back to Canada in 2019 to continue her career. Let's take a listen to Rachel's story.
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4 - As a high schooler, Corey didn’t have a concrete idea of what he wanted. Get a job? Get a house? That sounded like a plan, and a STEM degree seemed like a good way to make that happen. After a year of teaching abroad, he came back to Canada and was able to put his French language skills to work at a call centre for an auto manufacturer. What he calls ‘luck’ led to regular movement within the same company doing wildly different jobs. Was six jobs in six years the stability he was looking for? Listen in to find out.
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3 - Nadia Rosemond had a lot of ideas about her future when she was in high school. Influenced by family and popular television shows, it ended up being her friends who set her on the path to her future while attending the University of Guelph. Nadia’s story includes both “OMG, I want to do this” moments as well as “what have I DONE” moments. Take a listen to hear how she has ended up working in a field she didn’t even know existed until she applied for a student job.
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2 - Robbie Berardi 's story of becoming a skilled blacksmith starts when he graduated high school with plans to work at his local gas station. With a number of twists and turns along the way, he was able to train under master blacksmith's in Germany and the United Kingdom. A number of injuries from a variety of jobs kick-started his interest in health and he is now pivoting to take on a new challenge as a Massage Therapist. Take a listen to his story.
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1 - Carissa walks through her journey of delaying the start of university to find out what she really wanted. After an amazing university experience, two careers tugged at her heartstrings, but for very different reasons. One path is a little wider now but the other certainly isn't closed. Carissa shares what influenced her to pick the one that has helped her combine what she loves from both after balancing them separately for many years.
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In this 8 minute introductory episode, host Jonathan Collaton explains what Career Crossroads is all about. He explains where the concept came from, what the show's format is, and his personal rationale for creating the podcast. This is the best place to start listening to find out if the show is for you!
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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroadspodcast.com or follow us on social media
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