TrailBlazers: Recent Episodes
Dave & Tyler
TrailBlazers breaks down the journey's of young professionals on non-traditional career paths. Each episode showcases a different guest and examines their key decisions and personal developments for creating their current career.
Malcolm Kennedy joins Tyler and Dave on the Trailblazers podcast to discuss his educational journey and his work at Whale Seeker. After growing up in Toronto, Malcolm studied Linguistics at Cambridge in England, focusing on the syntax of whale songs. Thereafter, he pursued a master's in neurobiology at McGill. He now works as a Data Scientist full time at Whale Seeker in Montreal.
From his work experience at Whale Seeker, Malcolm has already started writing articles that share about his work experience and the work Whale Seeker is undertaking. You can read these great articles at https://www.whaleseeker.com/blog/precision-truth- https://www.whaleseeker.com/blog/widening-the-bottleneck-can-citizen-science-accelerate-conservation.
Malcolm shares how you can turn a passion into a profession, providing details from his own experiences. Also, how you can pick up coding and implement them into projects at your work. He also provides some insights on what it was liking living and working abroad.
https://trailblazerspod.com/
Taylor Rault comes on the podcast to talk about his journey leading to pursuing a PhD at Stanford. At a young age Taylor became interested in combustion engines and which put him on the path to engineering studies. After completing a bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta, Taylor earned a Master's in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Toronto, before being admitted to Stanford where he currently studies.
Taylor highlights some particularly useful information for anyone considering graduate studies at an ivy league institution. He details his application preparation methods which began years before he actually applied. He also touches on the importance of work life balance and how finds his optimal number of working hours per day.
In his spare time, Taylor is a private pilot. See the short episode he did on getting admitted to Stanford here: https://youtu.be/iVG05VWunfA
https://trailblazerspod.com/
Geoff Bekavac comes on the podcast to discuss how him and his team have built an ecommerce company from the ground up. Geoff initially started in a traditional technically focused engineering position, but by working on his company in the evenings and weekends, he slowly was able to transition to working on it full time.
Geoff graduated chemical engineering from the University of Alberta while having an aptitude and drive for entrepreneurship. He touches on the risks he took in the early stages of entrepreneurship and the rushes of highs and lows he experienced along the way. Geoff touches on how he maintained discipline while working long hours in order to achieve his goals and grow his company.
Geoff speaks about the importance of having a supportive, yet competitive team surrounding you that have the same goals and how that can accelerate a company's growth. Dave shares a unique story he heard about Geoff delivering his resume in person to get a job, which left a lasting impression on the hiring manager.
https://trailblazerspod.com/
Rahul Ravin comes on the podcast to talk about his transition to the space industry. After scoring a great job working for Nova Chemicals after his Bachelors, Rahul decided to change careers and begin a Masters in aerospace engineering at the University of Toronto with Space Flight Laboratory (SFL).
Rahul is a Mechanical Engineering graduate from the University of Alberta. While there, he constantly engaged in student projects that developed his interested in the space sector. This only increased after graduation, as he continued to attend space conferences. This lead to him making the difficult but ultimately rewarding decision to quit his job and start anew in the satellite industry.
Rahul describes his day to day activities, which include the design, building and testing of satellites for specialized missions. In addition, he gives some actionable tips on how to attend conferences effectively, and with a plan. Rahul also dives into the importance of work/life balance and the role that it plays in his life.
https://trailblazerspod.com/
Working at the The Large Hadron Collider | CERN with the LISA experiment (Laser Ionization and Spectroscopy of Actinides), Mia Au, currently studying a PhD in Geneva joins us on the podcast to highlight her journey after starting a Bachelors in Alberta! After studying her Master's at the University of British Columbia, she then opted to join PhD at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz to focus on her PhD topic while getting great international exposure living in Switzerland.
Along Mia's journey, she highlights being curious and interested in technical concepts of being she didn't know at the point she learned about them. This all started in her Bachelor's Degree which first led her to applying for TRIUMF as an intern and she realized she really liked Physics! Being one of the only students at the University of Alberta selected to intern at TRIUMF, she seized this opportunity and got invited to join TRIUMF, which helped set her trajectory going forward to help learn about more-and-more diverse areas.
She shares what inspired her to determine her "why" and how current students and young professionals can also think through their focus going forward.
https://trailblazerspod.com/ ##
Spencer Vandermeer comes on the podcast to discuss his recent decision to change career paths during the pandemic after leaving his job in technical sales. He mentions that he wants to pursu his photography business full time and leave himself open to any other opportunities that come along the way.
He has a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Alberta and it's not his foray into entrepreneurship, he was previously the founder and managing director of Ventrify, a tech product design company right after he graduated university.
Spencer discusses what to expect when making a career change and the challenges, as well as rewards you can expect to experience. He touches on the benefits from taking on entrepreneurship and the growth that it promotes. In contrast, he also speaks on strategies for managing the stress and anxiety of leaving your current position.
Spencer has also wrote some great articles on LinkedIn which you can look at here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/engineering-technical-sales-photography-thoughts-spencer-vandermeer/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/maximizing-innovative-potential-society-anecdotal-spencer-vandermeer/
https://trailblazerspod.com/
Majdi Rabia comes on the podcast to discuss his experience through living abroad and founding a Music-Tech startup, Fairphonic (https://fairphonic.com/ ). Majdi's journey highlights the journey to becoming a startup Co-Founder by joining Entrepreneur First in Singapore and previously before that spending time at a Finance company in Singapore. Specifically, his usage of resiliency, where he mentions that "resiliency is not something you can buy, rather it's something you build", which is an invaluable mindset for the changing dynamics of the world landscape.
Majdi touches on "just-in-time-learning" where he mentions that you don't need to have a perfect background to learn about something, rather you start learning when necessary to acquire the relevant skills. As well, Madji mentions the importance of a startup mentality, especially with side projects, where he recommends building and iterating, rather than learning and building for so long without discussing with customers.
Majdi is also an active blogger on Medium and you can view some of his writing work here : https://majdi-rabia.medium.com/
https://trailblazerspod.com/
Katelynn Giao Nguyen comes on the podcast to discuss her journey to become a Microsoft Program Manager after originally being trained as a Civil Engineer and being at IBM as an IT Consultant. She intentionally used side projects while in university to develop skills that would allow her to break into the tech industry, while figuring out what she wanted to pursue for a career. Additionally, Katelynn is the Co-founder of Vivoce (https://getvivoce.com/) a language pronunciation app.
Katelynn speaks on the importance of taking a step back and reflecting on what you want to do with your education. Additionally, she highlights how critical it is to have healthy boundaries in your life and provides specifics on how to have these conversations with your employer at a fast paced company like Microsoft.
She has written an article on her transition from Civil Engineer to Microsoft Product Manager you can read here: https://bit.ly/3l9HJkL (part 2 coming soon!)
https://trailblazerspod.com/
Chris Fetterly comes on the podcast to discuss his curious and inspiring journey so far. After 2 years of university Chris decided to leave to explore what other options were out there. Because of his interest in research and nanotechnology, he eventually decided to enroll at the UofA and earned himself a PhD in Materials Chemistry. Afterwards, he was the director of the student innovation center where he played a role in helping students explore new projects and ideas. Chris currently holds a position as VP of Sales at cellular agriculture company Future Fields, where he feels he is applying everything he's learned from his journey so far.
In this episode, Chris speaks on the importance of cultivating self awareness and how he always choose opportunity over fear. He also highlights how grad school is a crucible for resilience and that you should never be afraid to tack skills beyond yourself.
https://trailblazerspod.com/
agtech #innovation
Karina Sapelnikova comes on the podcast to highlight her educational and career journey thus far spanning Canada, France, and now Germany where she's working as a Propulsion Engineer at Rocket Factory Augsburg. Karina discusses in many details regarding her finding a passion for the aerospace industry which slowly inspired her transition into aeronautics and rockets. She highlights some of the tough choices she's had to make along the way, including flipping a coin to decide where she would go to graduate school, between Canada and France.
Karina touches on the aspect of the aspect of trying many different student clubs and activities to find the things we're most passionate about and optimizing to spend our time doing these things. Karina also breaks down the basics on rockets, which is something you won't want to miss!
https://trailblazerspod.com/
MechanicalEngineer #Rocketscience #Rocketfactory
McNiel-Inyani Keri comes on the podcast to highlight his exciting journey from designing bionic limbs during his Master's as a Mechanical Engineer at the University of Alberta to choosing Medicine at the University of Calgary where he's currently studying. Inyani focuses on where he went to figure out his "why" at each step of his journey which highlight by trying many different options to discover what he loved.
Inyani touches on the aspect of his Master's group and other areas where he mentions that it's not "what you do, but who you do it with" that's the most important. Within this Master's group he mentions that the guidance of his supervisors to ask questions such as "why is this relevant?" helped guide research to making it have a big impact for society.
Inyani touches on a story about how he drove around Alberta for 24 hours to hand out resumes to almost 300 companies, while only receiving one call back. The main takeaway is as long as you try, something will always come through! Join us on listening to Inyani's exciting path so far and hear where he's planning to take his med education afterwards!
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/bionic-limbs-researcher-edmonton-alberta-1.4573930
https://trailblazerspod.com/
electricengineer #bioniclimbs #medicalschool #engineertomedicine
Megnath Ramesh comes on the podcast to talk about his transition from Electrical Engineering to Software Engineering and after a few years of work experience opting to do a Master's focused in AI and Robotics at Queen's University. Megnath discusses his why into his choices of choosing software development and taking a Master's after moving quickly through his career.
Megnath touches on the aspects of being an international student in Canada, the transition to Graduate School, and ideas for succeeding in learning remotely. He also mentions motivations for choosing graduate school and how one can design a career made through many steps.
Finally, Megnath discusses the exciting journey he's taken to help overcome imposters syndrome, as well as how mentorship has played a part in his success to now.
https://trailblazerspod.com/
imposterssyndrome #ai #robotics #electricalengineer #softwareengineering #internationalstudent #canada
Kate Houg comes on the podcast to talk about how she has ventured into the field of Data Science from Mechanical Engineering. Along the way she has utilized informational interviews to shape the career that she's building today. Kate talks about key turning points and moments along her journey that has guided her into choosing this fruitful career.
Kate touches on the benefits she garnered from mentoring and volunteering with Women in Scholarship, Engineering, Science, and Technology (WISEST) to give back and help her learning journey. She also touches on the usefulness and how to approach getting started with networking and informational interviews.
Finally, Kate discusses the exciting journey she took into discovering her passion with data and how communicating information effectively motivated her throughout her Master's to go into data science.
Clara Du joins Tyler and Dave on Episode 3 of TrailBlazers where she discusses her career transition from taking a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering to joining Accenture as a Management Consultant. Clara discusses the roles extra-curriculars, student clubs, mentorship, and various experiences influenced her on choosing the path less chosen. Clara shares plenty of advice to prospective students and young professionals who may find themselves in a situation of not wanting to directly target a technical role out of school. #careertransition #tech https://www.buzzsprout.com/1749518 https://open.spotify.com/episode/3vgPY78WwV8KYLK7x3UBhx?si=gYrASNraSCmlX9TtoiR1WQ&dl_branch=1 https://trailblazerspod.com/
0:00 - Trailblazers intro
0:30 - Clara career path
5:20 - Choosing management consulting
7:20 - Striking a balance between school and extra curriculars
9:30 - Factors influencing a non-traditional career path
11:15 - Skills that transfer outside of the engineering domain
13:14 - Impacts of volunteer leadership positions on critical soft skills
14:49 - The process of intentional self improvement
21:47 - Advice for finding your "why"
31:10 - Technical skills that transfer to the consulting domain
33:00 - Dealing with imposter syndrome in leadership positions
40:58 - Why you should ask the people around you what they notice about you / Final thoughts
Bill Tran joins the boys (Tyler and Dave) on Episode 2 of TrailBlazers where he discusses his transition from Mechanical Engineering, taking a Master's degree and ultimately joining the tech industry as an Information Designer (which is essentially a data visualization specialist). Bill highlights the adversities he faced along the way, especially with regards to his job search, but ultimately talks about the satisfaction of sticking-with-it during his journey to joining his current company.
Bill also runs a hockey blog following the Calgary Flames, https://thewincolumn.ca/author/mrbill... and you can find him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrbilltran?lang=en
careertransition #tech
www.trailblazerspod.com
Chris McNicoll joins the boys (Tyler and Dave) on Episode 1 of TrailBlazers where he discusses his career transition from Mechanical Engineering to joining the tech industry as a project manager and product manager - to which he then leaves for Nicaragua.
Chris relies on being honest with himself as he's made his transitions and decisions thus far in his career and shares plenty of advice for anyone considering, or in the process of making a career transition.
careertransition #tech
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