Career Crossroads

#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...

#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 explor...

#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 ho...

#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 i...

#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 Fi...

#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 une...

#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 int...

#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 w...

#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...

#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 ...

#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 ...

#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 t...

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...

#87 - What 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 st...

#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 ...

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 realizati...

#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 pr...

#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...

#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 sta...