Riham Mohamed

PhD in Computer Science (2019)

1. What field of work are you in, and what duties are required in your position?

I graduated from a PhD program in Computer Science. My research was focused on human-computer interaction, usable security & privacy, and privacy in social media. I now teach at 杏吧原创 and also work for the Government of Canada.  My position in the Government mainly involves conducting usability testing with users/clients. In the department, we are interested in testing both digital-facing services and other public-facing services.

This is a list of my main duties, which can also be collaboratively completed with my team members: I prepare testing meterials and run testing sessions with clients. I prepare testing reports that identify the testing outcome and provide general recommendation/next steps. I communicate with other team members who test their services through our team. I explore the problem they are trying to solve and identify their testing objectives. I provide training for others in other department on how to conduct usability testing.

2. What challenges did you face when looking for work after graduating?

Choosing my next career path; should it be academia, industry, or the government? Also, having enough connections and exposure to find a job.

3. How did you arrive at your current position?

I’m grateful that the collaborative learning program in my department offers internships. During the four years of my PhD, I could complete two full-time internships (4 months each). I did one internship in industry and one in the government. I could see where I want to continue my career. My current job role is with the same department I did my second internship with. I was very clear when I started with them about what I wanted to do and polish as specific skills. They gave me the chance to actually do what I wanted and it was a need for them at the time. The internships gave me enough experience and exposure in my field. I could learn how to map academic education and research to the practical world.

4. What advice would you give to a graduate student looking to follow a career path similar to yours?

Choose a program that provides internships/co-ops. Even if it doesn’t, talk to your supervisor or academic advisor/mentor and discuss your options with them. If you do an internship, be clear about your objectives and goals and why you want to do it. Be specific about what you want and do your best to work on it. Get in touch with Career Services at 杏吧原创. The services and resources they offer are very useful. Be proactive and do not be shy. If you see an opportunity that you might fit, reach out and do your best to demonstrate your qualifications. Even if you don’t think you are not good enough to do the job, you probably are!

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Adenike Shittu

MSc in Chemistry with concentration in Food Science and Nutrition (2017)

1. What field of work are you in, and what duties are required in your position?

I am a Scientific Project Coordinator in the Food Directorate at Health Canada. Some of my duties includes reviewing scientific and regulatory documents to provide advice for decision making by management, analyzing food product databases for informed policy decisions, and reviewing nutrition label information, in addition to contributing to stakeholder engagements.

2. What challenges did you face when looking for work after graduating?

One of the challenges I faced was transitioning from working in laboratory settings to a policy / regulatory environment. Most of the experiences I gained while obtaining my bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees were in laboratory research. Therefore, it was a bit difficult to find an opportunity to apply to positions in policy offices within the government. However, because I was very proactive with job applications while in grad school, I was fortunate to receive a job offer at Health Canada before I completed my grad studies.

3. How did you arrive at your current position?

I was a research student within the department that I work at right now. However, I was doing my research in the laboratories. I started networking and speaking with a lot of employees that worked in areas that were of interest to me. I continued to apply to so many other positions that I felt passionate about. So having a research or co-op program in the school curriculum definitely was a great idea, and working very hard while a student to prove to your employer that you deserve the position is the way to go.

4. What advice would you give to a graduate student looking to follow a career path similar to yours?

My advice is for grad students to not wait until after graduation to start looking for jobs. I鈥檇 encourage students and the department to keep up collaborations with the government and industries. The government is always posting job opportunities for recent graduates and research affiliation opportunities. You just have to keep looking, keep networking, keep applying and NEVER GIVE UP!

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Grace Daly

MSc in Chemistry with Specialization in Chemical and Environmental Toxicology (2017)

1. What field of work are you in, and what duties are required in your position?

I am an environmental Scientist with Golder Associates. Working in consulting means every day is different, and I have the opportunity to work on many different projects that integrate science and engineering. A typical day at work may include writing up reports for clients and processing data, or it could include spending several weeks in the Arctic collecting water quality samples and catching fish. Golder has offices all over the world, so I regularly collaborate with teams in other counties. Our group focuses on providing environmental solutions for mining clients. Some recent projects I have been involved with recently include ecological risk assessments, human and wildlife toxicity assessments and litigation support work.

2. What challenges did you face when looking for work after graduating?

The most challenging thing for me was trying to find a job I liked (based on the job description), in a city I wanted to live in. I quickly realized I needed to expand the geographical area of my job search. I soon realized there were many more job options than I had initially thought. I adapted to the idea of working somewhere outside of my current city, even if it was just to get some initial (entry level) work experience.

3. How did you arrive at your current position?

Having the opportunity to work on so many interesting projects during my time at 杏吧原创, and learn from so many people really gave me a good foundation for working in consulting. The communication, time management and organizational skills I learned during my undergraduate and graduate programs provided useful tools. At the beginning of my job search, I applied to many different job types (government, private sector, and consulting) and I had a few interviews. I had heard of Golder from a previous 杏吧原创 graduate, and I found the job posting (for my current job) on LinkedIn. When I read the job description, it was exactly what I was looking for. It aligned with my skills, interests and values, and the opportunity to live and work in Vancouver sounded like a great adventure. I was successful in the interview, and the written test, and I was offered the job.

4. What advice would you give to a graduate student looking to follow a career path similar to yours?

Know when to ask for help or advice. Don鈥檛 be afraid to ask people around you; the worst thing they could say is 鈥渘o.鈥� Read scientific literature, and get good at searching for resources. Network! Actively practice networking during your time at 杏吧原创. It will come in handy.
Choose your electives carefully鈥攊f you think you may one day be interested in something, take the course. Even if you think it might be a tough one.

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Jennifer Galloway

PhD in Earth Sciences (2006)

1. What field of work are you in, and what duties are required in your position?

I am a geologist, and specifically, a micropaleontologist (palynology) with the Geological Survey of Canada. The duties of my job include conducting extensive field work in High Arctic regions, project leadership, graduate student co-supervision, and management of the Paleontology and Collections group at the Geological Survey of Canada in Calgary. I have also acted as the Chief Paleontologist for the Geological Survey of Canada. I am required to conceive, acquire financial support for, and conduct and publish research pertaining to Canada鈥檚 geological history.

2. What challenges did you face when looking for work after graduating?

As a woman in STEM, it was a challenge to balance starting a family and a career after graduating.

3. How did you arrive at your current position?

I gained valuable experience living in Northern Canada working in the environmental consulting industry. This included independent research at active and legacy mineral mine sites in remote regions of subarctic and Arctic Canada. The experience I gained participating in field programs and interacting with northern communities, Indigenous, territorial and federal governments, and industry positioned me well for applying for a Post Doctoral Felloswhip with the Geological Survey of Canada in Calgary, Alberta. My skill set in palynology was needed to meet numerous government mandates and I was hired as a Research Scientist after completion of my post-doctoral fellowship.

4. What advice would you give to a graduate student looking to follow a career path similar to yours?

I would not be where I am today without the mentorship and support I have received from so many colleagues who have been generous with their time and knowledge. My advice is to appreciate and understand the value of working relationships; these are built on a foundation of mutual trust and respect. And pay it forward!

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Misagh Tavanpour

PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering (2017)

1. What field of work are you in, and what duties are required in your position?

I am working as a Software Engineer at Cisco Systems. I am involved in different aspects of a code life cycle including design, implementation, unit test, integration test, debugging and code maintenance.

2. What challenges did you face when looking for work after graduating?

Being overqualified and not having Permanent Residency.

3. How did you arrive at your current position?

I had a friend who was working at Cisco and he passed my CV to one of the directors at Cisco who was looking for a candidate for an available position in his team at that time. The director liked my CV and he contacted me to see if I was interested in that position and if I was willing to start the interview process. I had four rounds of interviews, including a phone interview, an online exam, an on campus interview and a written exam in order.

4. What advice would you give to a graduate student looking to follow a career path similar to yours?

Try to deal with real people and do NOT rely only on online applications. If you want to apply for a position in a company, try to find a recruiter/employee there and tell him/her that you want to apply for that position and send him/her your CV. The most important thing is try to apply for a job that you like since you are going to deal with it every day!!! It may take more time but it鈥檚 worth it.

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Hala Assal

PhD in Computer Science (2018)

1. What field of work are you in, and what duties are required in your position?

My job title is User Experience Researcher with You.i TV. I’m a usable security and user experience researcher. In my research, I work collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams on user-centric research projects. In my day-to-day work, I act as the voice of the user, promoting empathy and understanding of users’ characteristics and needs. Through applying HCI research methods, I evaluate existing products and services, and I鈥檓 also interested in improving the ways of working internally in my team, and across the different teams that we work with. My work involves identifying research problems, designing research studies, recruiting participants, and collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data, which I find really interesting.

2. What challenges did you face when looking for work after graduating?

I think most of the challenges were due to employers鈥� unawareness of my field of study.

The biggest challenge was that people misinterpreted my qualifications: because my thesis focused on usable security, many didn鈥檛 understand what that meant. It was a challenge to explain this relatively new yet booming field, and that during working on my thesis I applied HCI methodologies with a security lens.

Others assumed that because I鈥檓 coming from the academic side, I must not have any real experience. It was interesting because this was far from the truth; my field of study is very hands-on and applicable, we run studies with real users, and collect and analyze data from these studies. There鈥檚 also a prominent misunderstanding for many that user experience design and user experience research are synonyms. They are not. The latter is more concerned with understanding the users, their behaviours, and perceptions which in turn informs the design of systems and services.

3. How did you arrive at your current position?

I responded to a job ad and went through a series of interviews for this position, including presenting some of my previous research projects.

4. What advice would you give to a graduate student looking to follow a career path similar to yours?

The more experience you have, the better prepared you鈥檒l be for your next step, so collaborate with others, work on different research projects, and stay connected to the research community (e.g. attending and presenting at conferences, attending local groups such as CapCHI). This will also provide networking opportunities with experts in the field (both in academia and industry), which would help enrich your research, as well as your future employment opportunities.

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Rob Gabrys

PhD in Neuroscience (2017)

1. What field of work are you in, and what duties are required in your position?

I am currently a research and policy analyst for a public health organization in the substance use and addiction field. I am primarily involved in synthesizing the available evidence on the health and social impacts on cannabis use, and I work with knowledge brokers and communication specialists on developing public education resources related cannabis. I am also involved in forming cannabis research and policy network across Canada, and in several projects related to the impacts of cannabis use on mental health. Communication (reading, writing and oral), flexibility (multitasking) and teamwork are the most important skills in my field of work.

2. What challenges did you face when looking for work after graduating?

My biggest challenge was setting myself apart from everyone else. Most individuals who complete graduate school have pretty good resumes/CVs, and it is often difficult for recruiters to separate one job candidate from another.

3. How did you arrive at your current position?

Research, networking and patience. I did a lot of research on organizations that I wanted to work for. Sought advice from friends, classmates and colleagues who were in careers that I was interested in, and always tailored my resume/CV to meet the qualifications of each job that I applied for. All of these things took time.

4. What advice would you give to a graduate student looking to follow a career path similar to yours?

Start early, especially with networking. Take advantage of all of your opportunities. You never know when a particular experience or skill will come in handy.

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John Palko

MSc in Chemistry (2012)

1. What field of work are you in, and what duties are required in your position?

I work in the beverage industry and have been since completing graduate studies. I’m currently the Brewmaster for Gateway City Brewery in North Bay, Ontario. We are a new and small growing brewery that currently has a reach in North Bay, Sudbury and surrounding areas with ambitious goals to have our beer all over Ontario. Because we are a new and small operation, I perform all the duties within the production side of the brewery. I’m responsible for the management of the entire brewery from purchasing, scheduling, recordkeeping but am also performing brewery tasks such as milling, brewing, cellaring, packaging and cleaning. As our team and brewery grows, my role will evolve into being the team leader with emphasis on running our laboratory. Occasionally, I work beer festivals that we participate in and, in time, will participate in other off-site events such as food and beer pairings, conferences and community events.

2. What challenges did you face when looking for work after graduating?

The biggest challenge was managing the fear of an unknown future. During my graduate studies, I caught a glimpse of life beyond grad school by keeping in touch with recent grads in my field during their job search and it seemingly looked unfavourable. I just happened to graduate in my field at a time period where the number of recent graduates outnumbered the available jobs. Adding to that, entrance to Teacher’s College happened to have a higher than average supply of competitive applicants and I hadn’t received an offer by the time I entered my current field of employment. You can imagine the supply and demand for these opportunities is ever changing. I just happened to be job searching during more challenging time period but eventually landed a job in my current field within a year of obtaining my master’s degree.

3. How did you arrive at your current position?

My journey into the beverage industry is a bit unconventional but interesting. Shortly after obtaining my M.Sc., I decided to move to the Canadian Rockies where my older brother lived at the time. I had lived there for a summer during my undergrad years and came to the realization that, if my job search was likely to last around a year, then I might as well live and seek employment while in the Rockies. I happen to frequent a pub where they made their own beer on site and began attending events like beer tastings, beer and food pairings. This led to a brewing position at their sister brewpub in Jasper, AB. I quickly became their Head Brewer and ran the brewery at the pub for 3.5 years. An opportunity to work in a quality control laboratory in a medium-sized brewery lead me back to Ontario before accepting my role at Gateway City Brewery in North Bay. For my current position, I was contacted on LinkedIn, by my now business partner, with information about a new opening in 2018. The opportunity was to enter the company from the near-beginning as the Brewmaster and I accepted!

4. What advice would you give to a graduate student looking to follow a career path similar to yours?

Drink more beer! This is a tricky question but I’m going to explain my answer based on my past experience, using a bit of STEM-based logic and an “If, then” hypothesis (which I perfected, by the way, at 杏吧原创). If my advice to my younger self was ‘Drink less beer,’ then I would not have been at the pub to receive my first job opportunity in the beer industry. It’s a pretty solid hypothesis but that didn’t happen at all so the opposite statement must be true! Therefore, drink more beer. Cheers!

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Samantha Coates

MSc in Neuroscience (2016)

1. What field of work are you in, and what duties are required in your position?

I work in the biotech field! I am a Senior Biosciences Account Manager for Thermo Fisher Scientific. I am expected to effectively manage a territory with revenues around $7.5M across about 150 biotech, industrial, academic and environmental companies. I sell across a large portfolio of life sciences products while also managing customer relationships. I have to respond to customer outreach and prospect for new business in order to achieve my sales goal. As a senior account manager, I also have a mentorship and onboarding responsibility for new hires!

2. What challenges did you face when looking for work after graduating?

The biggest challenge I faced was finding something within my field (Neuroscience) that wasn鈥檛 at the bench. I absolutely loved my time at 杏吧原创 doing research. However it was not the future for me. I wanted to remain within the science community but in a role that was more focused on people. Sales hadn鈥檛 ever been a job that I had considered, so I think having a narrow view of industry coming out of academia also added to my challenges. I was very lucky though that Thermo Fisher was hiring near the end of my master鈥檚 degree and the timing really worked out well.

3. How did you arrive at your current position?

Like I mentioned, I was very lucky to stumble into this position posting when looking for jobs. I started just over three years ago as an Account Manager and I have not looked back! I was promoted at the beginning of this year into the senior role and inherited larger accounts and additional duties in the office.

4. What advice would you give to a graduate student looking to follow a career path similar to yours?

I think the biggest piece of advice I can give is to be open minded about what industry jobs can look like! I definitely do not feel like I am in a 鈥渢raditional鈥� sales role and I really didn鈥檛 see myself in this position when I was graduating three and a half years ago. I feel very lucky to see the advancement of sciences in such an up close way (and not have to write a single grant to do it!). It鈥檚 a very cool feeling to speak to a customer that has a therapy going to clinical trials due to products I was able to sell to them. I will say that this isn鈥檛 a job for everyone, so you need to make sure that you are competitive or driven as well as a self-starter. It is a sales job and we have to hit a quota, but the mold for sales is far less defined than one would expect. I come to work every day and am surrounded by very smart people that are very different than I am. Another piece of advice 鈥� don鈥檛 be afraid to take a business course along with your sciences ones or taking on a part-time job that involves selling to learn this new skill. At the end of the day, experience in sales will always look good on a resume.

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Stephanie Bailey

Master of Social Work (2004)

1. What field of work are you in, and what duties are required in your position?

I am a clinical social worker at a mental health hospital. I am also the professional practice lead for social work at my organization. I support clients and families in their journey towards recovery, as well as supporting other social workers in their clinical work. My duties include practical assistance (community referrals, assisting with locating housing, assisting with financial security), therapeutic skills (individual therapy, family counselling, supportive interventions) as well as professional practice support (ethical consultations, regulatory college questions, identifying, implementing and supporting professional practice standards within the discipline).

2. What challenges did you face when looking for work after graduating?

I found it difficult to find stable work and ended up working several part-time jobs. I was doing shift work and often working several shifts in a row at different workplaces. I was 鈥渨orking in my field,鈥� but had no job security and felt I was not moving forward in my career. However, each of these jobs provided me with valuable clinical experience and familiarity with resources, and helped me decide which specific area of practice I wanted to pursue.

3. How did you arrive at your current position?

When I did find a full-time job, it was through a connection that I had made during a student placement, and the skills I had learned at my various part-time jobs were invaluable in my new position.

4. What advice would you give to a graduate student looking to follow a career path similar to yours?

Many positions allow you to gain experience and exposure to the areas that you would like to work in, even if they are not directly in your field of choice. Social work is a diverse profession, and it can take some time to figure out what area of practice is the best fit. Exploring several different areas can help narrow down the options. It can feel like there is pressure to make a decision, to choose a path. Remind yourself that you have time, and you can take the time to find your path.

Stephanie Bailey has been involved with . The Alumni Mentors program pairs motivated upper-year students and recent graduates with an alumni mentor. Mentors are established professionals who help students and recent graduates develop skills for the workplace and expand their professional networks.

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