Summary
Have you ever had a big change in your life that you had to adapt to? Moving to another country for school is one of the biggest changes you can make. In this episode, Annie speaks to four different international students, who share their school and career experiences coming to Canada. This episode is about big choices, major life decisions, a change of setting, and how to be resilient during the process of change.
Annie: In episode four of the Career Resilience podcast, we are joined by Mariana, Dipakkumar, Anshul, and Shivani who will be sharing their stories about settling into life in Toronto and at Centennial College. Welcome everyone!
Podcast Intro: The career journey is rarely linear. It is full of twists and turns. Because of this, we know that the transition from school to work can feel scary, uncertain and challenging. To address this, we’ve developed this podcast series to chat about career resilience with guest speakers to show that you are not alone on this journey. Career resilience is the mindset that allows people to pursue their career goals and bounce back, pivot, and thrive when confronted with challenges such as difficult job search, a failed school program, job loss and changes, or career uncertainty. In this podcast series we will focus on five skills that allow us to thrive when unexpected events happen. They are: curiosity, persistence, flexibility, optimism and risk taking.
Annie: Welcome Mariana, Shivani, Dipakkumar and Anshul to episode four of our Career Resiliency Podcast. Mariana, what does career resiliency mean for you?
Mariana: Well, in my opinion, career resilience is that tireless will that you have of achieving your professional goal. So it doesn't matter how difficult it's going to be, you just have to keep yourself in a positive attitude and thought and go for it. That's what resilience is for me.
Annie: So persistence?
Mariana: Persistence. Exactly.
Annie: And Anshul, can you describe a time for us when something didn't work out as you had hoped? What did you do and what did you learn from it?
Anshul: So I have a story to tell that I think a lot of students may connect to. A lot of us will have co-ops after our courses in Centennial. So, even I did my paralegal as my first course and I had a co-op. That was a mandatory co-op. So when you go for the mandatory co-op, some employers don't really see you as worthy. They just see that, "Okay, they've come for the co-op completion and then they will go." Some employers are like that. So the employer that I got was something like that as it was my first job in whole Canada, so I was very, very excited to be there. I wanted to do everything. I wanted to hear every case. I wanted to see every case. How it goes, so they didn't see me like that. They didn't want me to do that. They only kept me for filing or documentations. But I really wanted to learn more because I know my worth and I believe that only you are the person that knows the best what you can do. So I was very hopeful and because I believed in myself, I changed my employer and I went to another one. And then by that, I was able to learn from two employers. One was highway traffic and one was immigration, so I was able to do work under two employers and I was able to learn more than a normal student. So what I learned from that situation was to never lose hope and to believe in yourself. I really believe in myself that I can do better than what people see in me. And the third one is to stay positive in every situation. That's what I learned. And the fourth thing is that if you want something, you have to fight for it. That is the most important learning that I've got. You have to fight for whatever you want in your life. You cannot just sit with whatever you've got, so that's one thing.
Annie: And that's a great example of persistency, being self-motivated, keeping going and also staying risk-taking as well and you've demonstrated that through the sharing of your experience and looking at options and possibilities. Shivani, can you describe a time when something didn't work out as you had hoped? What did you do and what did you learn from that experience?
Shivani: Being an international student, I have a bunch of experiences that didn't work out the way I wanted them to be but then I learned a whole lot of things out of that and you really need the patience to understand that what the situation is really telling you. So I will describe an incident. I'll begin with the journey that I had began back from my country to Canada. I was hoping for my visa to be arrived at a certain point. I needed some time to come here, of course, but my visa was very late. It was almost at the end minute. My school registrations were beginning at 12th of September, as I remember, and my visa arrived at 9th of September. I was having really small time to come here, book my tickets and get this stuff done. I already lost all the hopes of coming here in September because I wasn't having any clue when my visa was gonna come or no. But then at the end point, I got to mail in the morning like your visa has been approved and I said, "Really?" So yeah, I learned don't lose hope unless you see that it's 12th of September. I was not ready for it. I've given up everything and I had no vision in my mind that I'll be going to Canada. But within a week, I was in Canada. So yeah, that was a huge change. It didn't work out the way I wanted in the beginning. But then at the end of this incident, I can see that whatever I wanted, I got it. So yeah, don't lose hope inside situations. Don't lose it till the end minute. You never know what you're going to get.
Annie: Dipakkumar, we'll start with you on this is question. What have been some strategies that you used to help you stay resilient during changes and transitions to help support you in navigating your career journey?
Dipakkumar: Whenever difficult situations come, instead of blaming the situation, I try to find the root cause of this situation and try to overcome those situations and stay calm and learn from those situations and take those things as an opportunity. Those difficult situations give you life-long lessons and you need to adapt those changes in life. Whatever comes to you, it will show those difficult situations make you more stronger. I faced many difficult situations but I think those situations build me.
Annie: And Annshul, what had been some strategies that you used to help you stay resilient during changes and transitions to support you in navigating your career journey?
Anshul: The most important strategy that I use is to stay focused and also to be positive because I believe that everything in the world happens for a reason, so even if something negative is happening or something that I really wanted and did not get. So I really believe in staying positive and thinking something better is coming, so always believe in yourself. Always hope that something better is coming. Also, after coming in Centennial, I learned to be able to talk to people from every culture. That also makes you learn a lot because when you go to your workplace, you will not really get a person that from your culture, right? So having a multicultural atmosphere is really important. And also I believe that being prepared is very, very good thing, so always be prepared for whatever is coming. And even if you fail, you shouldn't lose hope, so that's also very important. I think failures teach you a lot of things, so these are some strategies that I maintain.
Annie: Mariana, what has been some strategies that you use to help you stay resilient during changes and transitions to support you in navigating your career journey?
Mariana: Okay, so first of all, I truly believe that everything happens for a reason in your life. So if you have a huge challenge in your hands, it's because you are able to solve it. And some strategies that usually I use is positive thoughts, for sure. It's the first one. I know that it's going to be a solution for the problem, for sure. Self-confidence that I can solve that problem and I usually stay focused on that problem, so I try to look for similar problems or maybe people who have gone through the same situation so they can help me. But I would say that mainly positive thoughts and attitudes.
Annie: So being able to stay focused and focusing on possibilities and focus on the solution?
Mariana: Exactly. Really focused on that.
Annie: Thank you, and it’s so valuable for students to hear such diverse resources and experiences and all of the ways in which you’ve applied positivity and staying hopeful. Anshul, can you share with us about how you maintain a positive attitude during difficult situations?
Anshul: Yeah, I really agree with Mariana. I really believe that everything happens for a reason and even if something negative is happening right now, I think, in the bigger picture that will give something very good. I also believe that whatever is happening right now is temporary. Whatever hard times you're facing, that is temporary. That will go and again, things will come right. And also, I have a little thing that I do for myself is I reward myself after every small good thing. So in a day, if any good thing happens in my life that I did something for myself, I will reward myself for it. So that's how I believe that I can stay positive. Also, I try to have a smile on my face all the time. If you are smiling, you'll be able to make others smile as well and it can be positive. So yeah, that's for me.
Annie: And celebrating your successes as you shared as well as I hear both of what you and Marianna have talked about and going with the flow and so knowing that things are temporary. And Mariana, can you share with us what skills and tips that students can apply to support them in staying resilient as they navigate changes and uncertainty on their career journey?
Mariana: I would say that the first thing would be accept that you are at the right time, at the right moment and if you are facing something difficult, don't be scared. Just accept the situation. Trust in yourself. You have the answer inside you. You just have to be connected. So positive attitude, positive thoughts, be very attentive to each sign that may appear in your way, showing you another way of achieving what you want. And if you are not in the job that would like to be, for example, I think that volunteer jobs would be a nice option to pass your time and maybe help you to find your way to achieve your goal.
Annie: Okay yes. And Dipakkumar, what skills and tips can you share with students to support them in staying resilient as they navigate changes and uncertainty on their career journey?
Dipakkumar: So in your career journey, to become okay with resilience, we need to stay focused and dial up a positive attitude toward things. Take change as an opportunity and be flexible about those changes, whatever you are going through in your life and become a lifelong learner. Learn from the situations. Whatever situations comes to you, learn from them. Even build a network. As everybody mentioned, build a network and from that network, also you can learn and become a good listener. If someone is advising you, then listen to them. Learn things every time like I learn everything, but take those lessons from others as well and give some time to yourself and develop yourself and give your best in every situation.
Annie: Anshul.
Anshul: For me, the most important tip will be to have a network, to build a network because there is a number of students which are international right now, so they will not know a lot of people here, so they should be starting their careers with building networks. That I think is the key. Also, some more tips will be to stay patient because I think people are not patient nowadays, so they need to be patient, a little calm. Also, I believe being flexible and adaptive is really important to be resilient, to be able to communicate well with others and one more thing will be to not lose confidence because nowadays people are a little skeptical about themselves. In the meantime, they've become a little skeptical. They should not be. They should build self-confidence. And that's a very good thing to have.
Annie: In episode five, we will be speaking with Eli, a Social Service Worker and student, and Dani Kwan-Lafond, faculty for Indigenous Studies, to hear their stories and journeys of career resilience and the Indigenous experience. Thank you for tuning in with us for episode four of our Career Resilience podcast today.