How Vocational Counselling Helped Me

I’m the kind of person who wakes up two minutes before the alarm goes off, saves ziplock baggies and twist ties, books a campsite three months in advance, and packs an umbrella if it looks somewhat cloudy. But this kind of mind also drives me crazy thinking of new ways to organize my drawers and recycle containers, prompting me to check emails when I should be heading to bed, and waking me up to mull over outstanding tasks in the middle of the night.

In my last post I wrote about my experience as a long term breast cancer survivor. I talked about how one of the most notable early side effects of having cancer is coming up against a huge amount of anxiety. I talked about how I found the relaxation and coping skills programs at the BC Cancer Agency very helpful for gaining control over some of the disturbing and destructive thoughts I was experiencing after my diagnosis and surgeries.  But there was another program that contributed to my well-being, and that was the vocational counseling program.

When I was finally ready to go back to work, I realized that I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life, but for a number of reasons I did not want to return to my job as a flight attendant. I had always been a very creative and organized person, but after cancer I wasn’t sure what kind of employment would suit me. The good thing was that I felt open to anything!

The vocational counseling program consisted of an interview and some survey writing. I’ve always enjoyed Cosmo quizzes and personality tests, so this was not unfamiliar or unpleasant. I discovered that I would do well working at a job that provided me an opportunity to solve problems and think on my feet, that I would prefer to have a mix of working alone as well as within a team, I enjoyed responsibility, and even a healthy amount of pressure and competition! I preferred projects with a beginning, middle and END. I desired work that could create something with meaning, that could make an impact. I would prefer something somewhat technical and detail-oriented. I was suited to leading a team of people and speaking to groups. I had an analytical mind. No shift work or body fluids please. And nothing requiring the preparation of spreadsheets.

It still took me a while to figure out what that really meant for me.  The results listed a set of “suggested” professions that included some pretty interesting jobs such as Fashion Designer, Film Editor and (my personal favorite) Fire Fighter.

The first thing I did was take some community courses in design and technology and volunteer in the breast cancer realm.  It was a sphere in which I already felt like an “expert”, and as a volunteer, was able to get my feet wet with some new skills on my own terms. I helped organize and promote conferences, create media, and stepped forward as a spokesperson/advocate for young women with cancer. It was an amazing time of growth for me. I was very fortunate to have been able to afford time to play and find out more about what I truly wanted to do with my life.

In 2005, three years after my diagnosis, I began to focus more on what I enjoyed most – the web, and realized that I wanted/needed to go to school to learn more.  My family were incredibly supportive.  I wouldn’t have been able to complete the UBC multimedia studies program without my mother’s daily help. After graduation I began working as a freelance photo editor and web designer. It was very rewarding and exciting!

The mind that was responsible for making me anxious and that seemed to run madly off in all directions served me very well in my new career. All that anxiety and those racing thoughts could actually be harnessed to effectively plan, research, analyze, strategize, create, organize, communicate and orchestrate! (I have even discovered a secret love of spreadsheets…)

In 2008, I found my way to an amazing company and discovered  a passion for strategy and larger-scale projects. To further my career, I took the Project Management Diploma at SFU.

My current job as a Solution Architect incorporates many of the strengths that came to light with the BCCA vocational counseling session 6 years ago.  And who knows if I would have found my way this well without that initial guidance!

~ Vanessa