Career Buzz

When you hear “ocean careers,” you might picture marine biologists, fishers or maybe oceanographers. But Canada’s ocean economy is much bigger, and much more technical, than many of us realize.  Kendra MacDonald, is CEO of Canada’s Ocean Supercluster, an organization helping grow innovation and collaboration across the country’s ocean economy. In our conversation, Kendra shares her own career story, including the twists, transitions, and leadership experiences that brought her to this work.  Along the way, we explore some of the surprising careers connected to Canada’s oceans, from engineering and robotics to data, AI, clean technology, and other emerging fields. It’s a conversation about careers, possibility and what can open up when we look beyond the obvious job titles and start seeing a whole ecosystem of work.    For career counselling for you or someone you care about, start with a free discovery call: careercycles.com For gamified, story-based professional development, learn about and schedule a demo of Who You Are Matters!

Today’s show explores the gaps in educational outcomes with evolving industry needs through the life of emergent talent and student-led efforts to bring the two into closer alignment. There is a growing disconnect between the traditional, high financial cost of formal higher education and its actual, measurable return on investment (ROI). This is especially a growing gap in a rapidly shifting AI-driven job market, and general disconnect of ways of learning and career utility. This will be discussed through lived experience.   Artem Kushnirenko is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, conducting translational neuro-oncology research at SickKids in Toronto. Born and raised in war-torn Ukraine, he earned his first degree in biology and biotechnology in Kyiv, where he also began his journey in science. Having lived through turbulent times, he came to appreciate firsthand the true value of education and innovation, and the challenges of sustaining them. This shaped his commitment to advancing science for societal impact through entrepreneurship and venture capital, and to helping others move from education into innovation careers. Founded in 2017 Innovation OnBoard (IOB) is a student-led NGO and UofT-recognized student group on a mission to connect emerging talent with the people that help turn academic potential into new ideas, solutions, and ventures contributing directly to Canada's innovation economy.  For career counselling for you or someone you care about, start with a free discovery call: careercycles.com For gamified, story-based professional development, learn about and schedule a demo of Who You Are Matters!

Join Hoda and her guests as they bring Career Literacy to life. Reflect. Share. Start the conversation. Sean shares, "If you resign yourself to just the way things are going to be and you give up the agency to do something about it, then you’re really not in a position to have any control over anything that happens”. Think about that. When we stop trying to change our circumstances, we hand over the steering wheel of our own lives. So, I have to ask you: Where in your life right now have you accidentally quieted your own voice, and what is one small thing you can do today to take back your control? Reflect and share.   Guest Bio Sean Grainger is an educator, writer, speaker, and founder of HOPE Alliance, whose work examines the conditions that shape human development, belonging, and flourishing.  Across a 33-year career as a teacher, counsellor, school administrator, and mental health and wellness coordinator, Sean has worked with children, families, educators, and leaders from diverse communities, including six years working alongside First Nations peoples. These experiences have informed a lifelong inquiry into how relationships, systems, adversity, opportunity, and belonging influence the people we become.  Sean’s work challenges deficit-based thinking and the tendency to locate problems solely within individuals. He invites people to look beyond visible behaviour, consider the story behind the story, and ask what experiences and conditions may be shaping a person’s response. His approach draws together phenomenology, systems thinking, design thinking, resilience, and an ethic of care.  He is the creator of the HOPE Wayfinder, a framework that helps individuals and organizations orient themselves within complexity and move from understanding toward responsible action. Through HOPE Alliance, KARE Givers, writing, coaching, consultation, and speaking, Sean supports educators, caregivers, and leaders in creating more thoughtful, relational, and humane environments.  Sean believes that hope is not simply an emotion or a personality trait—it is a condition we can intentionally create through the environments we design and the relationships we cultivate.  At the heart of his work is a central question: What becomes possible when we stop asking what is wrong with people and begin asking what they have experienced, what surrounds them, and what responsibility belongs to us?   For career counselling for you or someone you care about, start with a free discovery call: careercycles.com For gamified, story-based professional development, learn about and schedule a demo of Who You Are Matters!

Today on Career Buzz, co-host Hoda Kilani and I take you to the Arab Career Development Conference in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. There, at the conference venue in Al Kifah school, we sat in a meeting room overlooking a hot 40C day. Lined up through the window we saw a mosque’s minaret, a cell phone tower, and a construction crane, signaling the unique mix of old and new. That’s where we recorded conversations with three career development leaders from across the region.  Foad Abdallah shares how he’s using creativity and technology to build career services in Beirut Lebanon, even amid extraordinarily difficult economic conditions. Iman Nahlawi brings an HR perspective from Tunisia, and Stella Da Silva shares her work helping people use LinkedIn more intentionally in Muscat, Oman.  What struck me was the contrast between familiar and different. The attire, the language, oh and the 40C heat was different for me, coming from Canada. What was the same: the shared human questions: How do people find direction? How do they adapt when conditions change? And how can career development help people see possibilities they might otherwise miss?  You’ll also hear some of the energy and connection of Arab Car Dev’t Conference itself, a gathering that reminded us just how global the career development conversation has become.    For career counselling for you or someone you care about, start with a free discovery call: careercycles.com For gamified, story-based professional development, learn about and schedule a demo of Who You Are Matters!

Today’s show is about a philosophy of living.  Can happiness, and meaning be found in nature?  Many of us have lost our connection to it. Stuck on a hamster wheel chasing an idea of success.  Our guest believes society runs on the currency of fear and doubt. He says “Life in Central Portugal have helped him to meet myself for the first time. To strip away some of the layers. Heal some of the wounds”.  He says “I feel that there is a big movement towards wellness. However, consumer wellness isn't the solution. People don't need a healer. They need to take personal responsibility for self-directed wellness”   Guest Bio: Fénix Rayne (Formally Adam Whyte). Born and raised in Toronto he now lives on a farm in the mountains of Portugal. He hosts visitors, grows food and creates improvised music in languages he doesn't speak. He started one of Portugal's largest Permaculture online communities. He is now building a Grow app (not op) to discover off-grid and natural living projects like his own. He is a law graduate at Trinity College, Dublin and holds a Masters degrees in International Sports Law and Business Administration.   For career counselling for you or someone you care about, start with a free discovery call: careercycles.com For gamified, story-based professional development, learn about and schedule a demo of Who You Are Matters!