Readers Write
Meet 5 UBC grads using their degrees in ways they didn’t predict
Their careers didn’t play out how these alumni expected, but their studies are still coming in handy
Think back to when you first graduated from UBC. Whether you just crossed the stage this May or did so many springs ago, did (or do) you feel pressure to choose a career related to your degree—and to stick with it? Many of us can relate with feeling like we have to make the “right” career choice straight out of the gate. But is this pressure warranted?
You don’t have to look far to find people whose careers went in directions they never even imagined, but who are nonetheless satisfied with where they’ve ended up. We got curious about the unexpected professional paths that UBC grads have taken, so for our latest Readers Write call-out, we asked you to share stories of career twists and turns.
The response we got was spectacular! Readers told us about dramatic pivots and subtle evolutions, about starting their careers over, rediscovering their passions, lucking into jobs they didn’t know existed, and much, much more.
In fact, we received so many thoughtful and detailed responses that we’re going to feature a selection in three installments. First up, we have five alumni whose careers may not have gone how they imagined after graduation, but who are still using their UBC degrees in surprising ways. No matter where you are in your professional journey, we hope these stories provide inspiration for your next career move. Stay tuned for part two in this Readers Write mini-series!
From side hustle to specialty
My career definitely took an unexpected turn.
I was studying sociology at UBC and genuinely loved it. Partway through my degree, I started designing posters for fraternity events with Alpha Delta Phi, editing photos from parties at The Pit, and creating merchandise for The Gallery. I was far from a great designer, but I found myself completely drawn to the creative process.
Cole working on a graphic design project in his UBC days.
A merchandise design Cole created for The Gallery.
What started as a side hobby quickly became something much bigger. After graduating, I joined a marketing agency, where I had the opportunity to develop my skills and learn the fundamentals of design. From there, I expanded into UX/UI design, web design, and brand strategy, discovering that design could be both creative and strategic.
Today, I am a creative director at a communications firm in Washington, DC. I lead branding, website, and digital strategy projects for organizations from non-profits to major corporations. One of my recent projects involved rebranding and launching a new website for an investment firm managing more than $7 billion in assets.
Even though my career went in a different direction, my sociology background never disappeared. In many ways, it became one of my greatest strengths. Sociology taught me how people think, behave, communicate, and interact with digital tools—skills that are incredibly valuable in UX design and brand strategy.
Also, HUGE shout-out to professor Neil Armitage! He was fundamental to my UBC experience.
Back to the drawing board
I graduated in the lead-up to the 2008 recession and was unable to get a job in economics, which I had studied, so I went back to college and earned a diploma in Civil Engineering. Immediately after finishing, I got a job designing fall protection systems in my hometown of Sudbury, Ontario.
Thirteen years later, I serve as director of engineering at the same company and we’re in the process of completing the installation of a public attraction on the tower at Montreal's Olympic Stadium. (It is even more exciting than the Edgewalk on the CN Tower, which I have been inspecting since I started my career.)
Although I'm not doing economics, I do regularly use math skills that I gained at UBC, and, of course, the critical thinking that I developed is invaluable all the time.
It was tough to graduate and not get into a career for a while, but if you continue to develop your skills and aren't afraid to pivot, you’ll find success.
Niall (left) with a friend on Wreck Beach during his undergrad days.
Niall performing a winter inspection on the CN Tower Edgewalk at the beginning of his career.
Today Niall is working on the installation of a public attraction on the tower at Montreal's Olympic Stadium.
Everything was pointing here
When my partner Ahmad Jamal and I graduated from UBCO's Computer Science program in 2022, fintech wasn't on our radar. We were software developers. That was the plan. Ahmad landed a role at a Vancouver firm and I joined one in Kelowna. Since both positions were remote, we settled in Calgary and spent the next few years doing exactly what we'd set out to do.
Then, in September 2025, we got engaged in Italy.
When we returned to Calgary, we sat down at a café with a blank piece of paper and started mapping out our future. What would the next few years actually cost? A home. A wedding. When we laid it all out, it was sobering. We budgeted every dollar on pen and paper and made a plan.
What we didn't plan for was becoming co-founders of a fintech startup. That part sort of happened by accident.
The paper plan didn't last long. Ahmad built a prototype budgeting app for his own use, then shared it with family and friends. They loved it, and several encouraged us to put it out into the world, convinced others would benefit too. Some quick market research confirmed what we'd suspected: Canadian budgeters were being underserved. Nearly every major budgeting platform is built around American account structures, then awkwardly adapted for Canada. We wanted something built from the ground up for TFSAs, FHSAs, and the Canadian financial reality. Simple, priced in CAD, and backed by genuine customer support. We kept working on it, refining it, and the product kept getting better.
We founded Waypoint Budget in early 2026. In the years between graduation and that café planning session, Ahmad and I had been steadily building on the foundation our co-op terms gave us—he leaned into full-stack development and SEO while I gravitated toward front-end work and UI/UX design. Freelance work, passion projects—all of it turned out to be practice. Our different strengths fit together in a way that feels almost designed, even though it happened completely organically.
We're still at our full-time jobs, but we work on Waypoint Budget in every spare moment. None of this was on our radar at UBC. In retrospect, it feels like everything was pointing here: the co-ops, the side projects, the natural drift toward our respective strengths, even that café conversation. Our goal is to take Waypoint Budget full-time, expand financial literacy through free resources, and help more Canadians see exactly where their money is going.
We're grateful to everyone across Canada who has cheered us on, and to UBC for giving us the skills and confidence to pull this off (and, of course, the chance to meet in the first place). We hope our story is useful to those at the start of their own winding road.
Ahmad and Florencia up late working on a hackathon at UBCO in 2020.
Ahmad and Florencia in their home office, where they built and grew Waypoint Budget.
The book that changed everything
It was one of my first classes in the BFA acting program. Sitting with my new cohort, a group of eager and optimistic young students, we watched our professor slowly look us over before suddenly declaring: “Statistically, only one of you will be successful and have a career as an actor.”
It was a startling welcome to the world of theatre, but in that moment I promised myself I would be that actor.
I worked hard and excelled in all my classes. I won awards and earned lead roles in several plays put on by the department at the Frederic Wood Theatre. After graduation, I didn’t let up. I continuously sought ways to improve my skills and hone my craft. I read every acting book, attended every available workshop, and auditioned for every suitable part.
And I had a modicum of success. I performed plays in several theatres throughout BC, produced my own shows, and even had a couple of small roles in film and TV.
After a time, though, something had become stagnant. I needed a boost—something different that could give me an edge in this difficult and competitive profession. That is why I found myself walking into a bookstore one day looking for a book. Not another acting book. Something else. Something transformative.
I had no idea what book it would be, but I sensed that I would know it when I saw it. I moved through the store as if in a trance. As I scanned the shelves, a book with a strange, seemingly medieval figure on the cover captured my attention: The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By. It was a book by Carol Pearson based on the work of the psychologist Carl Jung.
I had no idea what an archetype was and I had never heard of Jungian psychology. Nevertheless, I knew this was what I was looking for. If I could understand the archetypes that my characters lived by, perhaps it would help me understand them in more depth and perform them with more authenticity.
Ultimately, the book did nothing to help me become a better actor. It did, however, open up a whole new world of ideas for me—ideas that would lead me to make a dramatic turn in my career. Sometimes you think you’re heading down one path, only to discover that, all this time, it has been leading you to a fork in the road.
I became fascinated with Jungian psychology and, just as I had as an acting student, I read everything I could get my hands on. It wasn’t long before I decided to go back to school to study counselling psychology. I enrolled in UBC’s Diploma Program in Guidance Studies, then earned my master’s degree in Counseling Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute, a California-based graduate school rooted in Jungian and depth psychology.
Not only did my career change, but everything about my life changed because of that decision to return to school. At graduate school I met my wife, moved to her home on the East Coast of the United States, and began to build a family and what would turn out to be a 30-year career as a psychotherapist, a Jungian psychoanalyst, and an author.
People often remark that it seems like a huge leap to go from actor to psychoanalyst, but it’s not really such a strange departure. Both professions grow from the same root: the human experience. Both are concerned with the question of what makes a human being tick and what it means to live a human life. Looking back, I am grateful for the training I received in the BFA program. The skills I developed during those years continue to prove invaluable and inform my work as a psychoanalyst every single day.
It started with a craigslist ad
If you had told me in 2003, when I graduated from UBC with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Political Science, that one day I would become the president of BC's largest trade union, I would have looked at you with a very confused expression.
At that point, I barely knew what a trade union was. Labour relations wasn’t something that had directly touched my life yet.
After graduation, I spent several years teaching ESL to adults. One day, my employer gathered all of the teachers together and announced that we were using too many photocopies and that, effective immediately, the cost would be deducted from our paycheques. I knew it was wrong, but I had no idea what my rights were. So I quit.
A month later, I answered a Craigslist ad—kids, ask your parents—that simply read: "$$$ UNION JOB $$$." I knew that union jobs usually had good wages and benefits but, most importantly, I was looking for something that had regularly scheduled hours. I landed an interview and, at the end of it, accepted a temporary assignment at the UBC Library.
I was excited to return to campus. I reported for my first shift at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre expecting to stay for three weeks. Three weeks turned into eight years.
It was there that I signed my first union card with CUPE 2950, and I have never looked back.
During my years at the library, I became a shop steward, served on the local executive, and in 2013 was elected president of CUPE 2950. I held that position for eight years, developing my skills in labour relations, collective bargaining, grievance handling, and navigating a sophisticated employer. At the same time, I became deeply involved in CUPE at every level of the organization.
Also in 2013, I was elected to the CUPE BC Executive Board as the Regional Vice-President representing Metro Vancouver. In 2021, I became the first woman in 26 years to be elected president of CUPE BC.
The knowledge I gained at UBC has been invaluable throughout that journey. During my undergraduate studies, I learned how to think critically, analyze complex texts, debate ideas, write persuasively, and articulate my own views. I learned to appreciate the role that the arts play in a healthy democracy and how to build relationships with people whose perspectives differ from my own.
Karen speaking to an audience of 3,000 at the 2026 Canadian Labour Congress Convention.
Photo by Josh Berson.
Karen at the CUPE BC 2026 Convention, an annual gathering where 600 CUPE members from across the country set the political direction of the union.
Photo by Josh Berson.
One experience that reinforced those lessons came in 2012, when I participated in the Governor General's Canadian Leadership Conference. The conference brought together emerging leaders from across the country to examine the theme of sustainability and Canada's future prosperity. As part of my study group, I visited 59 organizations in 19 communities across Ontario. We listened, questioned, debated, and reflected on what we learned. The experience reminded me of some of my most meaningful undergraduate classes: respectful debate, thoughtful analysis, and the opportunity to challenge ideas while remaining grounded in my own values.
When our group presented its findings to the Governor General, I realized that I wanted to take on greater leadership within my union. That experience helped crystallize what I wanted to do and how I wanted to contribute.
I never planned on this path. I found my voice at UBC, and I found my values in the labour movement.
Today, it is an extraordinary privilege to represent 122,000 workers who deliver public services in every corner of the province. I would not be in this position without my experiences as a student at UBC, as a worker at UBC, and as president of CUPE 2950 at UBC.
You never know where your path will lead. Mine took me from an English Literature and Political Science degree to a career I could never have imagined. My BA gave me a foundation that was far broader than I understood at the time—a foundation that prepared me to take opportunities, embrace leadership, and build a career dedicated to improving the lives of working people.
For that, I will always be grateful.
