YouAlberta
As a University of Toronto Chemical Engineering undergraduate student, Rebecca Keeler was a passionate volunteer for Girl Guides of Canada. After graduation, Rebecca spent six years working as an environmental engineer and her experience with Girl Guides became a significant motivating factor for shifting gears and pursuing an after-degree in secondary education at the University of Alberta.
Rebecca considered changing career paths right after graduation but was determined to give engineering a fair shot as there were still some aspects that she enjoyed about it. Understandably, Rebecca faced much difficulty leaving behind a career she had already invested so much time, energy, and resources into — not to mention the emotional and financial security that comes with having a stable job. Once she began her after-degree, Rebecca knew that she had made the right decision, both to go back to school and to give engineering a chance: “I'm happy that I didn't do it right away since I had to explore teaching and education prior to going back to school and choosing that as a career.”
As a testament to the personal importance of advocating for women in STEM, Rebecca finds that her engineering career, advocacy work, and shift into education are all interconnected. Having been a woman in engineering, a largely male-dominated field, Rebecca uses her experiences to motivate her teaching practice: “It's challenging when there's not a lot of other women or people you relate to very well at work. You just don't have as much joy and positive experiences in your workplace and life.”
Having the experience of both an undergraduate student and a full-time employee, Rebecca acknowledges that being a student can feel more difficult than being the latter since you can’t always sign out of school like you would in a typical 9-5. Reflecting on her winding career path, Rebecca finds that she has an easier time enjoying and making the most of her education this second time. She uses experiences from her past degree to make sure that she doesn’t have the same regrets as her first time around: “It's actually easier now because I have more perspective on the negative impacts of not balancing my studies and personal life — I think that actually comes easier this second time around.”
Being able to approach her studies with a fresh perspective on being a student, Rebecca encourages all students, especially those that may be feeling suffocated by or lost in their studies, to be open to new opportunities. She emphasizes the importance of speaking to people in other fields of study and work in order to understand other perspectives and make a well-informed decision on your educational and career path. “Talking to people in careers or fields I was interested in really helped me narrow down and feel good about my decision in the end.”
Another consideration that ultimately helped Rebecca make her decision is one that I think often gets overlooked when students are deciding on their careers: what your job looks like outside of the actual work that you do. This includes many aspects of life such as your preferred work hours, your social battery, the intensity of work, and how easy it is to separate your work life from your personal life. As is the case with Rebecca, oftentimes you won’t really know what your lifestyle and work preferences are until you can actually give it a shot. That’s what makes having an open mindset, especially one open to growth and change, so important when considering career choices.
For Rebecca, her experience as an engineer looked like being alone on her computer for most of the day. “Not having a lot of social interaction was the key component that I didn't like, so I really had to focus on things wanted: I want a job that gives me that interaction and is more socially engaging.” Rebecca emphasizes that she explored her positive and negative experiences in her previous field as a way of deciding where to go next, rather than tunnel-visioning on jobs with specific salaries or with specific companies.
“Most people change careers at least once during their career journey,” Rebecca shares, proudly reaffirming that she would not change any part of her career journey. She feels little regret with her decisions leading up to attaining her BEd after-degree in Spring 2022 — a feeling that is too often found lurking around any life-changing decision. To me, it seems that this is due in part to Rebecca’s focus on finding a career that suits her lifestyle, rather than changing her lifestyle to fit the notion of a perfect career. We work to live, not live to work. There is certainly privilege in saying this, but there is always merit in taking control of parts of your life that you can.