Job Description
As an HR leader, I help employees and managers at all levels, and from all parts of an organization, to help make sure they all work well together. I help create a work environment that is engaging and innovative. I help managers see their employees as people, and not just numbers. I help organizations find the talent they need in order to succeed, and then help them keep that talent as a competitive advantage - as something that no one else offers.
I do sales, marketing, negotiating, writing, listening, talking (and then more listening), counselling, communications, and generally help 'fight fires' when anything unexpected comes up.
Relevant School Subjects
- Business
- Computer Studies
- Social Sciences and Humanities
Areas of Expertise
- Admin/Business
- IT/Computers
Career Story
Crazy. My high school guidance counsellor was my Geography teacher (no offense) but he had no training on how to plan a career. I wanted to work in business, but didn't know how to get there.
I had good marks in French, so I went to university to get an Applied Studies Arts degree with a french teaching specialization. I got pneumonia in first year and flunked out of French. I was on my first co-op work term when the dean called me to suggest I go with a 3yr non-major general arts degree. (Bummer). I saw that I had a "B" in Political Science, so I switched majors, got my average back up to where I could be in the Poli Sci Co-op program, and then got back into my original Applied Studies Co-op Program, and graduated with an Honours degree in Political Science, with a Personnel Studies Specialization.
The co-op program got me a start at a full-time job in human resources at a software company called Delrina when I graduated. They were acquired by Symantec after a year, and so a year later I decided to take a job at another software company (Hummingbird) as an HR Manager.
After seven years there, I decided to move back to Waterloo after accepting an HR Manager role at DALSA (which had been advertised as just a Supervisor, but they liked my application, so they made it a manager role). We acquired other companies and my role became Director, and then after five years at DALSA we were acquired by Teledyne; I became a Senior Director, and we continued to grow by buying other companies and I got to travel the world a fair bit. But after 15yrs with DALSA I decided to slow down a little and took a role as the HR Manager at a local scale-up organization, which is where I am now, at Rapid Novor.