Life After Mac: Real stories of alumni finding their way — Benjamin
I graduated from McMaster almost a decade ago, and am currently working at a Data Analytics & Insights company in Toronto. A few years ago I also founded a financial education business in my free time (because I like to stay busy). At my heart, I’m a hard working problem solver with entrepreneurial tendencies, and while I’ve decided to pursue a growing career in data analytics, I also see the benefits of pursuing other passions and continuing personal growth. After leaving McMaster in 2012, I started working in the private sector using my academic background in Geography. I’ve worked as a GeoSpatial Analyst, Dealer Network Consultant and a Sr. Data Analyst at a few different organizations developing international retail network projects for Fortune 500 brands, applications for privacy friendly mobile analytics and customer segmentation studies.
As an aside from competing school and working my day job, I believe we all have the capacity to be well-rounded people and to pursue interests that go beyond our chosen career path. For me this meant learning money management skills and how to buy/sell investments in the stock market. Throughout 4 years of University and 2 years of Graduate School, I took on a massive student loan just like my fellow students, only, unlike other students, I invested all of it over the 6 years and paid the debt back in full the day after I graduated (avoiding interest payments). I did this by hustling, working different jobs throughout school, and keeping a very close eye on my spending to help offset my cost of living. I made saving money a priority even back before I had a real job, and I automated the process — this is the key. A couple months after graduating debt free, I bought my first car in cash from my investment so I could start my first real job in the big city and I never looked back. In 2017 I started a business which teaches people in their 20’s and 30’s through social media about wealth generation, investing, passive income and other personal finance topics. I share daily about the investments I buy, and track their performance over time — my goal is to get people started investing in themselves.
In terms of my career path, for me it started the final year of high school where I took a co-op placement at McMaster University for Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and it was there that I really saw an academic / industry application of the tools and principles I had been told about. From that one placement, I knew this was what I wanted to do professionally — problem solving real business applications using disparate data sources while considering the impact of spatial interaction. My Master’s thesis was about transportation, teleworking and the impact human behaviour has on road networks in a city. I thought I would graduate and move straight into transportation modeling, predictive analytics, or logistics within private industry.
I was immediately disheartened as I started to apply to transportation related positions only finding out after the fact that most require a degree in engineering and professional P.Eng. certification. I felt like everything I had been studying and working towards would not be possible without re-enrolling in a different field of study. Unfortunately after 6 long years of post secondary education I was ready to start making money and decided to shift my strategy around jobs I was applying for.
After a brief self-audit I decided to leverage other skills and knowledge I had learned to apply to a different set of jobs — ones I would be better qualified for. With a strong academic background in GIS, spatial analysis and data I rearranged my resume highlighting these strengths and re-focused my job search towards organizations looking for GIS and Geospatial Analysts. With much more success, I immediately landed a position as a GIS Analyst in private industry.
In terms of salary, I thought that having a Master’s degree would really increase the amount of compensation straight out of school, but it seemed to not make a difference as the industry primarily valued hands on industry experience. It was only after having worked for 4–5 years that my M.A. has allowed for an increase in compensation to meet my expectations. At the time of writing this, I’ve been a working professionally for about 8 years and I’m glad I obtained a graduate degree from McMaster University. My salary initially funded my side business, through smart money management — an approach I often teach students in my money mentorship program who seek to launch their entrepreneurial endeavour without taking on debt.
Some advice I’d like to leave you with based on personal experience would be to pause and reflect for a moment to really understand who you are and what you want to do in life. While I had a perfectly laid out plan about which industry I wanted to work in, even the organization or the city, great opportunities have presented themselves which ultimately took me off the specific path I initially planned. These opportunities have blossomed into career developing roles and pushed my personal development ahead in ways I could not have expected.
Benjamin Garden ’10 & ‘12| Geography | MA
Explore more Life After Mac stories.
The McMaster Alumni Association will be featuring recent grad’s career stories to show career paths are anything but linear. If you graduated in the last 10 years and are interested in sharing yours, submit your story by clicking here.
If you are looking to get started on your own journey, take advantage of the resources available to recent graduates through our partnership with the Student Success Centre.
