Life After Mac: Real stories of alumni finding their way — Dol
Pause for a moment, are you really passionate in your field, are you where you wanted to go?
After completing a Master’s in Public Health, my first career started with taking a leadership role (Principal) as Nursing and Health Assistant College in Nepal. After working in Nepal for a few years, I wanted to do more so I started to look into American education and immigrated to Canada in 2011. Once I immigrated to Canada with my family, ups and downs started in my life. A misconception that people have about moving to Canada is that you will be provided with everything you want, but in reality, you must work and compete for it.
When you move to Canada you either come as an international student or immigrate through the points system. You need to check off several things from a list, including quality education and the appropriate skills for the job market. As an immigrant, I felt like my previous degree wouldn’t be able to put me on the right path to my future career. I decided to continue my education in Canada to gain the necessary skills to succeed in my field. In 2013 I stepped foot in the Canadian post-secondary education system by attending George Brown College. This experience helped me understand how the education system works in Canada and gave me the skills necessary for me to understand what I wanted to pursue. I had a dream of revisiting the health care field, so I decided to go back to school to develop the skills necessary for the Canadian job market.
Once I completed my Advanced Diploma in Computer Programmer Analyst from George Brown College in 2015, I decided to pursue my Masters in Science (eHealth) at McMaster. This masters program is the only program that brings students together from different academic backgrounds. I recall having classes with students who had been doctors, nurses, social workers, business analysts, engineers and more. All of these people brought together with the common interest of wanting to pursue a masters in e-health.
While I completed my mandatory courses, I pursued my internship at the Regional Municipality of Peel. I have learned many things while I was working as a student analyst. I also started challenging myself, one project to the next. The good thing I learned from the Region of Peel is that— passion and environment are important factors in the workplace. You will be assigned to do many tasks on the go that may be challenging, but it is a time to prove yourself. If something does not look right it is your responsibility to learn from it and find a solution.
After completing the internship, I was focused on finishing my degree and starting my career in the field. While I was completing my Scholarly paper, I found a job posting that I felt confident and excited about. I got the first offer from ClaimSecure Inc — the company manages 1000 of the company’s health and dental insurance claims day to day basis. After spending two years at the company I felt like I was ready to handle more responsibilities and was hoping to move up in my career. I ended up getting a job that I was passionate about at the Health Sciences North- Horizons Santé-Nord, One of the regional hospitals at the Northeastern Ontario. Today, I am working as a Lead Data Specialist at the Health Sciences North, Sudbury. Looking to the future, I wanted to pursue a part-time Ph.D. in Science and Innovations that can impact a few thousands of populations of Canada.
Take away from my career path would be — do not listen to the people around you, life is not as easy as you think, actually, the opposite is true. Always, listen to your heart, what you want to be — it’s you who become. If you do succeed in your desires, the positions really don’t matter, what matters is your daily satisfactions and your passion for your work.
Dol Sigdel, MSc eHealth ‘17
McMaster University
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.
