Life After Mac: Real stories of alumni finding their way — Matt
A wise man once said you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. Steve Jobs never graduated but he knew a thing or two about how to look at life. After being out of Mac for four years I’ve connected some dots.
My McMaster journey lasted six years; I decided four wasn’t nearly enough and ended up with an Engineering and Management degree complete with an internship in my field. I honestly didn’t even know if I was in the right program when I started at Mac. My dad and I went to lunch about a month into my university career after a tough round of midterms. At this point in time I was thinking about switching programs or maybe dropping out and living in my parents’ basement. He listened quietly and at the end of the conversation he encouraged me to stick with it. So I did, mostly because the basement was clearly out of the question.
I just wasn’t sure if my program was really what I wanted to do. After 18 years of life who could blame me? After 27 years I still question my decisions so that I’m moving forward in the way I want. There are three things I want to share with you today that have helped me make the most out of my life after Mac. They are self-awareness, resilience, and community.
Self-awareness is a hard one. Most people come to university because they hope to learn something that they’ll apply in their career. It’s hard to imagine that grade 12 students are making decisions that are meant to shape the rest of their working life. Talk about a tall task. One of the intimidating parts about graduating from Mac is that you’ve spent the last few years learning about many different subjects and skills which you should be able to apply to a future career. But, what if you don’t like working in that field? What if you do but the lifestyle doesn’t align with what you want?
The working world often creates a lot more questions than answers and that’s exactly how you want it. Asking yourself questions to come up with your own answers is how you can become more self-aware. Learning self-awareness takes a lot of reflection and paying attention to how you feel about what you’re doing. It’s really two parts: one part is the conscious awareness about how your actions and thoughts make you feel. Part two is the deliberate and honest reflection on those thoughts. Mindfulness is a real buzz word these days but really a lot of self-awareness is just being mindful of who you are and what you want.
Resilience is something that we all need a bit of. If you want to learn a thing or two about resilience just turn to that person who you know is struggling, but continues to get up every single day and do their best. Maybe you are the person who is struggling and teaching someone how to be more resilient. Either way we all need some resilience to keep us going because things don’t always go as planned, both during and after Mac. Everyone’s challenges are different in size and type but that doesn’t make them any less real. Being resilient allows you to tackle any challenge with more confidence, even if you aren’t sure what the outcome of that challenge will be.
The theme of the Life After Mac series is that everything will be okay and it will be because you’re resilient. In fact, it will probably be better than okay. Mac can be tough, I struggled with different challenges. Academically I didn’t get into the management program at first because of my grades, but I pushed myself, tried again the next year and ultimately I was able to get selected. Resiliency leads to chance and opportunity and McMaster is the perfect opportunity to learn that. Dori said it best, just keep swimming.
Community and Mac are synonymous. Where I’ve called home has changed a bit in the last few years, but my search for a community has always been present. I settled in Hamilton after graduating into the community that I knew. After about a year my girlfriend (now wife) and I ended up moving to London for her physiotherapy school. About two years after that we’re now in the Waterloo Region. One thing I’ve learned is that a great community and environment can make all the difference.
My post-graduation job required working at night to manage a large civil project. I became aware pretty quickly that this wasn’t something I could sustain. One of the biggest reasons for this was that it took away my sense of community. At the time I was living in London and because of this massive work-life imbalance I never really got to know the city. I slept all day and worked all night. I needed some resilience to get through that. Now, with a new job, I’m past that and really enjoying becoming a part of my new community in Waterloo.
Full disclosure Mac was actually my last ranked choice in grade 12 until I visited the campus. One look around and it instantly became my number one choice. Mac had a community that was better than any other I’d been to and that really drew me to the school. Community is working with your peers on those hard problems, asking that stranger that may look a bit down how they’re doing, or just being kind…just because. Find your community, add to your community, and life after Mac will be great.
Time passes by fast and before you know it you’ve got a lot of dots to look back on. It doesn’t matter what your dots are as long as they’re important and authentic to you. There are times you may go off track but you’ve got self-awareness. There are always going to be challenges but you’ve got resilience. There are going to be moments when you feel alone but you’ve got your community. Life after Mac is not always clear but you’ll be okay. You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. Hakuna Matata.
Matt Holland ‘15
BEngM Civil Engineering
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.
