The MacCast Unconventional — Natasha & Maggie

For Maggie (’13) it took a break from school to figure out what the dream job could look like

It took a summer job at Disney to help her learn what she really wanted to do

Maggie grew up thinking she would follow the long line of doctors in her family and end up in a career in medicine. But near the end of her third year at Mac, a massive panic attack forced her to take a break from school. It was through this time of self-reflection when she realized that she had never really thought about whether medicine would be something she would like to do.

“It was just like this euphoric moment where I thought ‘oh, I get it. I’ve been forcing myself down this path as opposed to going down it because I wanted to’…The second I listened to my heart, it finally clicked,” she says.

Recognizing that she needed to reconsider her life plan, Maggie decided to challenge herself and packed up her things to move to Florida and work at Disney as a cultural representative. From there, she found herself working in the hospitality industry in Ontario and British Columbia for a few years.

After landing a few research assistant positions at UBC, Maggie finds herself working in biotech as the Program Manager, Feasiblity at STEMCELL Technologies. Maggie says this opportunity allows her to combine her skills and interests into one job that has the right amount of everything she has worked towards without too much focus on one specific area.

Learn more about Maggie’s story in this week’s episode of Unconventional and discover how changing your dreams over time can lead to a surprising end.

As an entrepreneur, Natasha (’11) finds joy in helping animals be their best

McMaster gave her the know-how, but volunteering showed her a passion

Natasha loved every aspect of her Life Sciences degree, saying that it all sparked joy for her. But she also didn’t want to spend much time thinking about what happened after graduation.

“I absolutely have to confess that I did not have a master plan. In fact, I fiercely avoided that conversation whenever it was directly asked of me, “ she says. “I was really committed to this idea that if I did something I really enjoyed I’d figure it out eventually.”

And she did enjoy her time at McMaster, especially because it gave her the opportunity to try all the things she loved without having to figure out a career path too early on. After graduation, she moved to Alberta and got a job working in a lab. It was a great experience she is grateful for, but in the back of her mind, she knew it wasn’t going to be the career of her dreams.

It wasn’t until volunteering at a local animal shelter that the career path started to take shape. After connecting with a few rescue animals that were labelled as “difficult” Natasha found herself looking into animal behaviour and what she needed to do to get her certifications. Now, she’s the proud owner of Fresh Perspective Dog Training and Behaviour in Calgary.

In this episode of Unconventional, Natasha shares her story of how she went from no career plan to owning and operating a business that makes her happy every day.

McMaster has more than 210,000 alumni living in 140 countries around the world, and they are some of the most amazing people you would ever want to meet. The Unconventional podcast will introduce some of our alumni who are working — in the arts, as cutting-edge entrepreneurs, leading the way in health, education, technology and more — to make our world a brighter place in their own unique way. Download the latest episode, or catch up if you’ve missed one, on Apple, Spotify, or Soundcloud.