Ms. Anya Gimpel, Career Advisor at ACSS

What part of your job do you enjoy the most?

I enjoy meeting with students and helping them on a successful path.

What was your first job?

My first job was a popcorn girl for the Hollywood movie theatre in Vancouver.

Where/what did you study after high school?

I took a secretarial course about a month after high school as my mother told me I was not allowed to sleep in indefinitely. After working for a few years I later went to SFU and received my degree in Psychology and Communications.

Briefly describe your career journey:

Popcorn girl, BC Tel for summer work, TELUS call centre first and then promoted to manager, Lunch Lady franchise owner (entrepreneur), Starbucks manager, Hyatt hotel manager, went to school at Douglas College, Coquitlam school district, SD35 Career Advisor. You never know where our career journey will take you!

Ms. Sandie Seymour, Career Advisor at LSS

What part of your job do you enjoy the most?

As a Career Advisor, it feels as if I have taken the long road to what I was always meant to do. I love helping people, dispensing information, discovering new careers/ideas/resources. The environment is empowering, engaging and supportive. Getting to know teenagers has been so much fun and every day is different and open to possibility. What more could I want?

Where/what did you study after high school?

I went to Mount Allison University straight out of high school. I started in Secretarial Science, a poor fit for my interests and skills. In second year, I transferred to Arts with a double major in English and History. I left university before completing fourth year, convinced that it was a waste of time. It took almost two decades to realize that having a BA would have opened so many more doors.

What was your first job?

My first job while in high school was cutting up green tomatoes in a pickle factory. I tried a few different jobs while going to university, from dishing up ice cream to pumping gas to visiting people on disability to update their status.

Briefly describe your career journey:

My first job after leaving university was opening international parcels at the post office. I did not even know what a customs broker was, but that is what my new company’s business was. I loved it. There was so much to learn with lots of opportunity for advancement. Eventually, I wrote an exam that qualified me to open and manage a customs broker office. Thirty years later, computerization caused the most enjoyable parts of the job to disappear. I needed a drastic change. This is where a BA would have come in handy. With some digging, I discovered employment counselling. Bingo! This became the job of my heart. For the last twenty years, I have been helping people build skills for finding work. Some people would say I teach. Maybe I should have looked more closely at teaching when graduating from high school!