SAYA Youth Learn All About Different Professions and Paths

BY AFNan, GRADE 11

SAYA’s Career Exploration Day was my first real experience at a career fair with many different industries. My initial thoughts were that we would just go to different people promoting their own careers. The event, however, proved to be different. SAYA staff organized it into different sessions where panelists by and large came from the same general field, but held different jobs and positions. This made it easier to learn about different jobs within an industry. Hearing from the panelists provided me with insight on many different careers and jobs, some that I had no knowledge of. I personally want to get an MBA, but I do not know in what area just yet. SAYA’s Career Exploration Day helped me in attaining knowledge of Finance, piquing my interest particularly in Investment Banking. I would say that the event was a great success because it has ignited a new interest and new goals for me personally.

BY WASEER, GRADE 11

From my participation in SAYA’s Career Exploration Day, I learned a great deal about possible career options in a bevy of different fields, most notably from the medical/life sciences, STEM, and startup panels. From the medical and life sciences panel, we were introduced to those who held traditional jobs such as doctors and physicians assistants, but also to other professions within that field such as informational engineers, clinical laboratory technologists etc. Moreover, the STEM panelists were another group of professionals who provided most interesting background stories and unique ways of using their formal training to lay the groundwork for their current occupations. Most of the panelists were formally trained as engineers, but after a series of internships and working with multiple companies, they decided to either pursue graduate school, or apply their learned skills to different areas, to best fulfill their interests. One recurring idea was that whatever major you choose in college, you are not bounded indefinitely to that one career choice; you have the ability to utilize your learned skills and apply them to a variety of other fields. Through my participation in SAYA’s Exploration Day and other events in the past, my career trajectory is being further refined. I have acquired a clearer sense of what I may choose to pursue at my post-secondary institution and, most importantly, I had the opportunity to learn something I would not have otherwise.