June 12, 2013
There are too many stories in Canada of people with PhDs from Asia driving taxi, and not enough about internationally educated professionals succeeding in their careers and lives. Career Buzz shifts the balance.
Shalini Anthwal’s present job is Research Program Manager of Medical Imaging at St. Michaels Hospital, and Assistant Professor at U of T. Doctor Anthwal has a PhD in biochemistry which she earned in India, and she has experience as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Ontario Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School.
Maria Belmessova’s current position is Retail Marketing Coordinator for Thomas Cook North America. She has a degree in Marketing earned in Russia. Both Maria and Shalini are graduates of the Business Edge.
Business Edge is an Executive Education program within the Rotman School of Management at U of T, for internationally educated professionals to help them take their careers to the next level. Adam Buckley is Program Coordinator for Business Edge.What’s it like to be a career pioneer in a new land? Just ask Maria Belmessova. After moving from her home in Kazakhstan to study at Altai State University in Siberia, she picked a brand new field of study in Russia… called marketing. “We were guinea pigs,” Maria told Career Buzz listeners. “They were practicing on us!”
Then, for personal reasons her family moved to Canada. “Everything I knew before was erased,” Maria said. She felt lost. “I could be anything. But I lost my professional identity.” It took five years for Maria to get her career back on track. What did she do? More technical training, including accounting courses. But that didn’t help advance her career. Eventually she accessed career management help — through Rotman’s Business Edge program.
Maria Belmessova finally has a job she loves: her current position is Retail Marketing Coordinator for Thomas Cook North America.
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