I spent the week working at a resident care home for the elderly. It was not too exciting of a week, hence the reason for not posting more often, but it was great to spend some time with the elderly all the same.

It seems as though the majority enjoy being there, comparing the experience to somewhat of a family, which was apparent. We had some interesting conversations about religion, love, politics, the weather, careers. I am not sure if they really understood what I am up to with One Week Job, but they were polite and supportive nonetheless.

The highlight of the week was without a doubt when the lady that I was playing bingo with won the big pot! Though I wasn’t able to go on a shopping spree at the dollar store just quite yet because she neglected to split her winnings with me, oh well maybe next time.

If you happen to get MTV Canada (I am not too sure what channel it is), I have an interview next week Tuesday at 6:30pm EST if you would like to tune in.

-Sean

This week I will be working at “La Villa Des Basques,” an old age home in Trois Pistoles, Quebec. I will be helping out around the home and spend time talking and playing cards with the residents. (I will be sure to brush up on my crib playing skills this evening or it could get quite embarrassing tomorrow!)

Spending time at an old age home has always been something that I wanted to do, but have never done so. I think we can learn so much from the elderly, yet we tend not to take the time to ask the questions. This will be a great opportunity for me to do so and draw from their wealth of life experience while at the same time practicing my french!

It will be really interesting to hear their perspective on One Week Job and just on careers in general.

-Sean

I arrived in Quebec today after a rather long trip from Vancouver beginning at 7pm last night. I had a three hour lay over in Calgary and was able to meet up with a friend for a drink which helped break up the trip. It was difficult getting any sleep on the overnight flight last night and after arriving in Montreal this morning, I had to make my way out to the highway to do some hitch hiking to get to Quebec city. Things worked out well and I got a few quick rides and I am now in a small town 3 hours east of Quebec city called Trois Pistoles.

After spending a few weeks back in Vancouver, I had started to become comfortable again in my home environment and it wasn’t until I was saying goodbye and ‘have a nice summer’ to some friends the night before, that I remembered the journey that I have in front of me.

I am really looking forward to what lays ahead and am excited to find out where it will lead!

-Sean

I am on a journey to discover the point at which my skills, aptitudes, personality, values, and passions come together to formulate a career in which I would be happy doing; a certain point of congruence. The interesting thing is that with One Week Job, I am in that situation presently… except for maybe the skills part!

I am constantly in a new environment, continuing to challenge myself every day, learning new things week to week, meeting tonnes of great people, I am really passionate about my message, and I am helping others. ‘One Week Job’ the career? Well, not likely as the gig doesn’t pay too well;)

I think one thing we must remember is to continually assess why we are doing what we are doing, and if indeed we are enjoying it. One of the quotes that is on my bedroom wall at home is, “It’s not what you do or how much you do, rather it’s how you do it and why you are doing it” I think that we can sometimes lose direction of what we initially set out to accomplish. As I recently received in an email, we must often ask ourself when presented with a new decision; ‘Can I draw a reasonably straight line from where I am, to where I want to go?’

The reason I have been thinking of this lately is that after coming home to Vancouver for a friends wedding and having a week off, I have been able to take a moment away from the whirlwind ride that I was on. With all the media attention throughout Canada the project has received and with the interest of turning One Week Job into a show, I have been forced to stop and think in order to re-evaluate my reasons for setting out on such a journey. I do not want to make it something that it is not, in that I have it all figured out and know exactly where I am heading. The reality is that I have no idea where this is all going to lead and by pretending that I do as a host of a show would only be defeating the purpose of why I began One Week Job to begin with.

I think it would be beneficial if through video, people are able to experience the adventure with me; the uncertainty of not knowing where I will be the following week, how I am going to get there, being scared/excited when presented with a new and challenging situation, overwhelmed with the amount of work I have created for myself, seeing my ups and downs throughout, etc. yet staying true to the experience. In this way I think documenting the journey with a video camera would be quite beneficial in that it would be easier to bring people through the experience with me, allowing them to draw more from it and the lessons that I learn a long the way.

Okay, decision made, sorry for seemingly thinking out loud!

If there are some sponsors willing to get involved with this project to help out with equipment expenditures and to pay a small crew, an installment could be released each week in which a different company could sponsor it. It will then stay online with the companies logo who sponsored that weekly installment appearing at the beginning as well as a watermark in the corner throughout that episode.

I imagine it would look something like this, yet with interviews of my employers, my take on the particular job, what it takes to do this job, and what I am learning throughout the experience.

Let me know what you think, or if you have any other ideas!

-Sean

Just heading out for a couple of meetings with some people that I might potentially be working with to turn One Week Job into some form of documentary, tv series, or episodes to be released online week to week. I will let you know what comes of it!

-Sean

I guess I have been making enough news with One Week Job that Macleans Magazine felt I should be labelled as one of their newsmakers of the week which I thought was pretty cool. The article was published in this past weekends edition.

My best friends wedding on Saturday went well despite the weather not fully cooperating. I wasn’t too sure if I would get choked up in giving my best man speech. I thought that perhaps I might get more caught up on doing a good job and how I was coming across rather than actually being in the present moment. Well there were definitely tears involved and I struggled to get a couple of the lines out, but overall I think that it was well received by everyone.

In terms of an update about what is happening with the potential production of One Week Job as a show, I am still trying to figure out the best way to go about it and decide how I want it to all work out. If you happen to possess a lot of talent with camera work/editing and looking for some adventure, give me a shout.

It was great to be back in Vancouver for my friends wedding this past weekend, though I am excited to be flying out to Quebec this coming Saturday. This week I am hoping to get some meetings done and sort out the production stuff before heading out again.

-Sean

I just spent the last two days working with SustiaNet Software Solutions at a Trade Show in downtown Vancouver. It was a great experience as I got to interact with many different people, learn a lot about selling (thanks Colin!), eat some great trade show food, and be entertained by all the interesting differing characteristics of Trade Show Exhibitors. They had a really cool sign made for the booth which you can see in the video below. Now if that doesn’t entice someone to come and visit our trade show table, then I don’t know what would!

Today we will be working on following up on the leads we received yesterday and then I am heading out to an island off the coast of Vancouver, Bowen Island, for my best friends wedding tomorrow.

I want to say a very big thank you to Howard, Colin, and Donna at SustiaNet, for so generously sharing their wealth of knowledge with me and for being so kind with me throughout the entire week! I look forward to purchasing the Consultation Manager software at some point in the future and putting it to good use;)

As for an update on production companies, not too sure what is going to happen as of yet and I am dedicating all of next week to figuring it out before heading out to Quebec next Saturday!

-Sean

I finished my second day yesterday working with SustaiNet Software Solutions and I think I have quickly come to the conclusion that working in an office job is not quite for me. I think I could do it for a couple days a week but definitely not day in day out. I am realizing that I really need to get out there, do different things, and meet different people.

I am lucky though in that the people I am working with this week are awesome and so that makes for a positive work environment which I am really enjoying. Yesterday I learnt about an amazing stakeholder data management software that SustaiNet sells throughout North America called Consultation Manager. I think any company could benefit from this software as it allows them to easily organize projects, record data, generate reports and communicate efficiently between team members as well as involved stakeholders. If it sounds like I am trying to sell you on it, it is because I am. It really is that good and definitely worth checking out!

Today I will be out at a Trade Show all day networking with municipal governments and getting some awareness out there about SustaiNet and their services. Should be a great learning experience and I am really looking forward to it. I will be sure to let you know if I make any sales!

-Sean

Do you remember Erin who I met while I was working in Alberta a few weeks ago? Well, she sent me a quick email that said:

“Hey Sean! So I quit my job on Monday (finally!!!) at 11:45am and at like 2pm I got a call for an interview for this job I applied for April 10th, had the interview today and got it an hour later!!! So I’m starting my passion next Monday and never settling again thanks to you! Cheers.”

Great to hear Erin, go for it!

-Sean

PS - If you haven’t yet, make your promise today.

Fresh off a great bachelor party weekend that finally came to an end close to 1:00am last night, I started Week Ten working downtown Vancouver at 8:00am this morning. Ouch! Somehow I managed to get out of bed this morning and made it to work on time, and will definitely be sleeping well tonight!

This week I am working with SustaiNet Software Solutions, “a distributor and implementer of web-based information management systems that are designed to assist organizations to efficiently manage the wide range of information gathered to achieve their environmental and social sustainability goals.” Try and say that in one breath!

There is a trade show Wednesday and Thursday which I will be attending as a trade show exhibitor on behalf of SustaiNet. I will be generating leads, meeting with potential conference attendees/customers, attending conference sessions, learning about community consultation and stakeholder engagement, and learning about post trade show follow-up.

Everyone at the office have been really welcoming and are very nice so it should make for a great week!

More later, but time to get back to work.

-Sean