I have had a great couple days working in Ottawa this week at McGee’s Inn. Even though I haven’t seen many Bed & Breakfasts in my day, I can recognize a good one when I see it. And McGee’s is definitely a great one. They have a beautiful building and decor; not to mention the breakfasts are gourmet. They are located within walking distance of the dowtown area, yet off the main roads in a quiet neighbourhood. A bit of history for you: The building was originally built in 1886 for John McGee, brother of Thomas D’arcy McGee, one of the Fathers of Confederation.

McGee’s Inn is family owned with four members of the family working here. It made me think about how in choosing a career, we are also choosing a certain lifestyle. We must factor this in to the decision, such as, where do we want to live, do we want to be near our family, do we want to be in the city, etc., etc. As in any career decision, going into the B&B business was a lifestyle choice - by having the Inn, the family is able to spend a lot of time together and is able to spend more time with their two young children.

I start bright and early at 7:30pm and it’s into the kitchen to help serve breakfast to the guests. It is nice working at an Inn as the people you deal with are on vacation and so are generally pleasant. By the end of breakfast yesterday, I was serving up a descent looking Eggs Benedict and Omelette, my hospital corners when making the beds still needs some work, but I got breakfast down.

My career coach, Alan Kearns, lives in Ottawa so I was able to meet up with him for coffee on Tuesday and talk about what I have learned as a result of my experience with One Week Job. He definitely knows what he is talking about and had some great insights and advice for me. With my column for the Globe and Mail, my editor keeps saying that I have trouble focusing on a specific object lesson, being a little vague and trying to cover too much ground in one article.

After describing to Alan my latest learnings, probably using too many words in the process to describe what I really mean, he was able to identify the lesson and state it quite simply. Definitely helped me get some focus for my next article and provided a bit of direction/motivation for the project in general. Thanks Alan!

-Sean