Ann Liebau - Midwife

    When people say midwife, the first thing that pops in your mind is a person who help deliver babies at home. Today our guest speaker Ann Liebau, who has been a midwife for 13 years came to talk to us about how it was like to be a midwife. Some people might think this job is cool or this job is kinda weird since you have to deal with the birthing and a lot...lots of blood. Well we got an idea on how the job was from how they have to be on call 24/7 if something happens and they do things like home visits, help the mother plan her pregnancy and also do tests like a doctor would. Now speaking of doctors, sometimes midwifes would work alongside with them if the mother has problems like diabetes and such half way through her pregnancy, since they only work with healthy women who has lower risks. To be a midwife one must 4U english, science and social science to get into the program. From there, they will have to take a 4 year program to become a midwife(though mostly the program is dominated by women, in Ontario we have 1 male midwife who just recently graduated! exciting right?) When you become a professional midwife you go through 6 stages of different annual wage depending on your experience totaling from $80 000-$110 000.

  Now this job may appeal to somebody, but to me it's just kinda hard to picture myself being one since I hate seeing blood :(  For people who wants to be a midwife must have a passion and dedication to become one. Sooo I think that our final guest speaker was a pretty good way to finish.

Richard McDonald - Corporate/Screen/Comedy Writer

 I'm sure some people have heard or know the Red Green show. Well guess what, today our guest speaker was the screen writer of the show for 5 years! But thats not the main point, today our guest speaker Richard McDonald talked to us about how it is like being a writer and how in everyones life, there are 7 careers choices. His 7 career choices were auto mechanic, cabinet maker, filmmaker, film critic, freelance magazine columnist, a comedy writer and a Corporate writer/worker. Now with that said, that is alot of different career paths from something like a auto mechanic to a writer.

  Well one thing I definitly learned today is that being a write DOES NOT PAY　THE BILLS! Definitely many people who write also have other jobs supporting them since (espically freelance writers) only earn $0.25 per word in Canada... that is definitly not alot. But also the benefits are that you get to travel and sometimes even meet or talk to famous people! So being a writer is pretty neat especially for me if it is writing fiction novels since you get to be creative and create your own story~

  All in all, todays 2 guest speaker definitly have something in common about writing and how it doesn't pay the bill but also, how it is rewarding to have your writing published and how if it is something you like go for it!

Mark Morton - A Professor for professors

 Today in class, our first guest speaker was Mark Morton a professor at the university of waterloo who teaches other professors on how to teach. Probably what I learned today was that usually people with a Ph.D tends to go into teaching as professor.Though, being a professor isn't all about teaching since you will also have to research and public books to be able to keep your job (this is totally unrelated but it kinda connects to the novel I am currently reading called A discovery of witches, where the two main character are professors at Oxford who teaches and also do alot of researching manuscripts). We also got a review on how much you get paid as a university professor, which is quite alot from $70000 starting to $130000 mid career. But of course, it takes years of schooling (12 years) so your just basically paying off your student debt with those earnings, so if you want a higher earning job go be a dentist.

  Now for his job as a professor for other university professor, people might wonder why the heck do they have professors teach other professors. To start off, most professors are paid to research on any subject they want, so they aren't really good at teaching and such. Also, those who are professors need to be "tenure" to keep their jobs which mean they will have to publish articles an 
d books from their findings.(and publishing books definitly does not pay the bill but people tend to get grants and such, and it is also pretty rewarding in a sense after you publish a book.) As for the books Mr.Morton has published in the pass are Cupboard Love, Dirty Words, and The End

Harold Albrecht - MP

Today we had the honor of meeting Harold Albrecht, the MP for the Kitchener Conastoga riding. We also learned a great deal about how it is like to be a MP and how you can get there.

  To start off, you can be a MP at the age of 14. But of course,you must have supporters who are willing to support you if you want to be a MP. So the advice he gave us was that, get to be known in the community as much as possible by volunteering and putting yourself out there by being active.He also tells us about his busy work hours from about an 80 hour week to traveling to and from Ottawa. Harold Albrecht also told us a bit of his background from how he became a MP. Starting with being a dentist first, then to being a pastor for a local church.So with that said, you don't need to major in politics to be a MP.

  With being a MP, they have to go through elections that if they lose, they will be jobless. Now that is what I call a pressure job! Long hours of work, none stop traveling and events,and lastly it is not a stable life job as there are always chances thta you will lose your seat. It definitly is not an easy job and will need alot of dedication!

 

Sarah Leishman - Child and Youth Worker

Today we got an insight on what it is like to be a child and youth worker, who works with troubled children and youth up till the age of 18. To start off, there are many different types of CYW who works in hospitals, schools and even groups homes.With the different types of CYW, the shifts and annual wage also varies from $35000-$60000 to higher paying positions. Now for what they do, they provide counselings to help children and youth cope with problems such as being abused,drug addictions, low self-esteem to anxiety. They also keep the conversation confidential, unless it breaks a certain rule. There are also positions where they talk with the whole family of the child/youth on how to handle the special needs that the child/youth may have.

  Now for my prespective on this job, I think it is a very dangerous job since if they tell you that they done something illegal and then was caught, you will also be involved in the case too. But not only that,by being a counseller you must also keep your mind calm and have this sort of personality that would make your client want to pour their heart out to you after just 20 minutes of knowning you. So I think it is quite a difficult job that I wouldn't want to persue in the future. But if it's someone who likes working with children and wants to help them then it might be a good career path.

Amy Beamer-Human Resources at WPL

 Today we had a guest speaker named Amy Beamer, who works in human resource section at the Waterloo Public Library. Even though she didn't really explain her job, she talked about how it is like being an interviewer since she is also responsible for hiring people.

   During the talk, she gave many useful advice on how to dress and act aproprately, like dress as if you want the job, during a job interview.She also told us about this period called the 'prohibition period' where you get watched on how you perform during the first 3 months. In that case, you could get fired imediately if you mess up(for example you sleep on the job or read while you are suppose to be working).

   Theres not really much I can say about her job since she only give us job interview advices, but I think what she told us would be really useful in the future since it's like an inside view of what interviewer look for and their expectations when hiring people.