Welcome to the monthly newsletter that helps you make sense of how careers actually happen in Canada – cutting through the noise of labour market data, education decisions, and a rapidly changing world of work. Whether you're navigating your own career, supporting someone else through theirs, or thinking about how to build better career development in your school or organization, this is for you.
 

Deep Dive: How does the narrative of the linear career path cause real harm?
Myth of the Month: Does changing careers mean going back to school?

The Number That Surprised Me: What percentage of Canadian seniors work, or want to?

Worth Bookmarking: StatCan's analysis of how graduates flow from education to work

 

 

When I was growing up at the dawn of the new millennium, the prevailing wisdom about careers was this: make a plan, follow the plan, and climb the ladder that your plan will obviously lead to. This “plan” usually meant going to university, or maybe college, studying a “practical” subject, and working your way up within a single organization. You’ll work full-time from approximately age 22-65, then retire well.

 

This “roadmap to success” was ubiquitous – but it never really sat well with me. I had too many interests to commit to one (or even two) as a young adult, and my goals were always wider than they were deep. After studying psychology and education, I made my way from mental health education to student life programming to academic advising roles.

 

I’ve worked as a career counsellor since 2019, and two things have become abundantly clear: this roadmap is still ubiquitous, and the destination it claims to lead to is now a ghost town. Most employers don’t incentivize long-term loyalty. Occupations that once promised opportunity are on the decline. Skills-based hiring is unlocking opportunities for people without degrees (albeit slowly – Canada lags in adoption). Skyrocketing costs of living have contributed to the rise of the gig economy and an increasing percentage of people over the age of 65 still working. Workers are increasingly broadening their skillset, not just sharpening it.

 

The world of work has changed significantly in just a couple of decades and is poised to change even more in the decades ahead. People who follow the old roadmap often end up lost. This path simply no longer prepares people for the realities of the post-pandemic labour market.

 

 

Let’s turn to the research on how young people actually develop careers. My favourite study on this interviewed 100 Canadians in their 20s – including those from big cities and small towns, and those who went from high school into university, college, the military, and the workforce. Although that isn’t a huge sample, it’s large and diverse enough to draw solid conclusions.

 

What they found was that most people expected their career to unfold in a linear fashion, but those assumptions were quickly upended. Many changed majors or even transferred post-secondary institutions. Some took a leave of absence or dropped out – for unforeseen financial reasons, health reasons, or to care for a loved one. Even those who stayed enrolled often took a class, held a job, or met a person that revealed a new career interest and led them down an unexpected post-grad path. Those who held onto their goals faced challenges, too: some didn’t get into the graduate or professional program they wanted, and others did only to learn that the profession they had been planning for wasn’t what they expected or wanted at all.

The finding I found most interesting is that those who expected their career to unfold in a linear way found it harder to adapt to their reality. Many of them felt alone and ashamed, which got in the way of their ability to pivot effectively.

 

 

I’ve shared this finding with 100s (maybe 1000s) of students, and it resonates every time. And though the subjects of this study were in their 20s, I think the findings apply to those in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and beyond - and my clients agree.

 

That study is from 2015, when the ubiquitous roadmap was just beginning to veer off-course. And I think it's particularly revealing given how much disruption the pandemic, remote work, generative AI, and rising costs of living have caused since.

 

Despite this, well-meaning parents and educators still encourage their kids and their students to plan early - perhaps because that approach worked for them, or because it reduces their own anxiety. This approach not only robs young people of the opportunity to develop the exploration skills they need - it also increases their anxiety. How can they plan for an increasingly unpredictable future? How can they plan their lives before they really know themselves?

 

Many of my former students - and now, my early- and mid-career clients - tell me that this focus on having a plan puts a lot of pressure on them. As a result, many end up making choices based on what sounds good in theory rather than what sits at the intersection of their strengths, their interests, and labour market demand.

 

The solution is not to avoid planning, but to avoid relying on plans alone as the foundation of success. As the terrain underneath us rapidly changes, what fosters success is not only the ability to plan, but the ability to adapt. Planning assumes stable conditions. Adaptation acknowledges that the unexpected plays a significant role in shaping most people’s careers.
 

At the high school level, that can look like framing post-secondary pathways as an early step towards a career path rather than the single opportunity to choose a career path – especially given how many grads go on to work in different fields than they studied. 

 

At the post-secondary level, this might look like creating the infrastructure to support career exploration: making work-integrated learning opportunities accessible to all students, reducing barriers to cross-disciplinary learning, helping students connect seemingly disparate experiences they have within and outside of class, and building adaptability as a deliberate skill. 
 

At a professional level, this could look like treating unexpected experiences as data rather than detours, normalizing career transitions across the lifespan, and encouraging employers to allow talent to move in all directions, not just up.

 

The 100 Canadians in the 2015 study didn’t fail to follow the roadmap – the roadmap failed to work for them. A decade later, with everything that’s changed since, that’s even more true. The fix isn’t to follow the current path more closely  – it’s to create a new map, learn how to use a compass, and nurture a better relationship with uncertainty. 

 

Myth: Changing careers means going back to school.

Reality: Many career transitions rely on transferable skills, industry knowledge, and strong connections rather than new credentials. However, breaking into a regulated profession typically does require additional education.

 

 

15.2%: The percentage of Canadian workers over age 65 who were employed or job searching in 2025. This number has been rising since 2000, with a brief dip around the pandemic, and is now at its highest since StatsCan started tracking it 50 years ago. Why? Longer lifespans and a higher cost of living. The implications of this ripple across the workforce, slowing the labour market entrance of early career talent in some occupations, slowing the progression of mid-career workers into leadership, and demonstrating the need to reconsider our expectations about when and how careers end.
 

 

StatCan’s analysis of how graduates flow from programs of study to occupations is a great visual of the reality of non-linear careers. One thing to keep in mind: these categories are broad, so not all programs of study in a category lead to the same job outcomes.
 

 

Thanks for reading this month's edition of Pathways & Paycheques.

 

If this sparked a question or shifted your understanding of the world of work, please reply to let me know. I'm an Inbox Zero evangelist, so you can be sure I'll read it!

Sincerely,
Carli