Career Coaching Orangeville ON

Tawnya Sutherland moved 5,000 miles across Canada to Vancouver, British Columbia. A year later, she separated from her husband and found herself with three kids to feed, no contacts and no support in a city of 3.5 million people.

“I grew up in the small town of Bewdley, Ontario, where there were 500 people and everyone knew each other. I lived next door to my parents for the first 32 years of my life. I had a great support network and everyone knew me.”

Workin’ for the Man

Tawnya found work as a secretary for the school board, but quickly suffocated in the hidebound environment. “It was very frustrating to realize that all promotions were based on seniority, not quality of work,” she says. “I didn’t want to spend 20 years as a copy girl, only getting the opportunity to be promoted to a manager very late in my career.”

She decided to go back to school to become a Certified Internet Marketing Specialist and Business Strategist, to build on what she had learned from creating 50 free websites for family and friends, a hobby she started back in Ontario.

The pace of work and school was brutal, but with the help of family and friends, Tawnya made it through. Soon, she found a position as the vice president of a small computer company. She worked directly with clients and did a wide variety of things including marketing, web design and customer service. Then one day, the company president disappeared, leaving the company in limbo.

Author: Pamela Slim

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