Career Advice and Coffee at the University of Victoria

Speaking to a career counsellor at the University of Victoria in the 1990s was quite a challenge.  It was strictly drop-in, so you had to wait in line and hope that the other drop-ins didn’t take too much time with them. One visit in particular stands out: I was really floundering at the time, since my original plans had fallen through and I was trying to figure out new career plans.  Unfortunately, when I finally got my turn (I think by then I’d been waiting over an hour), the career counsellor was unsympathetic to people who didn’t already have clear goals in mind.  She did hammer one point across, so strongly in fact that I remember it to this day: she really wanted her coffee break.  She was mad at me for further delaying her coffee break and kept on repeating her need for a coffee break.  I ended up leaving the meeting with a greater sense of her need for a coffee break but otherwise I was no better off than before. A later visit later proved a little better at least, having me do career aptitude tests, but for the most part I avoided the career counsellors there from then on, lest I interfere with their coffee breaks.  This was in 1992 mind up, so the counsellor in question has probably moved on. If they managed to find work in a coffee house I imagine they’re a lot happier now.