There are a thousand and one ways to find your professional path. But a little help doesn’t hurt. In his new book, Hello, dream job!author Béatrice Bernard-Poulin lends her pen to the stories of around thirty professionals – including footballer Marc-Antoine Dequoy and comedian Emna Achour – in order to inspire those who want to think outside the box.
“In a way, it’s a bit selfish. I wrote this book because I would have liked to read it when I was younger,” says Béatrice Bernard-Poulin in an interview.
For her, it was never a question of working a “9 to 5” job and being cooped up in an office. “At a very young age, I wanted to be a singer. Afterwards, I wanted to be a VJ at MusiquePlus. Then, a journalist in a conflict zone,” says the woman who is now a web entrepreneur.
“My mother is an occupational therapist. My father is an accountant. Really, I was super privileged, because they never expressed doubts about my choices. On the other hand, they told me: we can’t help you, because we don’t know that,” she says.
Béatrice Bernard-Poulin dedicates her book to those whose professional aspirations “are a little out of the ordinary and who have no one around them to tell them what to do”.
In her book, she gives as an example the story of Emna Achour, a former sports journalist converted into a humorist and columnist, that of Marc-Antoine Dequoy, footballer for the Montreal Alouettes, or even those of Pierre-Luc Cloutier and Emy Lalune, two content creators on social networks.
We also find the journey of little-known people, like Joëlle Bertrand, who, with her 5th grade diplomae secondary school and after a year of professional studies, worked at Evenko, then Universal Music, before landing at Amazon Music. There are also testimonies from Chloé Ouellet, chef and owner of a restaurant, Alizée Lienard, geologist in the Far North, and Kevin Perreault, real estate broker.
“I wanted the paths to be as diverse as possible to show the multitude of career possibilities that exist,” relates the author, who also collected testimonies from experts, particularly in the career counseling and planning sector. financial.
For young (and old)
At a recent public event, Béatrice Bernard-Poulin was surprised to see the interest her book generated among people who already had a job and a well-established career. “It’s funny, because basically, I really wrote this book with teenagers and young adults in mind as the audience. I was surprised, “flabergasted”, even, by the number of adults who said to me: “Ah! This is what I need.” »
With the transformations in the job market, particularly those linked to the pandemic, people have started to think about the meaning of their work, notes the author.
“Maybe some people make the money they need, but they don’t feel validation at work. And so they wonder what the future holds for them. This is an important thought to have. We spend so many years of our lives working! » she emphasizes.