Career Buzz

The Path From Industrial Designer to Manufacturing Entrepreneur

Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical products that may be manufactured by mass production.  It is the creative act of determining and defining a product’s form and features, which takes place in advance of the manufacture or production of the product. Industrial Design can also be described as “creative problem solving”. At times, at the end of the design process, there won’t actually be a new product emerging. One of the first questions asked is “is a new product necessary?” But what does it take for an industrial designer to transition from a purely design role into an entrepreneur path building a design/manufacture/install business in the area of home renovations.
 
Guest Bio
Kevin Karst an Industrial Designer and journeyman cabinetmaker with 50 years of experience. Kevin moved from the Canadian prairies to Ontario in 1984 to pursue higher education. His Industrial Design degree, with high distinction, from Carleton University (1988) builds on his certified tradesman status. With a background of product development at Knoll, Teknion and OSF, Kevin currently excels at custom design, fabrication and installation for his client base in Toronto, specializing in residential cabinetry and furniture.  Currently working from his well-equipped facility in the East Downtown area, he provides innovative solutions with superior craftsmanship to discerning clients.
 
For career counselling for you or someone you care about, start with a free discovery call: careercycles.comFor gamified, story-based professional development, learn about and schedule a demo of Who You Are Matters! at onelifetools.com

What’s it like to work in the world of simulators?

You know those giant pieces of heavy equipment you see on construction sites like cranes, bulldozers, backhoes? Ever wonder how people learn to operate them? And how the decide to get into that work in the first place? Imagine a heavy equipment simulator so good you can use it to train people, and even explore what it’d be like to operate heavy equipment. That’s what Mark Franklin did when he met Jonathan LaBerdia, an account manager for CAT Simulators. He set Mark up on a simulator at a conference booth, and had him operate a bulldozer around a simulated work site. He said he did a good job! Because he hadn’t killed anyone, unlike others who tried the simulator.  
 
What’s it like to work in the world of simulators? How do you get into that work? Listen in as Mark Franklin talks with Jonathan LaBerdia, of CAT Simulators, here on Career Buzz, the unique radio conversation that empowers lives, enriches careers and energizes organizations.  
 
For career counselling for you or someone you care about, start with a free discovery call: careercycles.comFor gamified, story-based professional development, learn about and schedule a demo of Who You Are Matters!

Part 2: Navigating the Future: AI, Gen AI, and Managed Services in Management Consulting

As technology grows day by day, businesses also grow to stay ahead, or else be obsolete. Part 2 of the Innovation Nation episode with Pranav Bhardwaj explores how AI and Generative AI are reshaping management consulting. It covers strategic implications like new business models, managed services, and outcome-based pricing. The discussion highlights data governance, compliance challenges, and how firms measure ROI from AI. It also examines the evolving competitive landscape as tech giants and boutique AI firms disrupt traditional consulting. Finally, it emphasizes why human judgment, ethics, and trust remain critical alongside automation.
 
Guest Bio
Pranav Bhardwaj is currently the Global Lead for the Operate Program and Deloitte Consulting. Pranav is a career MC, having worked in the MC industry since the age of 22. His clients have spanned from the UK to South Africa, from Japan to the US and 8 years ago he dropped an anchor in Lake Ontario and has been living in Toronto a few minutes from the lake. His areas of specialization are enterprise strategy, artificial intelligence, product development and supply chain management. In his current role, he is supporting the definition and execution of a firmwide strategy that would impact the 400,000+ employees and Deloitte and over 3000 clients that Deloitte serves globally. A mechanical engineer with a business degree from Ivey business school, he is passionate about all thing’s technology, people and reading!

The One About Careers: Careers & Parenting

Thrilled to have Devon Turcotte, and Sarah-Jane VandenBerg join us to talk about careers, parenting and their podcast, The One About Careers. Listen & join Hoda and her guests on Career Buzz to increase your Career Literacy.
Guest Bios
Sarah-Jane VandenBerg is a Career Coach, Author and Speaker. She is a Certified Career Development Practitioner and a Holistic Narrative Career Professional with over 30 years of experience working with career decision makers and job seekers. She has witnessed the confusion, despair and anxiety individuals have around work. After individuals have worked with Sarah-Jane, individuals feel relief and reassurance about their career plans and know how to get the results they desire. Sarah-Jane’s book is called, Lost & Found: An Adult’s Guide to Empowering Teens to Make Their Best Career Decisions and she speaks about Career Decision Making with competency, fun, practicality and honesty to adults who live with, work with and mentor teens.
Together with Devon Turcotte, their podcast, The One About Careers, is the career podcast for adults who work with, live with or mentor teens who are finding it a challenge to plan for life after high school. Released weekly in bite-sized conversations about everything career and education to help their listeners better support the career decisions of the teens in their life. 
For career counselling for you or someone you care about, start with a free discovery call: careercycles.comFor gamified, story-based professional development, learn about and schedule a demo of Who You Are Matters! at onelifetools.com

“A new story that works changes everything”: Angus Fletcher on Career Buzz

Is it true that children are more creative than computer AI? How can we use literature, art, and stories to increase innovation, resilience, and joy in the era of AI? These are the research questions of Career Buzz guest, Angus Fletcher. We had an inspiring conversation covering Angus’s own career and education story from studying life science in undergrad to focusing on Shakespeare in his PhD. Listen in to connect the dots from bio to Bard, and from science to story. Angus Fletcher is Professor of Story Science at Project Narrative at The Ohio State University, and author of “Primal Intelligence” and “Storythinking: The New Science of Narrative Intelligence.”  

Part 1: Navigating the Future: AI, Gen AI, and Managed Services in Management Consulting

As technology grows day by day, businesses also grow to stay ahead, or else be obsolete.  AI and Gen AI is impacting the MC industry requiring a major transformation in operations and services.  The MC industry is a $1T business globally and is expected to rise to $5T by 2028. This paradigm shift is both a challenge and an opportunity for the MC industry. AI and Gen AI has changed the way we interact with technology. This new technology will impact the business domain in general and specifically MC, which has always been a human centric industry. The MC sector offers specific knowledge and solutions to companies across different industries.  AI and Gen AI consulting services will take MC to a higher level of performance, alter the nature of MC more than ever, allowing for the automation of operational processes as well as enhancing the quality, and service effectiveness. AI and gen AI is more than an incremental tech revolution – it is in fact a major paradigm shift that MC firms need to embrace.
Guest Bio
Pranav Bhardwaj who is currently the Global Lead for the Operate Program and Deloitte Consulting. Pranav is a career MC, having worked in the MC industry since the age of 22. His clients have spanned from the UK to South Africa, from Japan to the US and 8 years ago he dropped an anchor in Lake Ontario and has been living in Toronto a few minutes from the lake. His areas of specialization are enterprise strategy, artificial intelligence, product development and supply chain management. In his current role, he is supporting the definition and execution of a firmwide strategy that would impact the 400,000+ employees and Deloitte and over 3000 clients that Deloitte serves globally. A mechanical engineer with a business degree from Ivey business school, he is passionate about all thing’s technology, people and reading!

The Joy of Not Knowing

Enjoy this lively conversation and dive deep with Hoda and guest, Dr Marcelo Staricoff, into the JOY OF NOT KNOWING aka #JONK. Listen & join Hoda and her guests on Career Buzz to increase your Career Literacy.
Guest Bio
A former scientist and Primary School Headteacher, Dr Marcelo is currently a Lecturer in Education at the University of Sussex and joint course leader of the BA Primary and Early Years Programme. He has recently worked on behalf of UNICEF with policy makers, educators and textbook writers to help implement a reformed national curriculum in Uzbekistan. 
Dr Marcelo also works for Coram (a children’s charity), runs courses and acts as an advisor to a number of schools and educational organisations. He speaks regularly at national and international events on the principles that underpin the Joy of Not Knowing’s philosophy of education and school leadership. 
Marcelo is also the author of Start Thinking (Imaginative Minds, 2005) and has published widely in the fields of creative, critical, multilingual, multicultural and philosophical thinking and learning in the classroom. Marcelo is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Education (APPG) and a Trustee of the Laurel Trust and Chair of the Michael Aldrich Foundation. Marcelo’s work and his contributions to education were recognised in 2019 by being named as a Founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and in 2023 when he became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
For career counselling for you or someone you care about, start with a free discovery call: careercycles.comFor gamified, story-based professional development, learn about and schedule a demo of Who You Are Matters! at onelifetools.com

From a Hobby obsession for Rugby to a Business Initiative

Welcome to the show where we explore how everyday hobbies can spark extraordinary ventures. Whether you’re baking on weekends, tinkering with tech, snapping photos, or writing poetry—your hobby might be more than just a pastime. In this series, we dive into real stories and expert insights on how people just like you turned what they love into thriving businesses. Because sometimes, the key to success isn’t starting with a plan… it’s starting with a passion.  In this case the passion for Rugby.
Guest Bio
Shane O’Neill is a 30-year information system and technologist with a possible “untraditional” journey to where he is today. A veteran of the Irish Defence Forces and UNIFIL service in Lebanon, he has plotted his journey in IT thought predominantly in media.  With that knowledge, along with a great love of rugby, Shane created a technology he calls Audeohost – a streaming service for live TV sports commentary delivered directly to a fan’s smartphone. The product has applicability across many industries and settings. The Audeohost journey began in 2011, with certain ups and down and we are not necessarily talking volume control here. The Audeohost strapline is “Hearing the complete Picture”. Shane grew up in County Tipperary and attended Limerick Regional Tech College.
For career counselling for you or someone you care about, start with a free discovery call: careercycles.comFor gamified, story-based professional development, learn about and schedule a demo of Who You Are Matters! at onelifetools.com

Gathering Others to Support You

Our message today is about gathering others to support you. Wayne Pagani’s term was Circle of Support. Take the time to pause, re-listen to the definition of the term and let us know how you grow your Circle of Support. Bella Doswell is on a mission to increase awareness about the work that Career Development Professionals do. She calls it a movement and is inviting everyone to join. Is there a topic for which you would like to advocate? What would you do to start a movement? Listen & join Hoda and her guests on Career Buzz to increase your Career Literacy.
Guest Bios
Guest and Career Development Professional, Wayne Pagani has over 25 years of coaching experience serving people with diverse backgrounds internationally. He has assisted over a thousand clients with career / life objectives to develop effective action plans in order to achieve their life aspirations and career goals. This is combined with over 14 years of business experience in the transportation industry where Wayne was responsible for managing operations and maximizing employee engagement. In addition, he brings over ten years of counselling experience working with clients in residential facilities to foster personal growth. 
Wayne also facilitates inspirational workshops and services to clients seeking solutions in all sectors of business and community. He has delivered customized train-the-trainer programs for career / employment service organizations. 
And finally, Wayne offers a holistic perspective and approach to supporting people, empowers them by providing resources and connections to others to help them realize and fulfill their career/life aspirations.
Bella Doswell, is an award winning, Certified Careers Development Professional who brings successes in helping people make successful career management decisions and develop winning job search strategies. Rather uncommonly, she has a master’s degree in Career Development & Coaching, which gives her more flex and depth when helping Clients. Bella has helped people with their careers in the UK, the UAE and since 2012, for Clients in Canada. She has enjoyed working with a wide spectrum of clients, from under/post grads at university, right through to more recently, professionals and Senior Executive level employees, from all sectors of the labour market. Bella has also taught student CDPs counselling skills and ethics at Further Education level and is a passionate advocate for the promotion and professional wellbeing of CDPs around the world. 
And finally, Bella is the Co-Architect of the successful #SoMuchMoreThanTalkingAboutJobs campaign, and author of the weekly CDP Thought For The Week, posted every Monday on LinkedIn. 
For career counselling for you or someone you care about, start with a free discovery call: careercycles.comFor gamified, story-based professional development, learn about and schedule a demo of Who You Are Matters! at onelifetools.com

Enhancing Cognitive and Physical Health in an Aging Population with Innovative Technologies – From the Lab to Adoption

In this episode, Professor Mark Chignell shared his decade-long journey transforming research into real-world tools aimed at enhancing cognitive and physical health in aging populations. His work bridges psychology, engineering, and entrepreneurship, resulting in products like To Race With Me, BrainTagger, and Chummy, now being tested in care homes across Canada and Japan.
How can human-centered design reshape the future of aging and dementia care?
What does it take to turn a decade of research into real-world healthcare innovation?
Could tech tools like 2 Race With Me and Brain Tagger redefine well-being for older adults?
Guest Bio
Mark Chignell has been a member of the Mechanical & Industrial Engineering faculty since 1990. Prior to that he was an Assistant Professor in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California from 1984 to 1990. Professor Chignell taught in the Psychology Department at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia from 1980 to 1982. He has a PhD in Psychology (University of Canterbury, New Zealand, 1981), and an MS in Industrial and Systems Engineering (Ohio State, 1984). He was formerly (2013-2017) the Director of the Knowledge Media Design Institute at the University of Toronto, and the BUL Chair in Human Computer Interaction. He has been a visiting scientist at the IBM Centre for Advanced Studies in Toronto since 2002 and he was a visiting scientist at Keio University from 2005 to 2010.
Professor Chignell has co-authored books on expert systems and intelligent databases (published by John Wiley & Sons) and he has co-edited three books. He has many journal and conference papers on topics such as hypertext and information retrieval, user interface design and healthcare applications. His research has been funded by the Bell University Laboratories, the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), IBM, the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, TELUS, Oki Corporation, Ricoh Corporation, and Apple Computer. He has founded two start-up companies, both of which received funding. His latest startup is Centivizer Inc. which is a University of Toronto startup that has been funded by the AGEWELL National Centre of Excellence. Centivizer creates exergaming and cognitive assessment products to support healthy aging.
 
For career counselling for you or someone you care about, start with a free discovery call: careercycles.comFor gamified, story-based professional development, learn about and schedule a demo of Who You Are Matters! at onelifetools.com