Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Guys, this is true of any profession.... people who I went to Ryerson with in my theatre tech program are all over the board from working in the corporate world, to an ambulance paramedic.

Some people succeed at their chosen field, and some people just don't... that's life.

But that being said... if you have a goal, I say go for it. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it, and if you stick to your vision... you just might achieve it. Think positively, and positive things will happen. If you go into photography school thinking that most people won't get into the industry, that to me is a negative.

Heck, who knew that 15 years later I'd still be working in theatre, and actually making money from it! Not me.... and I recently got a contract to work on a big dance show in Vancouver this coming February. You just never know what is going to happen.

This is totally true. I remember teaching at U of T and asking some of my students what made them decide to pursue Computer Science. Very often the response was, "Because it's so easy to get a job". Imagine their surprise when they realized that companies aren't actually all that eager to hire mediocrity.

So yeah, all fields will have their share of people who were trained in the field but weren't able to cut it.

Ouch! I was probably one of those students haha! What courses did you teach, and when? I was at St. George from 1998-2002.

While saying you want to be photographer is somewhat akin to saying you want to be an astronaut but without the stringent prerequisites. It's easy to take the courses much more difficult to make a living at it. So besides having the desire or dream to make a living as photographer you have to have a plan that is realistic and the auxiliary training to make the plan come true. A recent study at Harvard showed that people that had a career path plan and kept it updated where more likely to succeed then those that just went to school.

Here's a good one, person with some phd/masters in the field of aeronautics and working from bombardier quitting and going into IT and starting out at a help desk. Talk about a big career change!

Many more cases of Doctors coming to Canada and ending up as taxi drivers and such.

Correct... issue is that their education is not recognized here. I've talked to a couple people here where they have relatives back home that are doctors/engineers/vets and when they come here, their certification is not recognized and they end up looking for any job that they can find.

There is no doubt that having a single career in this day in age is not easy, but for the original question, I think we can agree that you should "keep a day job" so you can continue to grow and get better as a photographer... its a tough market like any other.

that way you don't end up being a homeless subject in people's street photography

Personally I think they should be put into some kind of residency program where room and board are provided and they never leave the medical profession. not only are we wasting the most productive part of their lives but we are depriving another country of a doctor.

There is a program called CEHPEA which takes Doctor's from other countries and matches them with Ontario Medical School's which updates their education to Ontario standards and then puts them through residency. So hope is alive for some!

But on the topic my two cents is don't quit your day job until you can 100% support yourself with it. You wouldn't decide to be a car mechanic one day and open a shop the next...you have to learn the trade first

the way in which canada deals with foreign doctors is pretty much a joke. the residency programs that are open to foreigners are only a fraction of the number of people who take and pass MCCEE/MCCQE exams. I believe that they are continuously increasing number of spaces for the tests but not the number of residency spots, making the entire process nothing but a pipe dream for most.

funny thing is, canada does acknowledge US credentials and residency experience. so if a foreign doctor finishes residency in US and becomes fully qualified doctor in US, they can just take the canadian tests and practice here, which means that a foreign doctor has to spend time and money to jump through the hoops to get paid less in canada.

it was quite sad that when I actually called to inquire about these foreign doctor assistance programs in canada, the people in charge had no idea about the program them selves. eventually, they promised that a supervisor will contact me to answer the questions. I never the got the call, and of course calling back again was also fruitless.

/end rant about another dumb bureaucratic stupidity that produces no results what so ever when we are apparently facing so much health care staff shortage.

Hah. I was teaching right around that time actually. Specifically 1998 to 2000 I think. I used to TA CSC228 and CSC209 at St. George. It's amusing, I've already ran into several of my former students in my professional and personal life.