Aluel Mabior (Susan Solomon)
Current City: Mississauga, Ontario
Year arrived in Canada: 2013
School: Queen's University
Academic Programs: BAH History and MIR (Master of Industrial Relations)
Occupation: Labour Relations
1. What inspired you to pursue your studies in History of all the academic programs that were available to you?
I've always wanted to go to law school, since I was in grade 7. When I came to Canada, I learned I could not study law as an undergrad. I was directed to study humanities, the social sciences. I elected to study History, Political Science, Sociology, and philosophy. I picked these 4 because my forte is writing and reading dense material. I like that.
After 1st year, we had to specialize. I realized that I enjoyed history a lot more, specifically medieval history. So, I chose History. I found Political Science left no room for interpretation or for imagination.
With history, there was a lot to discover. There was always new information that touched on many subjects, including economic and political lifestyles of people at different times. I found history to be more informative and diverse. I studied about everything and anything under history, from the history of banking to the history of the 8-hour workday, to why we don't have child labor now, to simple things like why Christianity is the way it is now, you know, the Reformation era, the Renaissance era.
2. What did you do after your history undergrad?
I initially had my eyes on Law School, but I decided to do a master's in Industrial Relations. I was a good student of history and made good connections with my professors. In my final year, I had 2 professors who I had talked to and had told them my intentions of wanting to go to law school and the concerns I had. Specifically, how expensive it was just to prepare. You need a lot of resources to study and prepare for the LSAT, to buy the study materials and sometimes paying a tutor. Outside of the study materials, you don’t have the basic component - time. It requires a lot of time to prepare. When you are self-reliant on food and housing, time is not a resource available to you in abundance. You are constantly working to try and make ends meet. You can’t take a year off to focus on studying. Talking of Law School, I had this nagging question at the back of my mind, what if I spend all of these resources just to get into the field and end up not liking it? That would be a big waste.
3. Would you say that your professors had a big role in helping shape your academic and professional choices?
Yes, my professors had a big influence in how I ended up in Industrial Relations. I really encourage more students to invest some time in talking to their professors. Sometimes they give you good advice on your next steps. To make sure you are not blind-sided by anything, you need to bounce your ideas off someone who understand everything about the journey you are embarking on. Your professors mostly know you well as their student. They know your forte and can direct to the right path based on your strengths and aspirations.
4. Looking at your current career and the academic choices you made, would you say things worked out in a desirable way?
Yes, I would. The amount of reading and writing required when studying history and research needs someone to sit down and focus for extended periods of time. I found it easier to transition into Industrial Relations with those skills. You spend hours reading through dense legal material. And you do that just to retrieve maybe a single line that is going to be relevant to your case.
5. What are your main success factors in your academic and professional journey? Inherent intellectual aptitude goes without saying.
I would say there is no main reason. It is a combination of many factors. You need to take a step back and look at everything you have done, your current trajectory, and strategize on where you want to go next. The ability to clearly analyze your options and pivot without necessarily beating yourself up. Being gracious with yourself is a winning mindset. You don’t need to bulldoze your way through obstacles to get to your goals. Sometimes it is smarter to preserve yourself and go around those obstacles and fight through them another day. You are at peace with yourself if you make the decision solely for yourself. And it is a decision that ties into your personal interests and capabilities. For instance, when I decided to study history, a lot of people would ask me, ‘what are you going to do with a history degree?’ I enjoyed what I studied regardless of what other people thought of it. If you look at the data, I'm probably one of a handful WUSC students that majored in history. If ever there is someone else out there. I loved studying history. I might end up pursuing a PhD later, but that is not my goal in the short term.
6. Can you tell me a bit about your career path and what led you to your current role?
Since I finished my masters, I have just been with one employer. It has been 5 years now. I was specifically interested in my current employer. In Industrial Relations, we can either work with an employer or a union. My program had a good wealth of alumni that came to talk to us from various companies across Canada. I applied to positions that were made available to us and I was lucky to land a job before finishing my masters.
7. What does your average workday look like?
What I essentially do is argue cases in front of an arbitrator on monthly basis. There are also day-to-day tasks. My internal clients are mostly directors of operations, managers, supervisors. I engage them on matters related to collective agreement interpretation. I am the person they come to for guidance on key disciplinary timelines and steps they need to follow within their operating collective agreement.
We have 5 unions; my job is to deal with the unions on the employer side. For cases that are not termination related, I argue those. If somebody was fired, the lawyers will deal with that. On monthly basis, I get a bunch of files that I need to review and work through.
8. What are the challenges you faced trying to get to where you are today, if any?
The main challenge I faced was criticism from people who didn't understand why I was doing what I was doing. People questioning my decision to study history. If I had allowed that to seep into my psyche, I might have maybe tried to switch to something else that I wasn’t good at or liked. It is not like history is easy, especially if you are not into researching and writing long papers. Our community has this arbitrary rule on what is deemed socially and academically acceptable for scholars like us. Knowing myself, if I'm not interested in something, it can be difficult to generate the drive to do it. Even though I loved history, there were times I found those 20-page essays brutal.
The other challenge was having to work with very limited resources, in terms of time and money. My privileged Canadian colleagues could just say ‘I'm taking a semester off and just stay home and do this or do that’. Or ‘I am not going to work this whole year; I'm just going to focus on school’. I didn't have those options and there was always the fear that I might burn out and be forced to drop my courses or my job. Luckily, my fears did not materialize. At some point, I had to drop one of my 2 jobs, but I never got to be destitute or anything like that. I was relieved to graduate with not too many difficulties.
9. How did you manage expectations from friends and family back home?
I was lucky in the sense that my family did not expect a lot from me when I was in school. Not everyone gets to say that.
10. What is something about your line of work that would surprise the average street Joe?
Most people have no idea what Labour Relations Specialists do. It doesn't jump out to people. I think it is a new area under HR that has evolved over the last few decades. So explaining to people what I do can be interesting. You will be surprised by the number of times I have received offers from manufacturers of industrial machine parts because my LinkedIn profile has Industrial Relations and people assume I deal with manufacturing in some way.
The other thing that people don’t realize is that arbitrations are legally binding. Witnesses swear under oath and cannot lie to win a case. We exist to not clog up the court system. Just imagine everyone taking their petty grievances with an employer to court? As a branch of the judicial system, we must follow the basic principles of being truthful, presenting the absolute truth, and ensuring that justice is done.
11. What is your favorite thing about your job or industry? In other words, what fuels your enthusiasm and helps you get out of bed on a winter Monday morning?
To win my cases and serve my clients satisfactorily. It is the ability to know that at the end of the day I did my best to win my case and did not let my client down. And knowing that somebody is going relying on information from me. My recommendations. I derive joy from going back to my client with positive news. That I figured out how we can resolve a case without a decision being written because my evidence based analysis indicates that we do not have a case.
12. What do you know now that you wished you had known before you enrolled in first year of university?
Financial literacy. How to become financially independent and learning to say no to things involving finances. Especially around family and friends without feeling guilty. The rule of 20/20, you know. Saving at least 20% and paying yourself first. I feel like I would have been well placed when I was leaving for my first job. I am in a better place now. But sometimes you are soaring and doing well and then a fire comes that you have to put out and you forget all your money rules and you jump in to help.
13. If you can reflect on your personal journey, were your aspirations met? What would you do differently if you were to start over again in Canada?
I would say they were. And I would not change anything because I feel like everything that happened in my personal life contributed to where and who I am today. But looking back now, if I'm put in similar situations, would I handle certain things the exact same way? Certainly not. But would the outcomes still be the same? Yes.
14. From your experience transitioning to Canadian life and culture, do you have any advice for new students?
Now that you are in the West, do not try to impose your own ideals on people here. But also, do not let anyone override your personal morals. You can be open minded without blindly following the crowd and aping whatever is trending each time. For example, the current LGBTQ question. It is not your place to go and preach to them why their life choices are wrong. Be self-disciplined. Go to work, do your job and if you interact with anyone from that community, be empathetic and respectful. Mind your own business. Always. If you do that, I think you will have an easier time socially. There are many emotionally charged topics these days. You don’t want to wade into touchy subjects with everyone. It will do you no good. Unless you are chatting with very close friends from back home that you are certain about their views.
We also see some educated young people with the same mindset that their grandfathers had. This is passed off as culture, but our grandfathers never had the learning opportunities we have. They never went beyond their clan boundaries. Try to learn something new that challenges your world view and try to rationalize it. You grow your mindset when you can synthesize new ideas outside your cultural upbringing. It allows you to evolve as an individual and it enables you to grow in your personal life.
Always reflect on everything you see around you. Why is this good or why is it bad, and how is it working in this society, and can it improve the quality of life in our community? As an historian, I believe in maintaining what needs to be maintained and discard what longer serves us. We grow as a society by learning from others around us. We are a species that learns and evolves.
