My Background and Experiences

People have many different ways of describing themselves; associating themselves with products or brand names, describing their cultural tastes, or describing what they do for a living or as a hobby. There is an emotional connection in all of them. For myself, I’ll tell you about what I do with myself and provide some insight into my life and experiences.

Fun, Interesting, Rewarding

My hobbies and pastimes include many things. For years I have been an avid cyclist, and for a time I was a racer with some wins to my credit. I love playing ice hockey and variations of that game. I dabble in other activities such as football/soccer, skiing (both cross-country and downhill), snorkelling, hiking, camping and backpacking.

I was a musician playing bass and guitar, my work at times accepted by critics and peers, but commercial success eluded me. I would like to play with a band again, but only as a hobby.

The Life Story

My life can be divided into decades; the 70s were my childhood, spent growing up in a suburb of Toronto. The 80s were mostly high-school (which couldn’t end soon enough for me) and post-high-school, when I became serious about being a musician and I moved downtown.

The first half of the 90s continued the routine of my work financing my efforts at being a musician, although it was in the early 90s that I revitalized my old interests in bicycling and backpacking.

By the mid-90s I decided it was time to return to school and move onto a more rewarding path. Around the same time, I decided that being a musician wasn't for me and I moved on from that.

In 1995 I entered the graphic design program at George Brown College in Toronto. My three years there were rewarding. It was really the start of a new chapter for me.

My first agency job was with AES Company in Toronto, which was a good introduction to the business for me.

Change continued in 2000 and after. In that year I was hired by Design/Sense, a design studio in San Francisco. The job, the company, and the staff all fit very well with ideals I had (and still have) about design and design studios.

Riding the Millenium Roller-Coaster

I loved living in San Francisco and Corte Madera. That really is a beautiful part of the world and there wasn’t a single day that I didn’t appreciate being there. I made many good friends, I liked my job, and the hockey and cycling were great.

The very high cost of living in the Bay Area meant money was tight, and in late 2002 I made the decision to move to Vancouver, BC. Vancouver is a beautiful city and I liked living there, but in hindsight the wisdom of making that move was questionable.

Not long after arriving in Vancouver I decided to take drastic action to meet my financial goals. Soon I secured a position at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, with its in-house design department; I planned to stay in Saudi Arabia two years to meet my goals.

The Best and the Worst

Living in Riyadh was, well, interesting. There are two sides to life for foreigners in Saudi Arabia. One is work, the other is personal life; I’ll start with work.

It can be difficult to describe what working in Saudi Arabia is really like without coming across as an innately negative person, but for many Westerners it is incredibly frustrating to work there; it was no different for myself.

The local culture, attitudes and work ethics are very different from those in Western countries, and those differences can be like a brick wall when it comes to attempting to do one’s best at their job.

Change is unthinkable, blind obedience is expected, and leadership, personal responsibility and creativity are non-existent. If a problem is acknowledged, then a patch might eventually be laid on top, but the root of the problem will always remain. Managers don’t lead or accept responsiblities, but rather they take control, exercise power, and lay blame. Instead of developing ideas which are relevant to the circumstances, ideas and solutions will be blindly copied from other organizations which are considered worthy of respect, regardless of the relevance or effectiveness of the idea. This makes for a very difficult environment for a Westerner who wants to stick to the standards of quality and professionalism they are accustomed to.

Admittedly, that last paragraph comes across as being a big grumpy rant, but it is an accurate reflection of my observations and experiences.

Having said all that, there were elements of my work which I found exciting, challenging and fulfilling. Unfortunately, those elements made up less than 50% of my workload, and they didn't exist for the first year I worked there.

Away from work, I enjoyed myself most of the time while in Riyadh. I had my bass with me for jamming, sometimes I rented a truck and went to the desert for hikes and camping, and there were social events to keep one occupied. My compound had a nice pool and there was always a good book to read. One big thing missing was the opportunity to play sports; this is an area which has severe limitations in Saudi Arabia.

Adding everything up, If my job had been more rewarding professionally, I would certainly have wanted to stay. With interesting, rewarding work, living in Riyadh could be a good lifestyle. Unfortunately, that’s not the way it is for many foreigners in Saudi Arabia.

Surprise!

After the frustrations of working in Riyadh, I was eager to take on a challenging position with a high level of professionalism. There were also several factors motivating me to remain in the Gulf Region.

In early 2006, when I arrived in Kuwait to start a new job, I had high expectations for myself and the Bahrain-based company which had hired me to work at their Kuwait location. Unfortunately the ideals expressed to me by the people who hired me weren’t apparent at this new branch location. After three extremely disappointing months I resigned and left, feeling used and abused.

Still, there are lessons from everything in life, one must make lemonade out of lemons, and all that stuff. I did learn some valuable lessons from this experience, but they do have a bitter taste to them.

Kuwait was an interesting place, and it’s too bad things didn’t work out because I would have liked to spend more time there.

What’s Next? (Again)

After the disappointment of my Kuwait experience, I returned to Canada to get reorganized. For a while I did freelance and contract work while getting back into my old interests. I spent a few months working in Alberta, where I was able to spend time with friends while gaining some insight into the newspaper business.

Yes, I have some interesting experiences from these past few years, but the constant moving and not being able to become really involved in the things I enjoy did get tiring.

I want good, interesting work, and I want to stay in a nice, comfortable personal groove. I thought I was doing that when I moved to San Francisco, and I wouldn’t have guessed I’d have so many varied experiences if you’d asked me then. I'm settled in now in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA); after what I went though for so many years it seems to take forever to get that settled feeling, but it's coming back.

In the spring of 2007 I started riding my bike again, not as seriously as in the 90s, but I still put in enough time to quickly lose the extra weight I'd been carrying for a few years, and there was a lot of fun and smiling along the way too.

By late June of 2007 I had started working at Medicus Canada. It’s a great place to work, with great people — it’s interesting work that I enjoy very much.

My job is great, I’m fit and healthy, and I’ve got a great place to live; things are good.

I always invite questions and discussion on the things I have written, the ideas or events. Contact me by email.