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This week’s Global Health Professional Development Series welcomed back Rafi Chaudhury, who completed the MSc Global Health Program in 2012 with a thesis on e-health systems in Canadian family medicine. Chaudhury’s talk offered current students an alumni perspective on making the transition to the global workforce.

 

Upon graduating, Chaudhury joined the product team at FeelingBetterNow (FBN), a mental health management app used at hospitals and student health centres across Canada. 

 

Chaudhury, along with a team of clinicians, patients and software developers, helped to to plan, build and launch a new, patient-centric version of FBN that the Mental Health Commission of Canada has praised as “a made-in-Canada innovation focused on addressing gaps in workplace mental health.” 

 

“FBN focuses on reducing stigma and empowering individuals to take action to stay healthy and productive at work,” says Sapna Mahajan, Director of Workplace Initiatives at the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

 

Chaudhury’s unique position as both program graduate and a recruiter working in the private sector allowed him to discuss the realities of the current workforce. He spoke candidly about the challenges in finding employment as a new graduate. “When a resume comes across my desk, I have 5 seconds to review it. It’s not fair but that’s just the reality”, says Chaudhury. But it was not all bad news. His advice to students: “Be conscious of how you spend your time. Take five minutes each day to write down what you have learned. When interviewing for jobs, having this log of activities will make the process much easier.”

 

As the program matures, it is exciting to see where our program graduates have gone, and will go in their careers. 

 

“When the program began in 2010, we knew our graduates would be well positioned for leadership roles in a number of different sectors, but now we are starting to see that vision come to fruition,” says program director Andrea Baumann. 

 

The interdisciplinary nature of the program allowed Chaudhury to take courses through the De Groote School of Business, which prepared him for his work in the private sector. 

 

Chaudhury’s story is just one example of where graduates of the MSc Global Health program can go. If you are a program graduate and would like to share your story, please contact adairr@mcmaster.ca