Episode Notes

Learn more!

Community-Based Research at Trent

• Ensuring Vaccine Messaging is Right on Target
• Prof. Naomi Nichols’ work
• Trent’s Community Based Research Centre
• Trent Community Based Research Centre Available Projects
• Trent Sociology Specialization in Socio-Legal Studies

Working for Statistics Canada / Government of Canada

• Statistics Canada
• Federal Student Work Experience Program (FSWEP)
• Public Service Commission

Rachel is Putting Data to Use!

• Hate crimes: Study looks at broader impact in Canada | CTV News
• Eh Sayers Episode 17 – It’s 8pm… Do You Know What Your Kids Are Googling? (statcan.gc.ca)

Transcript

Beth: Welcome to the Social Profs Podcast with your hosts Beth Torrens and Kristy Buccieri. This is the podcast where we attempt to turn teaching inside out by engaging in conversations outside the classroom with faculty, community members, and Trent student alumni. Our goals with these conversations are to learn more about the benefits of a criminology or sociology degree and to talk about the ways that students can get more involved at Trent and in the community. We will also do a deep dive with some Trent professors to learn more about their approaches to teaching, what drives their research, and a few fun facts you can only learn when you turn teaching inside out.

Kristy:  From Sociology Alum to Statistics Canada analyst, today we sit down with Rachel Tsitomeneas to talk about life after Trent. How she started working for the Federal Government, why her best advice is to pay attention in research methods classes. Welcome to the podcast, Rachel.

Rachel: Hi. Thank you. I’m very excited to be here today.

Kristy: We’re wondering if you can tell us a little bit about your current occupation.

Rachel: Absolutely. So I currently work at, as you said Statistics Canada, and I’ve been there since September of 2022. And I am in a recruit program actually so what a recruit does is they come into Statistics Canada at a lower-level analyst position and then they work their way up to this higher-level position. And we get to receive all sorts of training and we get to rotate to different teams within StatsCan in order to kind of get this broad different set of skills and kind of see what we like to do. So right now, I’ve actually just, well, I can talk about the team I was just on because I recently switched teams. So. the team I was just on was called the emerging and evolving issues team at StatsCan and our job was kind of to monitor the news, monitor like current, mostly social issues facing Canadians. And we would write about it. So, we would write daily articles, we would produce different analysis and, you know, charts, graphs, all that good stuff on issues like housing. I did a couple of articles on hate crime and how it relates to quality of life indicators and online hate crimes and young people. So, we kind of covered that sort of realm of stuff in that team. My team also did speeches for the chief statistician. So that’s when it comes back to like, when you’re a recruit, you kind of get to touch everything that’s kind of cool. Currently right now, I just switched to a different team at the beginning of this month and they are an indigenous training team. So, what they do is they work in the the centre for Indigenous statistics and partnerships. And they provide internal training and cultural awareness training to stats can employees, but then they also give out training to people who are not a part of StatsCan so a lot of Indigenous people outside of the government who want to learn about how to make proposals, how to conduct surveys, how to use Excel I’m going to be teaching that one. I’m a little nervous for that. But stuff like that, so I’m really excited to, you know, start on a new team and get to learn how they, how they help people outside of the organization. And I really liked kind of getting to know some of the different stuff stats can does so far. So that’s currently what I’m doing. It’s a whole bunch of stuff here and there, though. And they’re really great about letting you try things. If you want to try something, they say, okay, go ahead. So that’s currently what I’m doing there. Yeah.

Beth: That’s great. And it sounds like there’s a lot that’s encompassed under that, you know, classification of analysts and you actually get to do a lot of diverse things. What did your previous educational and work path look like? And how did that help you get to where you are now?

Rachel: I have a bachelor’s degree which I got from Trent, and I graduated in 2021 with a degree in sociology and I specialized in criminology and socio legal studies. And after that I took a six-month data analysis and boot camp type course in conjunction with Carleton. And that was more of the coding side of data analytics. So it wasn’t necessarily all social data or anything like that. But it was learning about the coding and all the nitty gritty type of stuff like that. And then after that is when I received an offer to go to steps can and join their recruitment program. But to be fair, I did apply to this recruitment program back when I was still at Trent. So, it does take a very long time to to go through the process and eventually get into the government. But I didn’t really have any professional experience in analysis or working in that type of environment until I got here actually.

Beth: That’s great. How has a sociology or your kind of specialization in criminology and socio legal studies education been a benefit in your current job?

Rachel: The professors are going to love to hear this, but research methods and your data analytics course that you take in sociology, and any other degree really are actually very important to when you’re applying your your skills in real life. And when you’re actually conducting surveys, and you’re doing analysis, it’s super important to have those technical skills that you do get from those courses and those classes. And, you know, you use analysis skills every single day, especially in my job. So, it’s really important to build that foundation and that base. So, if you’re gonna pay attention in any class, I would say that one’s the best to really take your notes in. And, you know, the general knowledge that you get from just a sociology degree in general and taking a wide variety of classes is really important because then you get to understand, you know, population-wide statistics and their importance to policy decisions. And I think that’s really important, especially in what I do.

Kristy: You know, I must say, as someone who teaches the data analysis course, I particularly like this answer. And I’m wondering what other jobs related or close to your occupation, might you suggest students check out if they’re interested in pursuing a career related to sociology or criminology?

Rachel: I originally wanted to be a lawyer, and I know that that’s a lot of a lot of students that’s what you go into sociology or that’s what you go into this type of thing wanting to be, but there’s so many other opportunities and there’s so many other jobs that you can get with a degree in sociology so I’m just more of a general analyst but I work for Statistics Canada so that kind of narrows my scope but there’s so many other jobs in the government and beyond the government that are like analysis-based. You could be a policy analyst, you could be a crime analyst, there’s data scientists and analysts if you want to develop your technical skills a bit more. Lots of companies need those. There’s lots of civilian policing jobs and jobs in that realm you can get as well, but it’s a pretty broad scope of different jobs you can get for sure, especially if you’re willing to develop other skills on top of what you already have learned.

Beth: That’s great. And it sounds like paying attention and data analysis can really help with a lot of those different job opportunities. Thinking back to your time at Trent, what’s your favorite memory from when you were a student?

Rachel: Well, I was pondering over this question when you sent it to me, but I don’t think you can pick just one memory when you’re a student and like what I usually think back on when I think back of my time in my undergraduate studies is just the people that I got to be around all the time and you take for granted being able to be around your friends and be around the people you’re in classes with and you don’t like realize how good you have it to have people around you people to hang out with people to study with until you don’t have that anymore. So, I think that’s just like what I look back on most fondly when I think of when I think of my university experience. And I think that’s also what I miss the most. So yeah, that’s my favorite, I think.

Kristy: And we’re having this conversation today in April. And as we’re sitting here talking, students are getting ready to graduate. And we’re wondering what advice would you give to current sociology, criminology students who are maybe at the end of their studies or even earlier and thinking about future employment after graduation?

Rachel: Yeah, for sure. So those who are still in school and still have a little bit of ways to go. I would say that you should probably do things that are outside of your comfort zone. And you should definitely try and take advantage of all of the things that you know that Trent has to offer. Like I did, I did a research project in my fourth year. That was super, super helpful, I think, to landing this job that I wanted at StatsCan. And I did this big one research project. And I, I got support from professors, like, I got to have the study group with my friends that were in sociology and I got to do stuff that I don’t think a lot of students do get to do. So, I think take advantage of that and take advantage of the ability to apply your technical skills that you’re learning in a real world setting. So definitely do that if you’re still in school and if you’re still in school too and you do want a government job, I would say start applying now because the process is quite long and you might not get that job until you’re year outside of school anyways, just like me. So, it’s, you know, start applying, start looking, but something will come up eventually for you. And I think that that’s usually what happens to everyone. I know some of my friends who graduated with me have just started getting the jobs that they wanted now. It’s not a rush. It’s not something that might happen, you know, right out of school. It does take a while and that’s okay. And I guess to those people who are graduating right now, it’s the same thing. Don’t worry. It’s okay. You know, you’re not going to get a job the second you’re out of school, and you get the perfect job that you’ve always wanted. I think I always felt bad about that. Like, after I graduated, because I’m working at a coffee shop, you know, I feel like I’m not using my degree to, you know, the best of my abilities, but you just keep applying and you keep trying to better yourself, then I think you’ll end up, you know, with the job that you want and be in a place that you want to be.

Beth: That’s some great advice. And I think reassuring for students to know that they don’t have to know exactly the career they want or the career they end up with. And it’s great to see that you’ve been growing in your job as well. So, thanks for taking the time to talk with us today, Rachel, and for sharing your advice with students.

Rachel: Yeah, thank you for having me.

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