Trouble is, he just couldn’t choose. So with only $500 in startup capital, he spent the next year doing one new job a week.
On Wednesday, Mr. Aiken will bring his cross-Canada story to Ottawa, when he presents a documentary about his tour at the main branch of the Ottawa Public Library on Metcalfe Street.
“It was my business schooling that allowed me to put structure around it,” Mr. Aiken said of his accelerated career, which encompassed professions from fighter pilot to martial arts instructor to vintner.
In February 2007, Mr. Aiken – just weeks after graduation – took on his first position, as a bungee operator in Whistler, B.C.
He put his journey up on a website and started making phone calls, insisting on donating the salary to charity and relying on the goodwill of strangers to help him with room, board and travel.
Business school helped him with the cold calls, managing the finances and job by job, building a community that eventually garnered him national media attention and sponsorship from NiceJob.ca.
Four months into his journey – this would be job No. 16 – Mr. Aiken spent a week in Ottawa as an innkeeper at McGee’s Inn, just near the ByTowne Cinema near Rideau and King Edward streets.
“It cemented the importance of choosing a lifestyle that goes along with the job,” Mr. Aiken said, praising the owners’ ability to balance their life with their business.
That’s what Mr. Aiken says he is doing now – through running a "One-Week Job Program" for others to recreate his experience over eight weeks, and touring campuses in Canada and the United States to spread the word.
“The good thing about the project is it allows you to put yourself in other people’s shoes.”
