I met Hunni a few years ago while she was teaching at Edge School. Her and I would always find ourselves hanging out with a few of the same colleagues on Fridays after work over some drinks and appetizers. What can I say, we both enjoy a good happy hour! When Pam asked me to contribute to her blog, I thought it would be a neat opportunity to reflect on how I got to where I am today.

I never really thought about what I wanted to be when I grew up…aside from when I was 10 with a dream of being James Bond himself one day. The cars, the girls, the gadgets? That was the ultimate fantasy. I had it all planned out – a sleek Aston Martin, a sharp tuxedo, maybe even a secret lair somewhere in the Alps. Unfortunately, the spy agencies never came calling. I would, however, match 007 in his taste for a good vodka martini – shaken, not stirred, of course, but that wasn’t until I was in my late 20s.

What was it I was talking about? Oh, right, my career journey.

The one thing I did develop a passion for (and would lead me on my unknown career path years later) was sports. I played basketball and baseball throughout middle and high school, but it was a love for hockey that would prove to be the guiding factor in getting me to where I am now.

Growing up with my last name, Wesley, hockey was synonymous on my dad’s side of the family. My uncle Blake was a second-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers in 1979, and my uncle Glen was a first-round pick of the Boston Bruins. Heck, even my pops played post-secondary hockey with Red Deer College in the late ‘70s.

Blake went on to play 298 games in the NHL, and most notably racked up 486 penalty minutes – the man definitely knew how to throw a punch.

As a third overall pick, Glen was a highly touted prospect from his days in the Western Hockey League. With the Portland Winter Hawks, he racked up 271 points in 243 games…as a defenceman. He went on to play in 1,457 NHL games (currently the 10^th most all-time by an NHL defenceman). In 2006, he won a Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes, and in 2009, had his #2 retired by the Hurricanes.

By now, you’re asking, why all of this backstory?

The real catalyst for the path I would pursue later in life came from my grandma Stella. She lived just down the back alley from my childhood home, and I spent a ton of time at her place growing up – eating her home-cooked meals, learning card games, and most memorably, watching sports. I can still picture sitting in her back sitting room during the 2002 Stanley Cup Final between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Detroit Red Wings. You know the type of fan who yells at the TV like the players can actually hear them? That was grandma – hollering at missed calls and cheering so loud you could probably hear her down the alley. I’ve unfortunately inherited that same habit (to my wife Rachel’s dismay). That series was when my own passion for hockey really came to life. I didn’t realize it then, but that love for the game – sparked in my grandma’s living room – would end up shaping the direction of my life and career years later.

My parents have always been extremely hard workers. 

Even into their 60s, both of my parents continue to work – my mom with Paul Davis Restoration in their accounts receivables department, and my dad part-time with Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Pops is a retired high school teacher, and for many years was working a second job on Saturdays – either washing semi-trucks and trailers or detailing cars.

I am very blessed to say that they engrained this hard-working mentality into my own DNA, and it has truly been a driving factor for me being successful in life. From them, I learned that hard work isn’t optional – it’s the expectation.

By the time I finished high school, I’d already been a dog walker, paperboy, produce clerk, car detailer, and electronics salesman. After graduation, I took two gap years to work full-time (and, let’s be honest, to move out, make some money, and party on weekends). My mom was working for a luxury homebuilder at the time and got me a job.

Tasks included, but weren’t limited to, pressure washing my boss’s pool and removing a water-logged cat from a co-worker’s pool (now that I think about it, how many people have outdoor pools in Red Deer, AB)!?

The job turned out to be an absolute grind. It wasn’t a difficult job, completing mostly mindless errands (and being trusted with power tools, a major no-no for someone not handy at all), but I quickly realized I needed to do something more meaningful. It was all the motivation I needed to apply for university.

I don’t know when I came to the conclusion, but I know why. For years, I had been watching hockey, basketball and baseball games on television – reciting statistics, following athlete stories in The Hockey News, reviewing team rosters and rolling through game highlights. It’s obvious by now that even though I was passionate about sports, but if I couldn’t play sports, maybe I could cover them.

So, I started doing some digging and looking at degree offerings – I don’t think I researched for very long until I came across the Mount Royal University journalism program in Calgary. This is what the MRU website has listed as a description now for the four-year degree:

Create podcasts, YouTube videos and other multimedia journalism that can make a difference and hold powers to account. Learn how to write and produce stories ranging from investigative reports to sports, entertainment, science and human rights coverage. Blending theory and practice, you will gain new skills in reporting, interviewing, videography, photography, writing, editing and digital design. Through working with our top-quality digital publishing and podcasting capabilities, you will be well prepared for creative careers in media and communications.

Career possibilities

• Multimedia journalist
• Communications manager
• Podcast producer
• Social media specialist
• News reporter and editor
• Policy researcher
• Advocacy communicator
• Documentary maker

MRU turned out to be the perfect fit. The program was hands-on and creative. I wrote and edited stories for The Calgary Journal, produced a 17-minute documentary on the sports broadcasting industry, and learned programs like Photoshop, InDesign, and Premiere Pro – tools I still use today. I even called hockey games with my buddy Neil for the MRU Cougars, including a few live games on Shaw TV. Those nights in the booth were a blast, but through our documentary, I also learned how rare and demanding a full-time broadcasting career could be. That realization pushed me to think bigger – to use my communication skills in broader, more flexible ways.

Fast forward to July of 2015, one month removed from my university convocation. 

After four years of grinding out a degree – and racking up student debt in the process (in retrospect, it probably wasn’t smart to travel to Mexico and Las Vegas on student loan money, but hey, it seemed smart at the time), I was fully expecting to work my way right into a career after graduation. 

Days went by. Weeks went by. 

At this point, I was ready and willing to work anywhere where I could make a paycheck. I remember submitting I believe what was 104 cover letters and resumes before FINALLY landing a job, but unfortunately for me, it wasn’t a job in communications or marketing. I found myself a coveted job as a sales associate at SportChek, making minimum wage to fetch size 10 shoes from the backroom. 

You go to university, finish up a degree, only to find yourself completely broke – working a job I could have held in high school. It felt like I had hit rock bottom. Where would I go from here? 

Two weeks later, I landed a job with Apple – yes, that Apple – the company worth almost 4 trillion dollars. Again, it wasn’t in a communications or marketing role, but as a “Specialist”. Essentially, I would be doing retail sales again, but this wouldn’t be your average retail job. We spent a few weeks in what Apple calls “Core Training” which covers the basics of how Apple Retail operates: the vision and values of Apple, how the store is meant to feel for customers, introductions to roles, teamwork, and product essentials. The training set expectations for customer interactions and service standards. It was a very unique experience that I’ve never experienced anywhere else, and I do think this job helped me level up my communication skills even more. Not to mention my ability to maintain calm under stress…have you ever been in an Apple store during an iPhone launch or the Christmas shopping season? I would argue their stores are the craziest retail spaces to work in on the planet.

Then came my first real break: Kids Up Front Calgary, a small but mighty non-profit that provides experiences to deserving kids and families. I started as a Program Coordinator and eventually moved into a Community Relations and Program Manager role. We were a team of four doing the work of ten – distributing over 30,000 donated tickets a year to community agencies. It was one of those rare jobs where you go home every day feeling like you’ve done something that matters.

I got the chance to work with some incredible people during my time at KUF – Nicky, Harlee, Carissa, Shanon, Jenna and Catherine. Even Neil and I got the chance to reunite for a few years. I have so many amazing memories from working with the KUF staff. We were a small family, and I’ll always cherish my relationships from my first grown-up job.

Which brings me to my current role, as the Director of Marketing at Edge School. I’ve been at Edge since October, 2019. At the time, it was very scary to jump from a role I was so comfortable in, but Edge finally offered what I had been looking for this entire time – an opportunity to be around sport in a full-time capacity. The six years I’ve been here has flown by. I’ve appreciated the chance to be around student-athletes that all have a similar mindset to be the best version of themselves in the classroom, in their sport and as people. We truly are graduating awesome humans—a rebrand I helped the school undergo back in 2022.

It’s funny looking at the role I’m in now, because if I think back to university, so many of the skills I learned then all translate to this job – writing, editing, graphic design, photography, etc. Creating graphics and taking photos during our sporting events are two of my favourite parts of the job.

I’m especially proud of how I’ve been able to help the school grow since I came here. When I started at Edge, we had 293 students; now we are nearing our max capacity at 455+ (with wait lists in the majority of our grades), and I’m particularly proud of our reach on social media. We have almost 40,000 combined followers on Edge School-related accounts. Just this past month, our hockey account content received over 1,400,000 views across a 30-day period. Our two school websites, EdgeSchool.com and EdgeMountaineers.com, combine to have 70,000+ views a month.

I think the reason I wrote about my career journey is to highlight that your path can move in many different directions. I’ve realized that every stop had a purpose. Every job, every detour, every eight-hour shift taught me something I’d need later.  You will get as far as you want as long as you are willing to work hard for it. 

If there’s one takeaway from my journey, it’s that you don’t have to have it all figured out early. You just need to keep moving forward: work hard, stay curious and say yes to the next opportunity. You never know which “yes” will lead to the door you didn’t even know was waiting.