Hinesh Chauhan narrates his evolving career journey—from childhood ambitions (pharmacist, accountant, architect) through high-school constraints, engineering studies, and eventual shifts into engineering economics, economics, and a master’s in management. He argues that stacking diverse fields (engineering + economics + management) enabled a fulfilling career and that you don’t have to have a single fixed identity or final career choice.
Chapters
When I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up, it was really hard because I had interests and good grades that were very. It was all varied so my options were maybe too broad. And what I ended up doing. Well, at first I was. I remember being in grade four wanting to be a pharmacist. I don't know why. Then at some point I wanted to be an accountant and then I wanted to be an architect. But in pursuing a bilingual certificate in high school, I had to take all these extra French courses which meant I wasn't able to take the art courses to build up an art portfolio. So architecture was out. Engineering. Being the curious person I am and figuring things out, building things, it came naturally to me. So I pursued engineering. But then I changed my mind from there and ended up doing after three years, ended up pursuing engineering economics degree and then well in between it was some geology, environmental science, commerce and then I found economics. And economics was that beautiful mind opening subject that I had read about in all these books where you go to post secondary and you have these mind opening discussions and you learn how the world works. That wasn't engineering. Engineering was a lot of work, but too, too precise and too narrow minded. And economics really taught me how the world runs. Because anytime you're curious about something, all you need to ask is follow the money. And that's what it taught me. And combined having the engineering background, the economics background and then a master's in management opened up everything. But it was the stacking of all that learning that has really led to my really fulfilling, interesting, satisfying career and I'd say arguably a decent amount of success. You don't have to figure out what you want to be or what you want to do when you grow up. Now it keeps changing.
