Brief encounters: Sean Aiken

Not just anyone can make a career out of looking for a career, but Port Moody’s Sean Aiken has done just that.

Having spent a year trying out 52 different careers, the unconventional and charismatic Aiken has now finalized a book deal and is riding the talk circuit to share his hard-won insights.
After graduating with a business degree from Capilano College in 2005 (since renamed Capilano University) Aiken, like many 20-somethings, was overwhelmed by the prospect of choosing a career. Sending off resumés in hopes of landing a job he could go to every day for the rest of his life was hardly appealing.

One Week Job was Aiken’s answer to his indecision. His plan: he’d try out a new career every week for a year. With a $1,000 monthly allowance from the folks at Nicejob.ca, gracious offerings of couches to crash on and the odd hitchhike, his journey took him from being a stock trader with Horowitz & Co. in Florida to astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii to air force pilot with the Canadian Air Force in Trenton, Ontario.

One Week Job piqued the interest of people as far away as Singapore and got the media talking. “Sean’s journey tapped into something so many of us feel,” says Abby Plesser, assistant editor at Random House Inc. “His idea – to turn a period of uncertainty into a time of exploration and adventure – was brilliant.”

Week 52 finished in March, but Aiken expects to ride the ripple effects for the next couple of years. This summer he worked on the first draft of his book (to be published spring 2009 by Random House in the U.S. and Penguin Group in Canada). In September Aiken took an all-expenses-paid trip to the University of Western Ontario, where he was paid $1,500 for a 45-minute speech about hiring generation Y. Several more seminars and conferences are to follow. Meanwhile, Omni Film Productions Ltd. is in the midst of pitching One Week Job as part of a television series.

But Aiken won’t be able to ride the One Week Job gravy train forever. So is signing up for a lifetime nine-to-five job next up on his itinerary? Not likely. “I’ve got some ideas for another show,” he says.