Author: Christopher Rogers

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Why I Left Solopreneurship For the 9-to-5 Grind

Published by Christopher Rogers

Facing the stress and doubt of unsteady income as a solopreneur? Don’t be afraid to change course.

Further reading

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What It Really Takes to Pursue a Career in the Arts

Published by Christopher Rogers

Looking beyond the limitations of where she lives, Alex Karolyi is meeting new challenges with a fresh perspective. Alex Karolyi has some excellent advice for up-and-comers looking to pursue a career in the arts, “you’ve got to stick with it if you really want to be in it.” It would sound like an old trope coming from anyone else, but Karolyi has consistently had to forge new paths throughout her career. Today, what some might perceive as an insurmountable challenge, Karolyi seems to take as a chance to innovate. Getting Started with Shadowpath Karolyi founded Shadowpath in 2002, as an independent theatre company in York Region, just north of Toronto. At the time, she admits she didn’t really know how to make a professional theatre company work in a suburban community. Even with a population of a little over a million residents, the theatre scene in the area is still fledgling, limited both in following and by a handful of expensive venues. For the first few years of Shadowpath’s existence, Karolyi was limited to one …

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My (Un)justified Social Media Fears

Published by Christopher Rogers

A decade of on-again, off-again social network use has one millennial thinking about the big picture. I never really hit it off with social media. To me, networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all feel like one long, awkward first date, and I’ve always had one foot out the door. I’ve tried to get to know them, in fact, I probably know them better than most, having spun-up countless social media developer apps and accounts in my professional life - I’ve combed over Facebook’s social scrape data, wrestled with Twitter’s APIs, and configured enough YouTube profiles that I could probably do it in my sleep. So I’ve tried, but we’ve never clicked. My anxiety around social media is easy to explain. I think its communication lacks subtlety, and I find my lack of control over news feeds and what others are showing me to be frustrating. The discomfort I feel around social media may actually be healthy, but when I go out of my way to avoid it (Facebook and Twitter notifications get turned off …

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Travel Like a Pro

Published by Christopher Rogers

Tips from an expert to make your next trip an adventure you’ll always remember. Travelling, especially if you’re the type who likes to go off the beaten path, can be exciting, rewarding and just plain fun. Some trips become great adventures, while others can be life-changing. In November, travel company Merit hosted a travel film festival through its TravelCuts website, which books flights, hotels and rail travel. The #travelcutsDOC festival asked millennials to create short films about their travels. The winning entry, by Canadian Mark Harrison, is definitely worth a watch (be warned, it will get your wanderlust pumping). If you’re already adding some of the featured destinations to your ‘must visit’ bucket list, you’re probably not alone. But travel, especially for the millennial first timer, can be daunting. There are always questions about where to eat, where to stay, and what to do if you get yourself in trouble. The Reply recently interviewed Jason Merrithew, vice president of Merit Travel Group, a millennial and traveller himself, to find out how to travel better and …

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The Security Dilemma and the Personalization of Technology

Published by Christopher Rogers

We’re storing increasingly more personal data on services and on our devices every day and this means having strong security is essential. In 2016, my advice is to “lock it down.” If there was one recurring story this year it is the increasing number of data breaches. I feel like we’ve been here before. Despite all of our advances, the tech that makes our lives better relies on old paradigms, that is, we still rely on passwords to secure our data. Despite all our hardware advances, we still use a (mostly) terrible system of securing ourselves online. It’s unreasonable to suggest we simply stop working online because of security concerns; instead the best thing to do is focus on securing yourself. The fact is, as devices become more personable we are putting much more personal data in the hands of others. With data breaches becoming more common, it seems reasonable to ask yourself questions like “am I OK with this data getting into the hands of others?” And even without data breaches, do you know what the …

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How Two Millennials are Balancing Work and Band Life

Published by Christopher Rogers

We all have dreams. Sometimes our dreams and careers match up — where we’re able to go to work every day and do something we love. Other times our passions may not exactly coincide with the work we do to pay the bills. Whatever the case, it is important to find the right balance in life, especially when work or passions begin to consume more time than you can really afford to devote. Two musicians share their experiences.

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Breaking Gender Norms as a Millennial Male Nurse

Published by Christopher Rogers

Finding acceptance, encouragement and success while pursing a challenging career. There was a time, not long ago, when gender played a big role in the career you picked. For millennials who grew up with parents telling them they could achieve whatever they could imagine, it seems unthinkable, but for the generations that came before us, career choices were by and large limited by your gender as much as anything else, unless you were willing to be a trailblazer and put up with all the detractors, that is. Of course, all this is changing, but it takes time, and while in most professions the old norms about gender roles may have been long overcome, they leave a long trail. Nursing is one of the professions often associated with traditional gender roles. In modern Western history at least it has been a career path mostly taken by women. The 2001 Statistics Canada’s National Household Survey found only 10 percent of nurses in the country are men, the rest – a full 90 percent – are women. So …

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Fill Your Bag With Timely Tech

Published by Christopher Rogers

My elementary school career began in 1989. I was four years old. In March that year, Tim Berners-Lee would submit his proposal for a distributed system at CERN, laying the foundation for what would become the Internet, and changing the world forever.

But it would take a while for the future to make it’s way to Bracebridge, Ontario, so for much of the 90’s I was filling my backpack with books, pencils and maybe a calculator. It was a heavy bag.

Today, I could replace everything I used to carry in my backpack with an iPad. And you know what? I would. Technology has changed everything since I was in school and aside from a few concerns about information retention (more on that later), I think we should embrace it. And since this month’s theme at The Reply is Breaking the Norm, let’s check out some school-worthy tech that you might not usually give a second glance.