Erfan Kazemi has had a brilliant career as the CFO of mining company Sandstorm Gold, and, before that, he rose quickly through the ranks at PwC to become a senior manager in just five years.
But Kazemi wasn’t always so sure of where his career path was headed. Like many young people, he felt a bit aimless as an undergraduate at the University of British Columbia (UBC), he recalled.
“I was meandering between classes. I was doing my undergrad and taking the classes I needed to,” he said. “But I kind of felt a little bit lost on what the future held for me.”
Kazemi realized he needed to do two things: talk to other people and make a plan.
He talked to friends about their planned career paths, and he also spoke with a chartered accountant he met while sitting on UBC’s board of governors as a student representative.
“I got to learn about what he did,” he said.
What he heard changed his preconceptions about what accountants do.
“What I found interesting was the interaction they had with people, what they learned and the business experience they had,” he said. “I was thinking about what do I want to do in my career and what do I want to accomplish.”
At the time Kazemi was majoring in math, but he made sure to also take some accounting courses. When he graduated, he articled at PwC. There, he made full use of mentorship opportunities to plan the next stage of his career.
“Working at one of those firms, you have lots of great opportunities, lots of great experience; there are mentors available to you,” he said. “But one of the things I learned is that you have to take ownership of your career.”
He realized that mining, which wasn’t an industry he’d considered before, might be the right field for him: he found the volatility exciting, and the project-based aspect of the work was also appealing.
Annual planning for both his professional and personal lives is still something Kazemi does to make sure he’s on the right path to where he wants to go in the future.
A key question he asks himself to prepare for the future is: “Do I have the right skills in my toolbox?”
On planning for the future | “I wanted to spend part of my life volunteering, I wanted flexibility, I wanted to be able to spend time with my family and my kids. [I thought,] ‘How can I accomplish that?’ That’s kind of where I started, the realization that I kind of needed to look at what I want my life to look like, and then move backwards.”
Has a work or life challenge taught you a key career lesson? Contact Jen St. Denis at [email protected].
