After weeks and weeks of waiting, the new episode of the One Week Job show is up! This episode follows Sean during his week at the Hespeler Animal Hospital in Cambridge, Ontario. He meets some amazing animals, helps out with health testing, and even tries his hand an dentistry.

Let us know what you think! All feedback is appreciated.

Hey all, unless you’ve been following the blog, you’re probably wondering about the status of new One Week Job episodes. It looks like I should be getting my laptop back on Tuesday, so until then I’ve put together a brief update of our Film Festival reportage from Roots – view it in the player on our hompage. Enjoy!

Sleep. Sleep is good. Unfortunately, we didn’t get much sleep last night (or at least I didn’t) as we’re currently staying at a friends’ place in Toronto on the edge of Chinatown.

Don’t get me wrong: it’s an incredible apartment right above a Scotiabank, with high ceilings and wide spaces. It’s just conveniently down below are the streetcars that screech by and shake the building every 10 minutes. (I’m sure we’ll get used to it after a while).

Anyway, Sean and I woke up early this morning and made our way to Roots’ head office. We stepped inside the doors and were immediately greeted with the company’s founding philosophy pasted on the wall.

The company was started in 1973 by founders Don Green and Michael Budman, and has grown to become one of Canada’s most recognizable clothing brands.

During our tour of the office, it was clear the place had a great vibe. Everyone seemed pretty happy to be working, and it quickly became apparent that many employees had been there for at least 5 years or more (some pushing 20!)

Afterwards we headed out to their leather factory, where they produce their leather merchandise: bags, jackets, shoes, you name it. We had never been in a leather factory before, so we weren’t sure quite what to expect. Turns out – it’s a really cool environment. The place is wide open, fully air-conditioned, and buzzed with workers cutting, stitching and creating.

Another fact about Roots we didn’t know: many of their goods are still hand-made in Canada. Not all of them, but still, that’s pretty darn good —

Roots still directly employs nearly 2,000 people in Canada, including 200 at our leather goods factory in Toronto. All Roots products are designed in Toronto by Canadian designers. Indirectly, through our work with various suppliers, we help contribute to the employment of thousands more people in Canada.

After our tour of the factory, we had the chance to sit down with Director of Communcations Robert Sarner, who talked with us about the importance of communcation – between a company and its employees, as much as with the public. In fact, he values communication so highly, he recommends you talk to him directly if you have a beef, compliment, or question about Roots.

Sean and I finished off the day with a visit to the Roots flagship store on Bloor St, where we learned what we’d be doing for the weekend: talking with celebrities.

Well, maybe not quite, but looks like we do get to promote the Flick Off campaign, which means capturing clips of what others are doing to reduce their carbon emissions – and this includes celebrities in town for the Toronto Film Fest.

We’ll be there most of Friday, so if you’re in town, come visit us! Sean will also be blogging on the Roots Film Festival blog here.

It seems the worst has happened. Last night, while working on the upcoming episode of One Week Job, my laptop crashed. No word of warning.

For a fraction of a second I saw the “blue screen of death” and then all went black. The computer restarted but didn’t get very far. The harddrive suddenly started emitting a terrible scratching noise, like a skipping record player.

It could only mean one thing…complete hard drive failure.

The laptop, a brand new ASUS G1S, had been great up until that point. No idea why the hard drive decided to pack it in. All three of us have spent last night and the entire morning trying to salvage the data – which includes 1/3 of the completed episode from the animal hospital.

No word on whether we’ll recover the data. Thankfully, all the previous episodes I backed up on an external hard drive. The current setback is more one of time, rather than catastrophic consequence.

Today is also a holiday so we can’t call ASUS tech support, or ship the laptop off for repair.

Anyone out there in internet land have a spare laptop kicking around they don’t need? Just thought I’d ask…

This episode is a change of pace from the previous one, highlighting Sean’s journey into the behind-the-scenes of a radio station. Along the way, he experiences promotions, how to record a commercial, show hosting, and develops his on-air voice. By the end of the week, Sean realizes the importance of having fun in the workplace.

Enjoy! And of course, feedback is appreciated.

First off, Sean and I want to thank everyone for their continued interest and support of the One Week Job project. I’ve only been on the road with Sean for 4 weeks, and it’s been an incredible experience.

That said, we need your help! Yes, you, reading this on your computer screen right now.

We need you to help spread the word about the One Week Job project, allowing as many people as possible to join the journey and learn from Sean’s weekly experiences.

In a perfect world, we would have thousands and thousands visitors to the website. In reality, this only happens when good people of the internet help the message go viral.

So if you’d like to help out, we’ve put together a brief list of ideas. If you’ve got some of your own, please share with the rest of us in the comments!

BONUS: Join the Facebook Fan Page

1. Blog About The Project

If you have your own blog, write a post about your own thoughts on the One Week Job project. Better yet, embed your favourite episodes right in your post and offer your own commentary on what your thought of it.

2. Email Your Friends

Be the first on your blog to discover something new! Write an email to your friends far and wide, telling them about the project, with a link back to the site. There’s no recommendation as powerful as the word of your friend.

3. Email your local newspapers/radio stations

Visit the websites of your local media and ask why they haven’t written up a story or spoken about the One Week Job project yet. If they have, suggest a follow up story and spread the word among the masses!

4. Talk about it around the watercooler

Need something to chat about at lunch? One Week Job is the perfect awkward silence filler. All you have to do is start with, “Did you hear about this guy who’s traveling around working a job a week?”

5. Download the show to your iPod

Did you know you can download One Week Job in you favourite format, and take it with you on your iPod? Watch it in the car, on the bus, and let curious people you meet have a look at the show.

6. Ask your favourite websites to write about it

If you have a few news/entertainment sites you like to visit, why not ask them to write about One Week Job? (Especially if this website happens to be BoingBoing, Steve Pavlina, or Seth Godin).

Once again, thanks to everyone who’s followed Sean’s trip thus far. We hope to entertain, enlighten, and inspire for many weeks to come.

It’s come to our attention that some people are having issues with the video player not working properly or not showing up at all. I figured out the likely problem: your flash player is not up to date.

To fix it download the latest flash player here and follow the instructions. It takes a few seconds and you’ll be good to go.

Once again, thanks for all your feedback and support!

In Episode #2 Sean works a week at New Tribe Tattoo in downtown Toronto. He meets colourful characters and gets a glimpse into the world of tatooing and piercing.

Themes explored in this episode are the existence of discrimination in the workforce, and the difficulty of trying a one week job in an occupation that demands years of training and creative skill.

Lastly, Sean makes an appearance on the most unique interview to date – Naked News Daily.

Thanks to everyone for all your feedback on the first episode and for sharing it with your friends. Sean and I appreciate all the support! Remember, if you’d like to sponsor an upcoming episode, visit our show sponsorship section.

At long last - the pilot episode of the One Week Job Show is here! The episode is the result of many…many…many hours of work shooting Sean on the job, editing the footage, searching for the soundtrack, encoding, transcoding, uploading, you name it. The result is an approx 17 minute film.

In this episode, we’re introduced to Steam Whistle Brewery in downtown Toronto, where Sean tries his hand at pretty much every job in the company. Also, we introduce a number of themes, such as how a great work environment is a valuable asset, and crucial to a successful organization.

Finally, Sean battles with the balance between working a one week job and handling the media interviews (radio, tv) that draw some criticism from others.

So watch the show, share it far and wide, and most of all – let us know what you think! All feedback is appreciated.

Sean and I have a new favourite beer. It’s true. We’ve converted. And it’s not just because our first few days at Steam Whistle Brewery, located in downtown Toronto, have been surreal.

Elizabeth, our Steam Whistle rep and big CN Tower fan, picked us up at the airport and drove us to our accommodation for the night: a condo on the pristine downtown waterfront, mere steps from the Tower itself. It was a quiet evening, spent unpacking our gear and getting Sean pumped for his big introduction at the brewery.

Sean spent his first day meeting the staff, all the way from the brewery floor to the office. The most surprisingly thing for me was the fact that everyone in the office sits together in a big, hardwood space – including the brewery founders Greg and Cam. No corner offices here. In such an environment, the creative vibe is easy to feel, and it comes across in the interactions between all the employees. They really seem to enjoy their work.

A brief interview with Toronto personality Jojo Chintoh from CityTV livened up the afternoon. Since we’re from Vancouver, we’d never actually heard of him, but the Steam Whistle staff were buzzing during his visit.

That night Sean’s bartending skills were put to the test at a silent auction fundraiser for cancer, held in the adjacent event space in the brewery roundhouse. It’s a beautiful room with high ceilings, massive windows, and plenty of Steam Whistle on tap.

Early this morning we were driven out to Hamilton, ON for a radio interview at Y108 Rock FM, where Sean got to talk about his intimate dealings with cows during his stint as a Dairy Farmer. After returning to the brewery, Sean spent most of the day out on the line, packing fresh bottles of beer for delivery.

City TV reporter (and CommandN) Amber Mac dropped by for a quick interview.

Everyone here has been so incredible, it’s actually difficult to convey the experience accurately through writing, (which is mostly why we’re doing the TV Show). Steam Whistle’s business mentality, fusing your passion with your work, is exactly what the One Week Job project is all about.

Greg and Cam, the Steam Whistle founders have a wealth of knowledge about what it takes to envision and find your passion – after all, they did it. They built their brewery from the ruins of their previous workplace, combined the best of the old and the new, and now find themselves living their dream, everyday.

Anyway, it’s only Day 2 here, so Sean has plenty more lined up for the week, including an appearance on Breakfast TV tomorrow morning, a sampling at a yacht club, and a few client visits out on the road with the Steam Whistle sales team.

Until next time!

– Ian

Mark Anderson recently wrote a provocative column for the Ottawa Sun, examining Sean and the One Week Job project from a new angle.

He writes:

“To a greater or lesser extent, we’re all defined by what we do. Worse yet if we’re not doing what we think we should be doing, if we’re not “living up to our potential” (an angst-ridden phrase if ever there was one). Young people in particular struggle with issues of identity and career, of who they are and what they should be doing with their lives.”

I believe this partly explains Sean’s own decision to strike on the road, searching for that “perfect job” that could define who he is in life, and what he has accomplished.

But is Sean the guy to do it? As Mark continues:

“You can argue that Aiken is not an ideal role model for today’s youngsters, that by age 25 he’s no longer a child, but a man, and men work at careers, and careers, by definition, involved a degree of stick-to-it-ness and stamina, and sometimes even clenched jaws and indigestion.”

That’s not to say you should mistake arbitrary hard work for an inability to explore your options. Says Mark,

“If you graduate high school and know in your heart of hearts what it is you want to do with the rest of your life, by all means get on with it. Few, however, are in this rarefied position.”

In the end, does anyone really find their purpose in life? And can it be combined with their passion? One reader defined the idea of purpose in a unique way, that certainly fits the idea for One Week Job:

“Like so many of us who believe we don’t know our “Purpose” and need to find it – our purpose truly is more of a guide or compass than an actual destination. “

What do you think about purpose and passion? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Greetings everyone! This is Ian here, excited to add my first post to the blog. I thought I’d kick things off with a brief reminder and description of the One Week Job RSS feed.

Basically, an RSS feed (which stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’) is an easy for you to stay updated on all the One Week Job blog posts. You can subscribe to the feed, and your feed reader automatically grabs the latest.

Here’s a short video “RSS In Plain English” (thanks to Common Craft) that will help demystify the process:

Make sense? If you have any questions, let us know! Otherwise, if you scroll down you’ll see an icon and a link to our RSS feed on the right hand side. Or just right-click this link and copy the feed into your reader.

Voila! Until next time…

– Ian