Transforming a career at Hamilton Health Sciences

Transforming a career at Hamilton Health Sciences

When Heston Tobias ’18 was introduced to the field of business analysis, he found his passion. When he started working at Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS), he found his fit.

By Meaghan Drury ‘12

In 2016, while Heston Tobias ’18 was taking a much needed “break from the books”, he discovered his passion. He had just finished more than five years of postsecondary education, obtaining an undergraduate and master’s degree. He was travelling and exploring the world, taking his time to consider his career options.

It was around this time he had a meeting with one of the leaders of the International Institute of Business Analysis, for a summer research position. When he and the interviewer both realized Heston was not qualified for the opening, they spent time talking about the field instead. “The conversation was very engaging," says Heston. "It was the first time I learned about business analysis and I was sold.” With a new goal for his career path, Mohawk’s Business Analysis graduate certificate program was an ideal fit due to its experiential learning opportunities and proximity to his home. He enrolled that fall.

Throughout the one-year graduate studies program, Heston increasingly felt assured that this was the right career path for him. He always had an interest and fascination with technology but couldn’t picture himself in a field solely focused on it, like computer sciences. Being a people person, he wanted to be in a field where he could spend much of the time discussing problems while also being able to incorporate his interest in technology.

“My supervisors provided feedback when necessary, taught me the professionalism that was critical to succeed in the organization, and gave me the important vote of confidence to trust my decision-making.”

In the classroom, Heston attributes the inthe-field experience shared by all his teachers as so important to him and his classmates. In particular, Chris Spraakman left a memorable mark, sharing his practical work experience and philosophical knowledge about how to approach problem solving in an effective and efficient way.

In his final term, he completed an experiential learning opportunity at Hamilton Health Sciences’ Office of Student Affairs and Academic Relations. The project he was tasked with was to find a solution that would enable HHS employees and Mohawk College students to create value-added experiential learning opportunities and projects that could be beneficial to both parties. He elicited requirements through stakeholder engagement, market analysis and process engineering.

The experience strongly influenced his decision to continue working for Hamilton Health Sciences upon graduation. “My supervisors provided feedback when necessary, taught me the professionalism that was critical to succeed in the organization, and gave me the important vote of confidence to trust my decision-making.”

A week after graduation, Heston was hired by the HHS Health Information Technology Services (HITS) eHealth Team as a transformational analyst. In this role, he’s part of a group that implements e-health solutions across the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN). “My career goals were to work on important technology projects that would have a direct impact on our society,” says Heston. “At first I wasn’t quite sure what sector I wanted to be in. After doing some research, I figured that Hamilton Health Sciences would be a great organization to work for, especially with the expansion of healthcare and IT in the city.”