BCom alum trades in a career in marketing to become a firefighter
Lesly Yao (BComβ18) isnβt your stereotypical small-town Quebec firefighter. Born in Tahiti, the Bachelor of Commerce grad was growing disillusioned with her work at a marketing firm when a Canadian Forces recruitment advertisement caught her eyeβand her imagination. But because Yao was not a citizen at the time and a job with the Forces was not in the cards. βIβd always had it in the back of my mind to become a firefighter,β she says. βI watched shows about firefighting, and it appealed to me, but it also seemed unattainable. In 2021, Yao enrolled in lβInstitut de protection contre les incendies du Quebec (IPIQ), then landed a job in Brownsburg-Chatham, a small town between Ottawa and Montreal. βIt can be tiring sometimes,β says Yao. βBut you can be proud of your work, and in the camaraderie of the firehouse, you forget all about the difficult parts.β
