Stories of professionals who changed the course of their careers after meeting their mentors, experiencing hands-on learning, and discovering the welcoming and diverse poultry community.
Victoria Sikur, BSc, MSc, is the Canadian Hatching Egg Producers (CHEP’s) Food Safety Officer, responsible for food safety, including CHEP’s national on-farm food safety program, Canadian Hatching Egg Quality (CHEQTM), and research. Her focus is on broiler hatching egg production, on-farm program management, research, evidence-based risk management and policy development and analysis. Viki graduated from the U of A with a BSc in Agriculture and a MSc in Animal Science. She joined CHEP in 2003.
When Viki Sikur entered university, she excelled at science and loved animals. When a student has those qualifications, they are almost always advised to become a veterinarian or a veterinary technician. Viki grew up on a farm near Warburg, AB, and, after receiving the traditional career advice, planned to become a large animal veterinarian. However, over time, her plans changed.
Did experiential learning influence your decision to work in poultry? (Example, hands-on work in the poultry unit, or as part of your grad studies, or through an internship?) How?
“Absolutely! I worked at the poultry unit in 1995 as a participant in the WISEST (Women in Scholarship, Engineering, Science, & Technology) summer program. There I met the fantastic poultry unit staff and learned more about birds and research. It was also a great fit as I was coming from a farm and used to working with animals and equipment. Coming from rural, I was able to stay in my comfort zone while expanding my horizons.
Experiential learning was also a big part of my grad studies from 2000-2003, which involved raising over 800 fast- and slow-feathering turkey breeder hens. With the research team and poultry unit staff, in addition to monitoring hen growth and feather cover, I also kept track of eggs from individual hens. This was a monumental task that required us to check up to 450 birds individually every 30 minutes at peak frequency. Everything I learned-by-doing in my master’s project, again with the expert guidance of the same poultry unit staff – caring for birds while collecting data and managing the overall project– made me more confident and knowledgeable. I was also fortunate to be able to help other people with their projects, and to feel part of a team. I also got to learn from giants of poultry research and be part of a supportive poultry network, which were key factors in my decision to work in poultry.
While I still had a lot to learn, with the experience and knowledge I gained from experiential learning, I knew I could contribute meaningfully to the poultry industry. If it wasn’t for the close-knit poultry research community in Alberta, I might have ended up doing something quite different.”
Please describe the moment when you realized that working in the poultry industry could be a very real career choice for you.
“It was pretty much right before I was offered a job in the industry! It had been a long haul since my first job hunting attempt and my second time finishing school, so while I hoped a job in the poultry industry would work out eventually, I was looking for anything even remotely related to my experience.
Thanks to my master’s supervisor, Dr. Frank Robinson, I got an interview with the national broiler hatching egg agency in Ottawa. We did the interview over the phone due to distance. Soon after, the person who interviewed me came to town for meetings, and I was going to meet him in person. Before meeting him, I took one last look in the mirror, took a deep breath, and thought, “This could be it.”. That was the moment I knew things were getting real, and that if I went through with it, I was going to have to leave everyone and everything I knew in Edmonton to start fresh in Ottawa. I was nervous, but also excited for the opportunity as I had been prepping for this moment for a while.
I didn’t know exactly how all my time spent doing things like collecting eggs and writing papers and weighing birds was going to help me in my new position, but I was willing to try.”
What teachers or poultry community mentors influenced your decision to work in poultry? What advice would you share based on your experience?
“Dr. Frank Robinson was instrumental in influencing my decision to work in poultry. His enthusiasm for poultry is infectious. He showed me that it was cool to be excited about poultry, and he connected me to my future in the poultry industry. Thank you, Frank.
Dr. Doug Korver, Dr. Martin Zuidhof, and Dr. Rob Renema supported me through my undergraduate and graduate studies and completing papers for publication, until I finished school and started my job with CHEP. They continue to be important mentors for me today.
The advice I have is to say yes to opportunities, even if they’re not exactly what you planned. Ask questions, often. It’s ok to not know the answer, and to make mistakes. If you have a bunch of people volunteering to help you on a big team project, make sure to feed and water them well! But seriously, poultry is full of opportunities and people who are enthusiastic about learning, contributing, and having fun. Working in poultry means you get to contribute to things that matter, like food security. Poultry is everywhere, and it is a great way to meet people and see your province, your country, and even the world. It’s about community.”
“I also think we need to keep working at getting to the kids who love animals and are still being told to be veterinarians. One of the strongest messages students hear early on is how hard it is to get into vet school, so one had better focus on grades and the “right” volunteer experience. I know it would have reduced my stress to know that if vet school didn’t work out, there were rewarding careers in poultry where I could make a difference and do something I love! Veterinary medicine is wonderful and needed and yet there are so many more opportunities in animal agriculture.”
