Great careers aren’t reserved for extraordinary people. They’re built by ordinary people with a solid plan, the right support, and a little courage.

About Us

The Career Imagination Lab is an educational platform built by researchers and educators to help mid-career professionals navigate an increasingly unstable 21st-century labor market. It was built by and for people like us. Our goal is simple: to be the leading community for career resilience and growth — giving you the data-driven tools, resources, and support to navigate transitions, upskill effectively, and find work that actually fulfills you.
This project is born out of decades of academic and qualitative research studying the structures of work—specifically how people get work, how they work, and how they build successful, resilient careers. The purpose of the Lab is to share these rigorous research findings and collective insights through books, online materials, and live workshops.
However, the foundation of this work does not come from research alone; it is deeply rooted in lived experience. Elizabeth, the lead researcher, navigated this exact process firsthand, spending years evaluating her own skills, desires, and professional needs to identify a new path forward. That personal journey, combined with our instructors' collective 100+ years of professional and teaching experience, informs every practical guide and framework taught within the Lab today.
The Lab was created because our research and experience consistently revealed talented professionals stuck in careers that no longer fit, facing shifting employment landscapes with no clear framework to move forward.
Our work is designed for individuals with diverse backgrounds who have aspirations for a better job, or perhaps an extraordinary one. It might be with their existing employer, or in a whole new industry. Our objective is to help professionals address the modern challenges of staying employed, staying relevant, avoiding burnout, and finding genuine fulfillment in their work. We encourage participants to exercise their 'Career Imagination' and build a strategic plan to achieve stability and professional growth with confidence.

Meet Elizabeth Bowker

Lead Researcher, Developer & Author

“Imagine the sky at its bluest. We call this process of dreaming ‘Career Imagination’. It starts with believing that your dream can come true, no matter who you are, because wonderful careers are for ordinary people, it’s true every day and it’s been true for us.”

Elizabeth is an author, researcher, educator and business owner. Her research focuses on who we are when we work and how we can be successful in that work. She trained as a researcher at University College London. About the Career Imagination Lab she says, “I’m my first customer. I made this for a version of me.”
She is from Victoria, a small city on the western edge of Canada. She went to the University of British Columbia, where she eventually received two degrees, a BA in History and an MBA. In her work, Elizabeth has done strategic planning, project management, sustainability, partner relations, and communications for a variety of employers, including large public agencies. Eventually, she moved to the private sector as an independent management consultant for small businesses, communities, and social enterprises.
After a career in some ordinary places, and some extraordinary ones, like an inner-city high school and a couple of Olympic Games, she went on to be a full-time Lecturer in Business Communications at the Sauder School of Business, UBC, a Top Forty business school.
Elizabeth raised and supported two sons on her own. She is an ordinary woman from an ordinary place who has had a career that has at times been difficult, even a struggle, and at other times been quite extraordinary.
BA, DipEd, MBA, MRes

Meet Timothy Cuffe

Co-developer & Instructor

“Career change is hard — nobody hands you a roadmap for a career that actually fits who you are. The best career moves I've seen — and made — started with a question, not an answer. We're here to help you find yours.”

Timothy has always been curious about how to build a career that reflects who you are. He’s especially interested in how people navigate change, hold onto purpose, and redefine success on their own terms.
He grew up in Canada at a time when careers were expected to follow a straight line and ambition was measured in titles and timelines. But his own path has been anything but predictable. After studying Political Science and International Relations at Simon Fraser University, he somehow found himself in the world of global finance—an unlikely landing place for a kid from Vancouver with no roadmap.
Timothy has always been drawn to the human side of work. For the past eight years, he’s taught Business Communications at the UBC Sauder School of Business, guiding students to find their voices and define their values.
He believes that careers are rarely linear and never simple—but they can be honest, adaptive, and deeply personal. His work is grounded in the idea that with agency and intention, people can shape lives and careers that reflect who they are and what they stand for.
Like most people, he’s had moments of clarity and moments of chaos. And like many, he’s still figuring it out—with humility, hope, and a sense of humour.

Meet Peg (Petti) Fong

Instructor

“Peg brings a journalist's eye to everything she touches — and it shows in the questions she asks.”

Peg (Petti) Fong is a journalist, educator, and author. She is the Vancouver correspondent for The Economist. She was a staff reporter at the Vancouver Sun, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, and the CBC. She teaches journalism, ethics and business communications at Kwantlen University, Langara College, and the University of British Columbia. She is the author and podcast host of “Alone Together,” a series that explores what loneliness means. Not to solve it, but to add one voice to another so that we are alone together. She earned an MS in Journalism (Columbia).

Have a question for Elizabeth, Timothy, or Peg? Ask us directly.

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Develop a career that feels meaningful, exciting, and truly yours because extraordinary careers are for ordinary people — and this is how you build one.

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