George Stroumboulopoulos, ex-MuchMusic VJ and present host of CBC Newsworld’s The Hour, addressed a packed student audience at the career centre last Tuesday. Stroumboulopoulos talked about his career so far, from his childhood dreams of being an architect or graphic designer, his teenage dream of being a funeral director, and his current job as a CBC personality.

“My life and career are accidental,” Stroumboulopoulos said. “I don’t plan any of this shit.”

After holding a variety of jobs-including dressing up as a seven-foot-tall lizard and scaring drunk friends at night, joining the army reserve on a dare, and driving a forklift-he studied at Humber college, pursuing his life-long love of radio production.

His goal of working in radio neccesitated a variety of sacrifices: Working as a switchboard operator to pay for school, he would work from 8 PM until 3 PM the next day, go home, and get only four hours of sleep. In order to practice, he said, “I would go to the studio every day I wasn’t working and I faked a radio show.” Stroumboulopoulos messed up during his first big break and said he thought to himself: “I’m going to kill myself tonight. I had my shot and I blew it.”

But he chose to live, stuck with radio, and learned how to deal with pranks that his co-workers played on him, such as when they would jokingly change his script without telling him, or send strippers into the studio to distract him while he was on air. He said this trial by fire helped him become better at his job.

“I’m not in this to be average or just get by,” Stroumboulopoulos said. “I want to love my life and love my career. I get to be fulfilled and enriched everyday. I can’t live for the weekend. My life is my work.”

Stroumboulopoulos advised students against rushing into a career on TV, suggesting they should wait until they’re more mature. He says critics can be harsh and a thick skin is a job requirement.

“When people hate you,” he said, “sometimes they’re right. That’s hard. It’s better to be an adult when you deal with all that. I feel really bad when they throw kids who are 19 [on TV], because TV fucks you up. There’s nothing wrong with getting your shit together before [starting that career].”

Stroumboulopoulos stressed determination. He said that it took him about ten years to reach his current level of success and that students should stick to doing something if they believe in it.

“This is your life,” he said. “Go make something out of it. Don’t do things you don’t love.”