Anomaly or trendsetter? How one Torontonian ditched the law for lattes
Henna Choi says the lost income is a fair trade for a more well-rounded life
For Henna Choi, growing up with "very, very, very traditional" Korean parents meant she had three career options: doctor, engineer or lawyer.
She chose law.
Choi started studying at Toronto's Osgoode Hall in 2016. She articled at a personal injury firm where, after passing the bar in 2020, she went on to work for about two more years.
"The plan was always to just be a lawyer, succeed at it, enjoy it," the 29-year-old said, but as early as "the second day of law school, I knew I made a mistake."
From her new part-time job as a barista at the Columbus Cafe on Adelaide Street, Choi speaks about her law career in the past tense:
"Life had other plans."
WATCH | Finding a new career path during the pandemic:
Although it was a hot topic for discussion during the early lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, which gave people time to reflect on their priorities, Canadians still don't often change career paths, according to Noel Baldwin, director of government and public affairs at Toronto Metropolitan University's Future Skills Centre — though that is changing.
"It's not a huge phenomenon," Baldwin said. "Somebody moving from something like being in law to a more retail- or service-oriented occupation, that is even less common."
But, he says the future of work could require more adaptability, as quickening technology and society changes force us to keep up.
From courtroom to cafe
As a child Choi dreamed of being an artist, not a lawyer.
Despite realizing it wasn't the right career for her, she says she felt it was too late to change tracks, so she toughed out law school and began practicing. Still, she says she couldn't shake the realization.
"I was pretending to be someone I wasn't," Choi said. "The deeper I got into it, the harder it became to keep up the façade. I think my mental health just came to a breaking point."
Then, the pandemic lockdowns presented a new opportunity as Choi, like so many others, began posting videos to TikTok. One video — a "get ready with me" video for a "depressed lawyer" — now has over 10 million views.
"That's when I realized there were so many people who felt exactly like me," she said. "I realized I wasn't happy with where I was in my life and it needed to change."
Choi says she took a leave of absence from her law firm in June 2022, and never looked back. Content creation became a source of income, she says, but a new passion was brewing.
"I started trying out different coffee recipes at home, and coffee became something I looked forward to in the morning," she said. " I wanted to learn more about coffee."
In October, Choi was invited as an influencer to check out Columbus Cafe's grand opening. When she started researching the cafe, she learned they were hiring.
She finds the job, and the work environment, "so meditative," Choi said. "I'm so focused on just frothing the milk, you know, pulling the espresso, serving the customers."
She says she also appreciates her new job for what it's given her outside of work hours: more time to unplug and a better relationship with her parents.
"All they wanted was for me to be happy and healthy," she said.
Multiple careers not so rare
At first, Choi says she was nervous to announce her career change on TikTok as she thought people might "think I was pretending to be like a blue collar person."
"But the response was so overwhelmingly positive," she said. "I couldn't even believe so many people who were not only on the same journey, going from like a very professional job to something completely different and expressing how happy they are with it."
The switch comes at a cost. Choi says content creation as a social media influencer is her main source of income — not coffee — and she lives half the year with her family.
"Taking risks in this economy is so scary and I totally get that," she said.
TMU's Future Skills Centre conducted a survey, according to Baldwin, that suggests about 80 per cent of Canadians polled are satisfied with their current job.
While Statistics Canada doesn't specifically track how many people change careers, its Labour Force Survey does show how many people leave their jobs each month because they've become dissatisfied with them.
Just over 12 per cent of people who voluntarily left their jobs between January and November 2023 did so because they were dissatisfied. In total, more than 12,680 Canadians voluntarily left during this time period.
Overall, Baldwin says the numbers gathered so far suggest most Canadians are satisfied with their current careers. However, he says automation and the future of artificial intelligence, among other factors, could force people to change gears mid-career because jobs get phased out or transformed. That means "transferable skills" could become critical to the future of work, he said.
"That idea of going to one job for your lifetime has been in sort of a flux," Baldwin said.
As for Choi, she says she doesn't want to be a barista forever, but she feels happier and more at peace.
"My main goal was just — as uncomfortable as it was — to follow my heart and do the things that actually brought me joy," she said. "Just do the things that bring you joy and eventually ... your path will open up to you."