Nicholas – From Business to Film Production

Career Crossroads

#49 – As a child, Nicholas loved to tell stories and would make home movies and short films with his siblings and neighborhood kids. He even took some acting classes and was in a local commercial in London, Ontario. However, when he reached high school, he excelled in business classes and decided to pursue a business degree at Wilfrid Laurier University without really knowing what he wanted his future career to be.

At Laurier, he decided to specialize in marketing but it was his volunteer experiences where he truly thrived. With summer jobs at the campus Student Leadership Centre, Nicholas began to consider a career in Student Affairs and even worked as a Laurier recruiter for a short time after graduating. It was during his time on the road where he reflected on what he should do with his business degree and ultimately decided that he needed to put it to work in the film and television industry. Luckily, Bell Canada, one of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies, has a Graduate Development Program where he could switch jobs every 7 months to get a better sense of the company as a whole before landing a more permanent career. He enthusiastically applied and was accepted with the hope of getting a job in Bell Media, Bell’s television broadcasting and production subsidiary.

Despite the many mentors he had at Bell, and despite him excelling in all of his roles, Nicholas was unable to find a role at Bell Media. He had to get his storytelling fix another way and joined a group that made short films on the weekends. Life went on like this for a while until one day Nicholas found a lump on his testicle that was quickly diagnosed as testicular cancer. The good news is that he caught it early and is now can cancer-free, but this health scare prompted him to really consider if he would be happy doing the same thing day to day in five years. When the answer was no, he knew he needed to make a change.

Three years later, Nicholas is entering his final year of Film School at Columbia University and working on his thesis film, Elegy for a Glacier. Listen to his interview to hear his entire career journey and how many people influenced him along the way.
Support the Elegy for a Glacier Seed and Spark campaign here and find their Instagram account here
Nicholas's Instagram: @nicholas.nyhof
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