I have a bachelor degree (2003-2006) as well as a Master’s degree in history from the Université Laval. My thesis supervisor was Alain Laberge.
Since 2008, I am a research and statistical advisor in the research, evaluation and statistics department at the Quebec Ministry of Family. My job is to produce and analyze data in order to document phenomena and write opinions and fact sheets in response to various information requests from departments, partners, researchers, journalists, etc. I also coordinate the production of a statistical bulletin, Quelle famille?, which publishes information on various aspects of families and its members (children, parents, elders, etc.).
My studies in history have allowed me to develop writing skills that I employ on a daily basis, mainly the capacity for synthesis, the organization of thought and structured writing, all of which are emphasized in history courses. My studies have also enabled me to acquire the fundamental principles of any scientific approach, where methodological rigour occupies a central place. My duties lead me to acquaint myself with multiple sources of information (administrative database, survey data, scientific literature, etc.), and my training in history has also allowed me not only to read information critically, but to also recognize the information potential of a text and to extract its essence.
Likewise, during my training, I learned how to process and assimilate important quantities of information, which prepared me to produce, often in very short order, concise and intelligible resumes of a situation in a language accessible to different types of readership. My studies, both during my baccalaureate and my master’s degrees, have also put me in contact with research documents in the social sciences and history-related disciplines – sociology, demography, law, anthropology, and to recognize the undeniable contribution of interdisciplinarity to elucidate a phenomenon. Finally, if specialists are highly valued in the public sphere, employees with general education such as history graduates can easily justify their contribution in the workplace because the skills developed during their education, particularly in terms of methodology, transcend roles and are highly appreciated by employers.