Shane Carry

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I work for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. I've been working here since 2001.

It's kind of difficult to describe an average day because there really isn't an average day. It depends what file you're working on, and every day is different.

And people ask me all the time what my job is, and I have to think about it for a minute—what is my job, because it's kind of different every day, which is why I like it so much.

I think CFIA is an organization that you can plan on staying with long-term. I've gotten to move around and experience working in different programs and that sort of thing, so while I'm working still with the CFIA, I'm not working in the same job, which makes for really interesting work.

From a personal perspective, being a good public servant is something that's really important to me and making sure that—it's something that I, that you do actually think about—is making sure that you're representing the interests of Canadians.

Work/life balance definitely, if that's what you're looking for. Not just the CFIA but the public service in general, it's easy to have a work/life balance. If you want to be someone who works long hours and puts in overtime and that sort of thing, there's the opportunity for that. If you want to make sure that you get your time off and you do that kind of stuff, there's time for that too.

If we have an emergency, everybody pulls together and makes sure that the job gets done, that we deal with the crisis in short order and move on. It doesn't seem like work because you're working with your friends.