Brad Bujaki

• Atlanta School of Sleep Medicine and Technology (Certificate)

• Connect on LinkedIn

Biography

After completing my B.A. Honours in Psychology with a minor in Neuroscience and Mental Health in June 2015, I completed a certificate program which led to working as a Neurophysiology Technologist. This role includes hooking up patients with electrodes to collect their EEG and ECG recordings while they sleep and to flag any anomalies in the collected polysomnogram that may indicate a possible sleep disorder.

The NMH minor helped by fostering my initial interest in the field of mental health and also by providing me the tools I would need to be able to jump into a position like this. For instance, providing basic knowledge that I am now able to build on in more depth, such as recognizing a polysomnographic recording and knowing generally what brainwaves look like in various stages of sleep. This allowed me to quickly gain more in depth knowledge about how the recordings appear in the case of someone with a sleep disorder.

Advice for Current Students

My advice for students entering the job market is, don’t be afraid of volunteering. Volunteering to many is a scary idea because it means that you’re spending time away from a job that could be earning you money. What you get out of volunteering, however, are the connections in your field and the recognition that you are a hard worker, and that’s what gets you where you want to be. I wouldn’t have been offered my current job if I hadn’t started volunteering at the Royal Ottawa Sleep Lab and showing that I was serious about my passion for the job.