October Week 2 Reflection – Elina Zhang

Elina's October Week 2 Reflection

What were your initial expectations coming to work at U+/YRES, and how have they evolved after your first couple weeks on the job?

At first, I thought that I was going to have a lot of “real work” right away. I thought that the work was going to be heavy even though I’m working from a virtual perspective. But then when I start, it turns out I had to do a lot of onboarding work until I started actual projects. The company wants to make sure we know about the company’s background and goals before we start. So now, I have realized that U+ has a more lighter work-style than I expected. 


What is one strategy that you use to manage co-op and academic work? What’s something that U+ does well in helping you in maintaining that balance?

One strategy that I use to manage co-op and academic work is to only do co-op work during co-op and only school work during my other times. During my shift, I focus on finishing the tasks that I have for that day which allows me to work and focus on only school work for the rest of the day. Vice versa, when I do school-work, I don’t think or work on the co-op assignments I have. U+ helps with maintaining the balance by assigning a fair amount of projects/work. I don’t get overwhelmed by the amount assigned and can often finish them before the deadline.


One of the key parts of success in a workplace is setting goals. No matter the magnitude or length, goal-setting helps you recognize what you want to accomplish in any professional work setting. What are some things you want to achieve during your co-op at U+?

During my co-op journey at U+, I currently have a few goals. The first one is to be proficient at Google Ads. I want the Ads that I make to be useful and make sure it gets seen by a lot of people. Another goal of mine is to maintain a good work-school balance. I want to make sure I do well in my projects at co-op but also make sure my grades are good. This is easier to maintain in the start but I think it might get harder later on.


What interactions or collaborations with colleagues or supervisors stood out to you this week? How did these interactions enhance your understanding of the workplace and the industry?

During my in-person shift, me and my colleagues had to go through a brochure and give some suggestions. The three of us all found some unique issue and also a common issue. We all thought that some of the volunteer’s profile pictures weren’t appropriate. This lead us to making a profile picture requirement list for the future volunteers/co-op students. This demonstrated how working with other people can be more efficient and fun than just working by yourself online and made me glad I chose to go in-person on some days.

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