October Week 2 Reflection – Tina Wei

Tina'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 of working for a company as daunting and that I wasn’t prepared but after meeting the staff and my co-workers and supervisors they made it a much more welcoming community than I had imagined. I was imagining the worst, that I would do poorly or fail to complete tasks or ask too many questions but my supervisors never made it feel that way. Answering all my questions and providing support whenever I needed it. All of this helped me adjust to the work environment and schedule easily and I am super thankful to everyone that has helped me. 


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 way I manage my time to complete both co-op work and school work is to use schedules and make a checklist for each day, either mentally or in my notes app. This really helps me in remembering what I need to finish and makes it more enjoyable for me since whenever I finish a task or assignment I can check it off. U+’s daily check-in and check-out help me greatly in creating these checklists since at the end of each day I need to record the tasks I’ve done and need to do for the next shift anyway making it much easier for me to create a list rather than trying to remember it from the top of my head. 


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+?

In my time at U+ a broad goal I hope to accomplish would be to gain more experience and through my short time here I can already see progress being made through the different tasks i’ve accomplished and people I’ve met. I’ve gained experience in working with Canva and being able to see how much more Canva offers with its premium as well as learn more about what goes into social media creation and the different rules posts/resources have to follow. I hope that at the end of my time as a Co-op student at U+ Education I can proudly list off projects I’ve worked on and can show physical media I helped to create. Being able to have something to show for the work I’ve done is extremely important to me. 


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?

On Friday I went in person for my shift, met my supervisor Kevin, and helped with the YRES volunteer brochures. Before this shift, I had viewed Kevin as sort of intimidating as his way of typing on Slack was blunt for efficiency but through this interaction, I realized he wasn’t as scary as I thought. Being asked to help with reviewing the brochure gave me more insight and experience in seeing how companies create media and resources, all the small details they need to include like brand logo/mascots, specific fonts or colours, and all the effort put into it made me appreciate it more. It also made me reflect on the Co-op brochure I had seen before and realized how these resources are created to follow a brand’s image.

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