Flora – January Reflection

My January with U Plus Education

What motivated you to join U+?

When I saw the listing on WaterlooWorks, I was intrigued by the job description and company. I have always wanted to work for a smaller company and am incredibly passionate about education. I’m also interested in web design and development, so I thought that U+ would allow me to practice and improve my skills. Coming in, I thought teaching, and web development roles would be split 50/50, but for January, I definitely did more teaching than expected. This was surprising, but teaching young kids helped me develop patience and soft skills. Overall, I joined U+ to experience working in a professional environment, working with others, improving my soft skills and finally, practicing some of my technical skills as well.

What was your impression of first interactions with the team and the organization’s culture?

When coming in, I was expecting a strict and extremely professional environment. However, I was pleasantly surprised that that was not the case! I met many of the full-time employees on my first day of work, and I was really happy to find out that they were all incredibly nice people to be around. Everyone was really friendly, and the icebreaker activities helped us warm up to each other. After the first month, the Waterloo co-ops grew close by frequently working together. This makes working feel quite comfortable and fun! I’m excited about working with this team for the rest of my co-op term!

How do you envision U+ contributing to your academic and professional growth?
There are many ways I see U+ contributing to my academic and professional growth. Since coming here, I’ve developed soft skills such as communication and listening skills, which are incredibly important for future opportunities. As a result of working with kids, I’ve also developed a stronger sense of patience and learned to communicate well with all kinds of people. Teaching has also vastly improved my public speaking skills, where a loud and clear voice is needed to teach properly. I used to be quite nervous before presenting, but I’m not as anxious. Finally, I can see U+ contributing to my web design skills. With the website changing every day, I can see myself improving my UI/UX design skills by helping with the website’s design

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