4th Co-op Term

Hello world!

I have not blogged or written a journal in a very long time, and I had forgotten just how liberating it felt - I'm feeling really 21st century right now!

My co-op term at Canso/Toogood is just about wrapping up. Although I did feel some trepidation when I initially accepted the job, I can say for certain now that I have no regrets. My initial qualms and reservations stemmed from several things. First, this was completely unrelated to chemical engineering. Co-op is supposed to be about applying what was learned in the classroom at the workplace - the intersection of theory and practice. The job description that Canso had provided me in April had no semblance to anything that I was taught - even the finance course that all engineers are required to take was Tarzan-like in its simplicity compared to the knowledge that would be needed for this job. It was likely some combination of my presumed incompetence and the nature of the work that made me accept this job with some uneasy feelings.

But I have to say that my opinions have changed. This co-op term has been good for me in very many ways. In the beginning of May, when I started the job, I am a bit embarassed to admit that the finance jargon was completely over my head. Security? Equity? Were they speaking English? But with persistence as well as a lot of help from Investopedia, I began to speak the language of investments/finance with facility. It also helped knowing that many of the Toogood employees also came from technical backgrounds like myself, and could very well have been as clueless as me when they first started their employment here.

I came to Toogood with the expectation that I would be the systems analyst for the Trade Allocation module that is being developed for Canso. For whatever reason, the development of the module suffered from severe delays, which made me feel that my being at Toogood was for naught. However, Jim, who served as my supervisor at Toogood, came up with the brilliant idea of integrating me into the Software Quality Assurance Team of the company (although that might be a bit ostentatious of me to qualify it in such grandiose terms ... the team is comprised of one individual). By being integrated into QA, I quickly learned how to write scripts to perform automated regression testing. I also benefited from the fact that this individual that was responsible for QA went on vacation for a good week. This left me an opportunity to enjoy first-hand experience in maintaining the library of scripts. While it is nowhere near as complex as "real programming", perhaps it will give me a greater handle on MATLAB when I return to school!

I can definitely see this experience benefiting me, even with finding chemical jobs. I remember when job searching during Winter 2009, several chemical job descriptions had listed as requirements, "knowledge of the software development process", and "the creation of test cases", both of which I now have experience with. It was shortsighted of me to have had the pessimistic mindset that I had in the beginning of May, because the experiences that I now have are very marketable. And since I am enrolled in the Management Science option, how could I not have realized that this is exactly the type of job that I should have been seeking? It has since dawned on me that software is needed in every industry, and I think I am now capable of being integrated into a team that develops software more pertinent to chemical engineers.

I am blessed. Toogood has been too good to me.

Now I just need a hardcore chemical engineering job, and if all goes to plan, I will be able to secure a paid research and development position at the university, researching the exciting field of clean energy technology.