How working for the government opened future career options
Daisy Shuyi Xiao (she/her) is a fourth-year Mathematical Economics student. She speaks about her experiences working in various roles for the Government of Canada and the opportunities she was able to explore in those positions.
Daisy's co-op journey
Work term one: For her first work term, Daisy participated in the Waterloo Experience (WE) Accelerate program. She participated in the Microsoft Azure artificial intelligence (AI) stream where she learned about AI applications across industries.
Work term two: In her second work term, Daisy was an information technology (IT) business analyst at Verto Health, where she focused on automating business processes with a Python script. She also enhanced her data visualization skills through the creation of various dashboards.
Work term three: Daisy was a data science and analytics analyst at Health Canada working to research and build on existing projects for her third work term. Daisy utilized her programming skills to bring the department closer to their goal of researching the implementation of new AI tools.
Work term four: For her fourth work term Daisy was a junior policy analyst at Innovation, Science, and Economic Development (ISED) working on the telecommunications and internet policy branch on the industry analysis team. She got the opportunity to explore projects relating to the telecommunications industry and captured data from mobile carriers across the country.
Work term five: As a junior economist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, Daisy is currently a part of the team responsible for reporting on greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions projections. She is excited to learn more about what this role has in store for her throughout the rest of the term.
Q & A with Daisy
What is the culture like within the Government of Canada?
“I found the culture across the government to be welcoming and friendly. Everyone was willing to help, especially in the first few weeks, and I felt comfortable reaching out.”
“There are various initiatives led by students. At my last job with Innovation, Science, and Economic Development there was a junior social every second Friday, which was a great way to bond with people across departments who are also students or employees in the same age group.”
“Throughout my government experiences, I was encouraged to ask questions and contribute to the overall conversation. I felt like my work was purposeful, as the teams made an effort to relate how my work fit into the bigger picture as part of the overall project or initiative.”
What does the training and onboarding process look like? Do you have access to further learning opportunities or professional development through the government?
“There's a clear onboarding process, which I found very helpful and easy to follow.”
“I like that the training and learning opportunities were well defined, and that you knew exactly what you needed to do. I found the Government of Canada’s processes to be well established and streamlined.”
“If you finish your mandatory training and you see a course that looks interesting to you, there are many courses you can enroll in for free through the Canada School of Public Service. I was encouraged to complete courses during my co-op term.”
“People were very encouraging if you wanted to learn something on the side. I specifically remember at Health Canada, I was encouraged to take a course in something I was interested in, which was great.”
How would you say your experience working with the government differs from other co-op terms?
“Working for the Government of Canada has been different from my experience in the private sector, particularly in terms of the organizational goals and pace.”
“In the private sector, I found that the work was driven by business needs, which inherently has a shorter duration and tends to be faster paced. With the government, there is a bigger emphasis on long-term impacts, especially for policy development.”
“I felt a lot more motivated by the work because I knew my work was contributing, not just to a specific company, but to the country and the greater public good.”
What is your proudest achievement from your time working for the government?
“One of my proudest achievements was developing an automated price scraper. Our team had been manually gathering pricing data from various mobile carriers, which was both time-consuming and prone to errors."
"I created a Python program to automate the process - scraping, cleaning and storing mobile carrier data. This reduced the manual effort and minimized errors, ultimately improving team efficiency. I’m proud that I was able to create a tool that will continue to be used on the team after I leave.”
“As a co-op student, it’s nice to contribute something that will be useful during your term and even after. It can sometimes be challenging to make a lasting impact when you join a team for a short period of time, so I’m grateful to have had that opportunity.”
What is a piece of advice that you'd give to a future co-op student?
“One piece of advice I would give is actively seek out feedback. While it can be hard hearing feedback, especially if it's not positive, by actively seeking it out you know what you can work on, and it helps build your skills early on in your career.”
“It's important to see what worked, what didn't work and how you can improve. I personally found feedback to be the most valuable thing, because sometimes it's hard to recognize areas of improvement on your own. It’s valuable to understand both your strengths and weaknesses.”
“Don’t hesitate to ask questions, even if you feel overwhelmed or as though everyone knows more than you do. As a student, this is your chance to learn. No one will judge you for asking questions.”
“The last piece of advice I have is to build connections with your team. People are usually open to building those connections, and having those relationships leads to better collaboration. It also makes it easier to ask for feedback since you’ll feel more comfortable talking with your team.”
What is next for you?
“I'm interested in environmental economics, so I'm planning on pursuing a master’s degree in the field. I'm not sure if I'd want to jump into it right away though, I may take some time to work first to explore different areas and narrow down what I would like to research and what kind of job I enjoy best.”
“Although I've just started my current co-op, it's been amazing so far, and the work my team is doing aligns well with my interests. These are the kind of projects I would like to work on. In the future, I can see myself continuing my work here.”