Ashley Ferreira (she/her), a fourth-year Physics and Astronomy student, discusses her co-op experience at Waterloo that has taken her through natural resources, aerospace and the government. She mentions how venturing out of your ideal industry and trying different roles is beneficial.
Ashley’s co-op journey:
Work term one: For her first co-op term, Ashley worked as a photosensor detector researcher at TRIUMF. Here she worked on a new detector prototype for Hyper-Kamiokande, a next-generation neutrino observatory.
Work term two: Ashley then moved into a role for CanmetEnergy-Ottawa within Natural Resources Canada, working as a renewable energy data research assistant. She worked with a small group that looked into how to transition remote and Arctic communities off of diesel and onto renewable energy.
Work term three: Reaching her third term, Ashley accepted a role at the Centre for Operational Research and Analysis within Defence Research and Development Canada, as a defence data science assistant. Ashley and her supervisor worked on algorithms to process Bitcoin and Twitter data.
Work term four: For term number four, Ashley took on the role of robotics and space operations intern at MDA where she worked on machine learning programs to flag faults for Canadarm 2, in preparation for Canadarm 3.
Work term five: For her fifth term, Ashley moved to Global Affairs Canada. Here she collaborated to support multiple files including a research project for the newly formed Centre for China Policy Research and Coherence.
Q&A with Ashley:
In your first position, was transitioning from physical work to online tasks and discovering the field of data a challenge?
“Absolutely on both counts. Due to COVID-19 I could no longer work in the lab, I was initially disappointed and found it a challenge to adapt to being home at a desk all day.”
“I never would’ve outright tried it in the same way if I was forced to. When you’re not used to working a desk job, it can be hard to be productive within a nine-to-five role when you are used to just staying up late working on your classes. I think that’s something other co-ops can relate to.”
“After a short while, I really began to enjoy it. It was nice even just for me to learn the reason why I like data and science work and I really enjoy the flexibility of remote work, so it was a big mental breakthrough for me.”
Is stepping out of your comfort zone beneficial for students?
“Yes, absolutely. I feel like it's something I had to force myself to do during co-op. It’s very exciting to try new things, but it’s also really hard to do something for four months and move on when you start to get the hang of it. Part of me really wanted to continue going back to the same co-op job for a really long time. However, I have to remind myself that I can do that for the rest of my life.”
“My mom also did the Waterloo co-op program and she would tell me that I’d never have the opportunity to randomly try six different jobs and have it not be an issue that you leave every four months.”
“On a technical level, what was hard is that I would always be using a slightly different set of tools, but that was also a really good thing because even if you need to learn a completely new tool, you can pivot and be more flexible since you are good at picking up new skills.”
Was there a similar amount of tech presence in your government role compared to your other positions?
“There was quite a lot of tech work at the government. I think in a lot of ways it was a good thing and I’d suggest people go to the government if they want to pursue really meaningful tech work and have a lot of autonomy over the work they do. They're very eager to have people with strong tech abilities - there are fewer technical people in government than when I worked at the space company and in physics.”
“My work was quite technical in all of my roles which was beneficial, however, I did lose touch with how important communication skills are, especially within the government where it was very easy to work on my own.”
Did you find having tech skills important in the government and did it give you more confidence in your work term?
“Absolutely. It was very helpful for my learning because I was given these projects that were interesting. By doing them, I learned a little bit more about everything.”
“It gives you a lot of confidence to also develop the skills to help people quickly. When there aren’t as many technical people, you can make quite an impact with the work you do. As a co-op student, I think the government's great in those ways but you don't have the normal tech support system that you would elsewhere.”
“If your code goes wrong, it slows down your process due to there being fewer people to go to if you run into a bug. You have to do a lot of the debugging on your own so you have to be really good at going over things yourself, which is something I'm still learning how to do.”
What's one example of an accomplishment that you've achieved throughout your experience?
“One example was from my second co-op. We produced Canada-wide estimates for how many wind turbines and solar panels would be needed to transition remote and Arctic communities off diesel. I think that’s something really important.”
“Attempting to solve issues with greenhouse gas emissions and how to reduce the transport of diesel to these remote locations are key issues. Working on a tangible problem like that was interesting. I felt so proud of the fact that I was able to get these estimates running and over the past couple of years there’s been more funding from the government towards renewable energy programs for remote communities because of the work my group was doing.”
What is next for you on this journey?
“Within the next few years, I want to go to graduate school for data science.”
“I would love to settle into a data science job at some point. The lovely thing about co-op is I got return offers from all my work term employers.”
“I feel like I have ample good things to choose from, even if I just go back to my co-ops. So now that's what I'm thinking of doing, just going back to one of them.”
“I like the idea of staying put in one spot, not having to sign all sorts of new contracts and go through new training. I do want the chance to work on different projects though.”
“I might even want to start my own data science consulting company, just as a way to continue working on a bunch of different projects while doing something a bit more long-term.”
“Co-op is what I think of when I think of Waterloo. It’s what makes Waterloo the school it is today.”
“Co-op is what I think of when I think of Waterloo. It’s what makes Waterloo the school it is today.”
