Harshminder Sidhu (she/her), a 3B Planning student, shares her co-op experience as a Waterloo Experience (WE) Accelerate student in the D2L stream.
How do you feel WE Accelerate set you up for success in the search for your next job?
The WE Accelerate program helped me gain confidence and learn what employers are looking for. The program began with a career curriculum where I spent time reflecting on my past experiences and the skills I had acquired while working as a Cashier at Walmart and an Urban Researcher for Pivot. While reflecting on these experiences, I was able to tailor my resume as I began understanding what employers were looking for out of their candidates.
As we began writing our resumes, we were provided a list of skills that have been mined from more than 71,000 co-op job postings. These skills were often listed as “required” by employers. We were then asked to complete a competency chart which was part of the Future Ready Talent Framework (FRTF), reflecting on the existing skills and experience we had.
The experience of these workshops helped me identify the skills I had and shape my resume to better fit the description of job postings. Through this reflection process, I was also able to establish some goals that I wanted to reach during my time in WE Accelerate and with my project team, which helped to further expand my skills and qualifications on my resume. This ultimately set me up for success in my next job search, as I was more confident with the resume that I was submitting to employers.
Was there a specific part of the WE Accelerate program you felt really helped you become employed in your current role?
In my final project, we worked to help the team at the Centre of Teaching Excellence (CTE) at Waterloo to update grad courses for professors. Our goals were to create a more interactive course by including visual graphics and reflection workbooks for students to use.
Throughout the project, I was able to gain soft skills, including time management, communication, teamwork and interpersonal skills. I was also able to take more initiative with my work and engage with my managers to implement ideas into our project, schedule and attend meetings, and participate in project discussions.
My experience working on the project really helped me during my second work term job search and provided me the confidence to highlight these skills during my interview and showcase what I had to offer.
Which of the skills you developed during the WE Accelerate program have you found yourself leaning on the most?
One of the most important skills that WE Accelerate helped develop was my interpersonal skills. I was more confident with my team and took on more initiative to move the project along and help reach our goal. As part of the D2L stream, I was introduced to the platform and learned how the backend of D2L worked. I also used other platforms such as PebblePad and Canva to complete our project goals.
My experience at WE Accelerate has continued to help me during my second work term, as I find myself improving my communication, teamwork and interpersonal skills. In my current role, I am able to manage my time to help support my managers and associations that Waterloo partners with. I am also leaning on my interpersonal skills as I work alongside co-op students from different institutions.
My time with the WE Accelerate program helped boost my communication skills, which has really helped me engage with leaders and managers, and complete projects like designing newsletters and creating a campaign.
