Prithika Hariharan, a second-year Management Engineering student shares the impact she created during her two co-op terms.
Prithika spent her first co-op term at a start-up called Makeship who produces plush toys. Makeship wanted Prithika to create a dashboard that would allow their company to communicate with clients. How cool, right?
After, Prithika spent her second co-op term with a test engineering team at Ceridian during the winter term of 2021. She helped with automating the process of writing tests and providing support to all the teams across Ceridian.
What skills do you think you have improved on over the course of your work term?
Prithika says, “All the things I wasn't able to do in my first work term such as asking for feedback regularly has really helped me transition into my second co-op role better. Now I ask my manager every couple weeks to give me feedback. I'd love to know what my manager thinks and how I can improve. Other things I've learned include a lot of technical skills. I came into my first work term, knowing close to nothing. I was asked to work with these two technologies that I've never used before. I was learning the skill of teaching myself things and being able to collaborate with people I had never met before."
Another skill Prithika mentioned was, "learning how to ask and not being afraid to ask questions. So in my first work term, I was hesitant because I thought my manager would think I didn't know what I was doing. I realized that if you're asking questions, your manager also gets to know you're having troubles doing it and you're willing to be open about it. I feel a lot more equipped to take on more side projects or apply for other roles because I have created such a strong base for myself now.”
It’s really important to ask for feedback.
How have you maintained your well-being during your work term?
“This term I started off very strong. I remember over the summer of last year I didn't even cook that often. It was just ordering out quite a bit or just eating snacks. I felt like I was putting a lot of effort and time into work when I could have spent it elsewhere. I'm doing more extracurriculars than I did before. I'm involved in school and I'm doing things that I enjoy as opposed to just working all the time. I think it's really important to stay a healthy human being."
"I have a lot more time to talk to my friends, do hackathons together, do like fun stuff, even if it's virtual. I also try to meditate just like 5 minutes every day. Listen to some calming music and just think about my thoughts. I also try to get in a couple minutes of reading.”
