PD19: Tactics for Workplace Success

PD19: Tactics for Workplace Success will provide students with an opportunity to kick-start their professional development. The course will help students understand that in order to succeed in the workplace, developing professional skills is just as important as developing technical skills. PD19 students will also learn strategies to make the most of workplace opportunities and challenges. 

By the end of the course, students will be well on their way to developing their critical self-reflection skills and planning for their own professional growth.

What do PD19 students do?

  • Apply workplace success strategies
  • Compare and contrast the roles and importance of technical and professional skills
  • Understand strategies for addressing technical and professional challenges
  • Reflect on their work term experience with the goal of improving future workplace success

Student Testimonials

  • "It taught me a lot about how the employers and companies think and function, and how to be successful at work."
  • "I really liked that the course covered so many topics that were actually relevant to working at a real job such as, describing mistakes, understanding a company's structure, communicating professionally, networking, learning transferable skills and much more. It was useful because we were required to intentionally and critically think about our past behaviours and actions, and hence the term "reflection", which was not something I did prior to taking this course. It helped me improve my overall performance as I learned where I was lagging."
  • "Having videos and anecdotes from UW Eng Graduates helped me put my own experiances into perspective and made me feel better about my mistakes and accomplishments."
  • "I believe the course had a definite practical angle to it; I was able to apply theoretical knowledge learned in the course to my co-op term e.g. how to deal with mistakes made in the workplace, and how to conduct interviews effectively."

Course instructors

Jason Grove

jason grove

Jason is the Graduate Attributes Lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He's responsible for leading the continuous program assessment and improvement process for the Chemical and Nanotechnology Engineering programs. Jason is also heavily involved in the development of the Faculty's IDEAs Clinic initiative. 

Jason is also a Senior Associate with Delphi Group and has expertise in strategic sustainability consulting, in particular related to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. He obtained his PhD from the University of Waterloo investigating the microbial community ecology in biofilters used for air pollution control. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford.

Derek Wright

derek wright

Derek is the Graduate Attributes Lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He teaches courses on circuits and design and conducts research in neuromorphic computing hardware in addition to his administrative duties.

Derek studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Waterloo and completed his masters within the same part. He then completed a PhD in biomedical engineering at the University of Toronto, working in medical imaging physics. After working in sales, product management, and business development, he rejoined Electrical and Computer Engineering in his role as a Graduate Attributes Lecturer. Derek's broad experience has helped him make connections between the training students receive as engineers and what counts as success and happiness in their careers.

Contact information

You can reach the PD19 course team at pd19@uwaterloo.ca.