From Co-op Student to Employee: What Drew Me Back to the CBC
The Digital Strategy & Products department of CBC is committed to providing their people with the support they need to build their development plans to foster career growth and progression. By taking on exciting new roles, individuals are able to experience and learn other aspects of the business, broaden their perspectives, acquire new skills and competencies, while increasing breadth and depth in their areas of specialty. The series Interns and Co-ops Joining CBC as FTEs invites people to take a courageous step and tell the story of their journey, highlighting the support they received as interns and co-op students and opportunities discovered along the way that resulted in a full time position with the CBC.
By Dean Jiao, Senior Developer
When contemplating which university program to attend, the choice was either Life Sciences at UofT or Computer Science at Waterloo. At Waterloo, the co-op options were abundant and although my graduation date would be extended by a year, the benefits of a co-op program amounted to two years of relevant work experience and a foot in the door to promising jobs with a great future. The choice was simple: Computer Science at Waterloo!
I gained workplace experience in six co-op terms, each one four months long and with a different company. The CBC was my fifth co-op term which started in the spring of 2020 during the first few months of the pandemic lockdown. I worked remotely as a member of the AV Platform team in the Digital Strategy & Products department.
I have observed different approaches to onboarding that influences the co-op experience across organizations. Some organizations onboard a large number of co-ops and scale their orientation events to accommodate. But my CBC onboarding experience was more at a team level, more personal, where people were very friendly and supportive.
My manager was very proactive in getting me involved and encouraged collaboration across teams and making connections. We were working virtually, and I wished more could have been done to introduce co-op students at a departmental level. However, given the pandemic, the department was working through the process to discover our new way of working.
There was an onboarding Trello board that helped me track my progress. This set the stage to have the rubber hit the road and allowed me to start completing small tickets, primarily on a product called LiveBoss that manages the delivery of live streams. There was a fast progression into taking on more complex work thanks to the support of the team.
The 20% time policy was also a nice surprise. The policy allows for employees to use 20% of their time on innovative work that benefits the organization, but does not directly relate to day-to-day work. (One example: I had the chance to sing and play ukulele for the ending segment of a CBC podcast!) When I was in high school, I wanted to be a voice actor or a news anchor. Perhaps there will be more opportunities to explore this as part of my 20% work in the future — watch for me on CBC Listen one day!
Like all learning experiences, I enjoyed the challenge of working with unfamiliar technologies. It took some time to get comfortable with the team’s tech stack, but once I found my rhythm, I was proud of what I was able to achieve in just 4 months.
For ongoing support, I had regular meetings with my manager and the technical architect who supervised and reviewed my work. Both were very helpful to give me the needed context. They guided me when I got stuck, and provided general career advice. They were both great mentors.
After my CBC co-op experience, I completed my 6th term with another company, and graduation soon followed. It wasn’t too long after that my CBC manager contacted me to ask if I would be interested in applying for a full time position with the AV Platform team. Given how positive the co-op experience was, I immediately said yes to the opportunity to interview.
There was still a recruitment process to follow and a foot in the door from my work experience certainly helped. Now I am a full-time employee and have been a member of the AV Platform team since May 2021.
There was little to no onboarding required and I was able to deep dive into the team’s backlog on day one as a full-time employee. A few things had changed since my co-op term. For example, we are replacing a legacy vendor CMS system with in-house built technology which has presented an enriching innovation experience. The timing was right!
My advice to co-op students is that, in a short four-month term, learn and do as much as you can. Don’t be afraid to explore beyond the team and department and look for opportunities to build a support network to guide and support you. You are there to learn and contribute, and your colleagues are here to help you. I certainly experienced that from my co-op term with the CBC.
To join our teams at CBC, check out our current openings here.
