Starting My Co-op From Home

Two weeks in and I’ve already learned a lot!

My name is Nathaniel and I just completed my third year as an Economics and Political Science double major here at UAlberta. On May 4, 2020, I began my Arts Work Experience placement (AWE) as the Student Recruitment, Engagement & Communications Intern for the Faculty of Arts for the next 12 months. Essentially, my role is to support getting prospective students to enroll at the university and engage the current ones. The way the role is going to be executed is going to be vastly different than for my predecessor because of where COVID-19 has left us.

Why AWE?

In my first two years of university, I was not an engaged student. I was literally going to class, maybe hanging out with some friends on campus for a bit, then going home to study. I was an active community member but I was not an active student. I had not taken advantage of any supports or resources before starting my third year. That changed in my third year. I decided to join the Arts Work Experience Program so I would be able to:

1. Add to my resume. As students, we are currently competing only with each other, but,once we are out of school, we are not only competing with fellow graduates, we are competing with individuals with more experience and more years out of school. I asked myself how can I stand out? Building an impressive resume will help me be differentiated from the rest.
2. Contextualize my career paths. The beauty in getting an arts degree is that there are no career limitations. With that being said, getting a placement that did not directly apply to my majors was in a way my goal, so it could help me identify my passions and preferences.
3. Add context to the rest of my degree. The reason I choose to do my AWE placement at the end of my third year is that going back to school for one year, finishing off remaining classes, and taking advanced 400-level courses would add context to the remaining portion of my degree. Understanding what I do and don’t like at work will allow me to better choose my courses when returning. Also, if there any additional skills that would be a valuable asset to me post-graduation, I’ll have the time to develop those said skills.

My Expectations

I had high expectations of the role before starting. Actually, I had high expectations for the role before even applying. After reading the job description, I immediately knew that this was the placement for me. After having a fantastic interview, I did get an offer for the role which I couldn’t be more excited to start. I was smiling ear to ear. The reason I was so excited is that I get by giving. The prospect of reaching out to high school students and debunking misconceptions about an Arts degree had me ecstatic. Also, I looked forward to bringing my student perspective to how to engage current students.

Coming from a community with a large number of newcomers, I have always found myself trying to be resourceful and insightful in any way possible to support my community. After reading the job posting, I was able to draw parallels between the work I had been doing to serve my community and the work I would be doing in this role. I knew that I would be able to take the skills that I have learned from my community and apply them to the job. Likewise, I would take what I would learn from the role back to my community. It was a clear win-win.

How COVID-19 Changed my Expectations

I received the offer for the role on March 13, 2020, which just so happened to be the date that the U of A first canceled classes. I was enthused to receive an offer but the weeks to follow made me anxious about how the role would play out. I asked myself questions like: Will this role still happen or will it be canceled? If it does happen, what will the role look like? Will I be working from home or will I have to leave my house to work during a pandemic? I wouldn’t say I was in a panic to get these questions answered but the thoughts lingered up until the role started. I slowly began to relax my expectations because of how frequently things were changing at the time.

Not the Usual First Day

My first day finally arrived and instead of walking into the USS Office in Humanities, I started my position from my desk at home (and I’ve been working remotely ever since). One might ask how did that go and how it was done? I had Zoom meetings or used Google Meet to get in touch with my supervisors and go over all of my first-day information. They explained how to reach them if I had any questions and based on first impressions, I found them to be very nice and resourceful. For the rest of my first day, I got acquainted with policies and programs offered by the Faculty of Arts, the University’s social media platforms, resources for my role and overall getting a better understanding of the role.

My First Week

For those first five days I did my best to be a sponge and absorb as much information as I possibly could. It seemed to be a bit of information overload (like most first weeks), and I did my best to keep up. In my first week I did information interviews with a variety of staff, read up on company policies, started to understand the dynamic between different positions, and attended a wide range of different meetings. It was a great first week as I felt immensely more prepared for the role after spending a few days in it.

Fortunately I am starting my position at the same time as two other interns within the Faculty. This has been great because starting a position remotely was slightly difficult but with the three of us starting at the same time, we were able to be in touch, constantly communicate, and create a support system for each other. Knowing that I am not going through this alone and that other student interns are in similar circumstances as me has been helpful and has made starting a new job from home easier.

Week Two

In my second week I found myself spending less time on training and more time working. I had gained a better understanding of the University’s policies and was still learning a lot. As I continued information interviews with different Arts and U of A members and I found myself being more confident in asking questions, asking better questions, and also making the interviews a bit more personal to leave impressions on the individuals being interviewed. The interviews have been very informative from a work perspective but they also provided me with some great professional and personal advice. Also in my second week, I found myself being able to ask better questions to my supervisors because I had gained more context of what my role was and I began brainstorming projects to contribute to the team. With every day that passed by, I was getting substantially more confident.

Things I have Learned So Far

Having been in the role for less than a month, I have learned plenty but here are some specifics that I was shocked to learn up to this point:

1. How much goes on behind the scenes. Being a student prior to starting my role, I was only used to seeing the final product. Now that I am behind the curtain, I am shocked to see the amount of work and effort that goes into decision making that will impact students.
2. Everyone is devoted to student service. Again, being a student, it is easy to feel like the university is “screwing me over”. Now that I work for the University, I can personally say that every single person that I have met up to this point, is working very hard for all students. They genuinely want to see you succeed and they do their best to put out the best product for students. The reason why you may feel this way sometimes is because of the restrictions put on the employees like budget constraints for example.
3. There are staff that can support you not just academically but personally as well. Lots of academic issues come from personal issues. Whether it is financial issues, domestic abuse, child care, mental health issues, physical or emotional health issues, and any kind of issues you may have, people want to help. It is easy to feel alone in the struggle but the staff are here to help and if they can’t help you directly, they will send you to the right place to get the right help.

Some Barriers I Encountered

I had encountered 3 different challenges starting my role remotely:

1. Not being able to access my supervisor right away. I found myself writing all my questions down and waiting for our meetings to vent them all out. If I had been in the office, I could pop my head in their offices and ask right away.
2. Not being able to pick up on body language and other idiosyncrasies or mannerisms that my supervisors demonstrated. I am usually good at picking up social cues or vibes from people but seeing them from only a webcam made it a bit more difficult to understand their preferences.
3. The temptation of distraction. Up to this point, I have been successful by keeping busy, staying focused and making good impressions. Down the road, I just have to ensure that I keep a healthy relationship with my distractions during work hours.

Have my Expectations Changed?

My Work-From-Home Set-up

At its core, my expectations have not changed. I am still devoted to student service and want to do great work. Some of the realizations that I have made in the role is how complex the University is behind the scenes. Being a student, I have only seen the final product of what we do. Now being behind the curtain, the University is a large complex organization with plenty of moving parts. Another realization that I have made is how different I am from my predecessor. The previous intern seemed great in her role and did a lot graphic design for Arts. Going into the role, I was worried that I would not be able to fill those shoes. I felt imposter syndrome for the first little while but as I progress in the role, I am beginning to realize how independent I will have to be and that it is okay to be different. I understand that my skills are different and will provide different value to the Faculty.

My Expectations Moving Forward

My expectation moving forward is to continue to work very independently. Especially because I expect to be working remotely for the foreseeable future. I am confident in my ability to work alone but sometimes it can be slightly overwhelming. Creating an open dialogue of communication with my supervisors and myself will ease any kind of worries that I have about independent work. Another expectation that I have is to continue to provide a different perspective. Being a both a student and now a staff member of the Faculty, I have come to appreciate both sides. With that being said, I plan to share my perspective whenever possible. I know that the student perspective is valued, especially because all the work done in the office is for students. Now knowing this, I will do my best to provide an inclusive student perspective. Lastly, I expect to embrace the projects that I take on. Working independently and having perspective will allow me to come to projects from different angles and I strive to put out good work for both students and staff.

My expectations outside of the role have now been contextualized. To elaborate, after starting the role, I am finding out what a professional work setting looks like and how to navigate it. Earlier, I had stated 3 reasons why I joined AWE. I am building a stronger resume, correlating my education to my career paths, and gaining a better understanding of what my education will look like after returning to school. Up to this point, my placement has been a fantastic decision for me in my life. I am developing employable skills, I am gauging how to more effectively communicate, and I am a contributing member to a team. My placement is helping me shape a plan for my long term goals by supporting me in starting my career.

For more information about the Arts Work Experience (AWE) program visit the AWE website. Want to start a work term in September? Apply by May 31, 2020!

For more information about the resources available to you as an Arts student, visit the Student Services section of the Arts website, or contact an USS advisor at arts.undergrad@ualberta.ca.

Author bio: Nathaniel Haile is BA student pursuing a double major in Political Science and Economics and is currently on an AWE placement working for the Faculty of Arts as the Student Recruitment, Engagement & Communications Intern.