Mitch Clingo:
Welcome everybody. My name is Mitch Clingo. I’m a Career Education Coordinator with the Career and Experiential Learning [CEL] department. This is the first of hopefully many podcasts where we’re going to be chatting with career ambassadors about a bunch of things career-related. So on this very first one that personally I’m super nervous to do, I’ve got Margo Beitel and Aru Serikova. How are you guys feeling about this first one?
Margo Beitel:
I’m a little bit nervous, thank you. But I’m excited to kind of share the experience.
Aru Serikova:
Same here. It’s my first podcast but I’m very excited to just talk and share our experiences.
Mitch Clingo:
Cool. So on this first one we’re going to be talking about co-op experiences. And now both of you have had some pretty cool co-op opportunities. So why don’t we start out with just can you tell me a bit about how you got involved in co-op? Personally, I missed out on co-op. In my undergrad I found out… I found out what co-op was in my fourth year, and by that time it was just—it was too late for me. Which I’m sad about so I love hearing all the cool stories and what is available from that experience. So Margo, how did you first hear about co-op?
Margo Beitel:
I had a friend actually in first year that I was doing co-op. She was in her third year. So I knew about it from day one basically. But I was like, oh, I don’t want to do another class… like I don’t want to do the COOP 1000 class and add that to my plate. So I didn’t actually do it until my third year when I was like, okay, it might be nice to have some experience when I graduate. So that’s why I decided to do COOP 1000 and kind of get my feet wet and jump into co-op a little bit.
Mitch Clingo:
Aru, what about you? When did you find out about co-op?
Aru Serikova:
So I didn’t know about co-op in my first year, but then when I realized that I love accounting, like to study accounting, I decided to research more about the career of an accountant. And then I start participating in like professional events that the CEL department organized like job fairs and other networking events and where I met so many students who talked about co-op. And I was like, oh, that’s interesting. But I also said that it’s a hell of a time to waste for another course and then the work terms, it’s like it’s delaying your graduation and other stuff. But then I realized how much it’s actually beneficial for students to enhance their degrees with experience, this co-op experience.
Mitch Clingo:
Right. Very cool.
Margo Beitel:
Yeah. Like Aru just said, I thought it would push my degree back. And it did. I did a full year work term and so it lengthened my degree by a year. But now I have a year of work experience when I graduate. So that’s going to put me ahead of people that are graduating with no work experience. So I think it was definitely worth it for me.
Aru Serikova:
Yeah. And, you know what are you going to expect after graduation. And for me, for example, working in a public firm is like a dream for an accountant… an accounting student, especially at KPMG. It’s one of the biggest firms worldwide. And now I know what to expect after graduation. And just… I have the experience, right? And yeah, how is… how you said the competitive advantage. Because how many students graduate with same degree, like business degree and have same chances you? But now you have the advantage.
Margo Beitel:
Totally. Yeah. And like you said, kind of knowing what to expect gives me a huge edge at least for myself, because I had no idea what it was like to work in an office environment until I got my co-op. And they give you so much more attention than I think you might get if you just got a job after graduating. You have a lot of leeway like they’ll help you with a lot more and kind of ease you into it.
Aru Serikova:
Yeah, definitely. It was an office vibe. I know as an international student when I came to Canada, I had no experience, like I had never worked in Canada. First I worked… before the co-op I worked part-time in a shop as a sales associate, but I never worked in an office environment which is totally different from what I learned from co-op.
Margo Beitel:
Yeah, me neither I worked at, like, Starbucks kind of thing, not an office.
Mitch Clingo:
I hear that’s a really interesting part about co-op when you can, because it helps you figure out how to tie your degree into… into what you can actually do with it in the real-world work environment. I did a degree in psychology, which like… I had no idea what you could do with a degree in psychology. So I’m curious to know more about like, how did you find the realities of how your degree looks like in the workplace
Margo Beitel:
It is kind of nice actually because I’ve never known what I want to do. So I just kind of, I applied to a whole bunch of different co-ops that I thought sounded interesting. And I really love the one that I did. It was student recruiting and advising for TRU actually. And so I went into that and I was like, Wow, this is really cool. But also for students that don’t know what they want to do, you can also try different ones. Like if I wanted to do another co-op and extend my degree a little bit more, I could’ve done like an HR [Human Resources] co-op or something like that and kind of explore the different avenues.
Mitch Clingo:
So you used your co-op to explore what you might want to do with your degree?
Margo Beitel:
Yeah, exactly.
Aru Serikova:
Yeah. I think it works in the other way too. The co-op actually helped me… is helping me right now with my degree when I’m studying in classes. When I’m studying, I’m like, Oh, I did this in a co-op. Like I know what I’m what I’m learning now. Which in my courses… especially those courses like fourth year courses that are very hard for accounting. And it helped… like the class that I took before co-op helped me while I was in co-op. And I think it’s beneficial anyways.
Mitch Clingo:
Can you think of something that you learned in class that you never would’ve thought you’d actually learn in or actually use in your co-op? Like, was there something—like some kind of theory or some algorithm that you learned that you were like, oh my God, I’m never going to use this. And then you actually did?
Aru Serikova:
Honestly nowadays everything… like the technology is doing everything. So sometimes I think there’s no reason to memorize everything and stress about finals or like exams because when I worked at co-op, and I’m pretty sure everywhere is… the computer does everything. You have to know the concept, of course. But you don’t have to memorize it. Because everything you do, like you put, you put the inputs in the computer, and at the end the computer does it for you. Like even tax filings. In tax classes we spend, like a semester for studying and memorizing everything. They’re very helpful, but I sometimes I think like it doesn’t make sense to memorize everything for exams.
Margo Beitel:
Yeah, I think the most useful thing that I learned that applied to my co-op was just communication. And when we had to do presentations in class like that set me up for my co-op more than anything else. And maybe some of the writing stuff like formatting emails and stuff in communication classes obviously helped. But yeah, you don’t need to like memorize every little formula and stuff. Excel courses also really helped. Excel and Microsoft suite is so important.
Aru Serikova:
I, when I was at school before co-op, I didn’t even think about that. Excel would be so important at work.
Margo Beitel:
Yeah.
Aru Serikova:
I wish we had more classes with Excel and we have more classes with actual practicing computer skills.
Margo Beitel:
Yeah. If I knew it was this important and I would’ve taken better notes.
Aru Serikova:
Yeah. Same!
Mitch Clingo:
Yeah. Co-op does help show you kind of what the realities of work is and what’s, what’s actually important to kinda be successful. Testing and that, we know isn’t, like you said Aru. Like yeah, they’re not going to test you in your workplace! What they kind of care about is how do you get along with people, right? And how you communicate well, which is funny because does that mean we need more people-oriented classes? Teach you how to be a good person.
Margo Beitel:
Well, I think one thing about studying online this semester is you’re communicating a lot less with other students. And that might be something to think about for the future of online courses is kind of getting students to communicate with each other more.
Mitch Clingo:
Right. Margo I know your placement ended before COVID. Aru, did yours overlap with COVID?
Aru Serikova:
Yeah, I worked half of my co-op work term, like four months from home.
Mitch Clingo:
What was that like? In terms of what Margo was saying in terms of that communication piece. Yeah, what was that like?
Aru Serikova:
It was a little bit challenging at the beginning because it was just weird to… not to see people and just communicating through Skype. But I was surprised how everyone was so supportive and everyone was available anytime when I had questions. And I was worried that I just had a training in the office and they sent us working from home. And I worried how I’m going to ask questions. But then it worked out. I think because everyone felt the same way and no one wanted it to be left alone. And especially for students, say, I want to give that support. And yeah. Presumably it worked well.
Margo Beitel:
Actually, my last two months of my co-op, we were sent home as well and going from working almost a year in the office and in the last few months or online or through correspondents. It was an interesting transition, but my office was really good about scheduling lots of meetings, even just to talk. And we also played like games together. We had… every Friday we had like a bonding online bonding thing like where we played Jack Box games.
Mitch Clingo:
Oh! That’s super cool.
Aru Serikova:
Yeah. We also had like a weekly bingo for the tax filings; who filed the most taxes in the week or something like that. And I won.
(Laughter)
Margo Beitel:
No big deal.
Aru Serikova:
Twice. And on the thing that you talked about Mitch, skills that we could’ve learned only from co-op. I think that communication skills especially that you mentioned. For my co-op, the most valid, the most valuable skill that I gained was like professional communication. So constant interaction with co-workers and clients because I would never learn it from books.
Margo Beitel:
Yeah, totally. That’s something you don’t learn from books at all and it’s probably the most important thing.
Mitch Clingo:
Yeah. It’s something that we’re always kind of saying in our department. That idea that once you have a good foundation of learning, you can kind of learn anything on the fly. But it’s really hard to teach you how to be a fun person to be around or to… how to deal with some of the challenging things that come up. A lot of that comes from kind of personal resilience and personal qualities. What were some of the challenging aspects that are going into your co-ops?
Aru Serikova:
For me I think the process of applying for co-op, especially for international students is a long process. It’s a good tip for international students who’s listening to this podcast. Because you have to think forward. Because when you apply for co-op, you have to apply a one semester before and then you’re taking one semester of course. And then you apply it for the work visa, which is… which might take six months. For me it took four or five months to wait. Because without that visa you cannot work. And yeah… the process was… I hate waiting because I wanted to start looking for positions and apply because it also takes time to through the hiring process.
Margo Beitel:
Yeah. I guess when I joined co-op, I was kinda like, Oh, if I do this course, they’ll hand a job to me. And it’s not like that. Yeah. Like Aru said, you have to apply to lots of jobs. I did three or four interviews before I got one and yeah. And then just adjusting to the office or I know lots of co-ops aren’t in offices. But just like the first week where you’re kind of out of your element is the most challenging part, but you get through it really quickly.
Mitch Clingo:
How did you navigate that? Feeling out of your element after being in academic… structured academics for like three years or so, right?
Margo Beitel:
Yeah. The best thing I did and could’ve done is asking questions. I relied a lot on my co-workers and that’s also how I got to know them better. I was just being like, Hey, I looked into this a bit and I kind of drafted something but can you check it over. Just kind of asking and clarifying a lot. No one wants to get a lot of dumb questions. But, you know, if you just kind of clarify things with people, it’s a good way to connect to and get to know your coworkers.
Mitch Clingo:
What would you say to that idea that asking a lot of questions makes you look dumb?
Margo Beitel:
It doesn’t unless they’re dumb questions.
(Laughter)
Aru Serikova:
I think it’s the other way! If you don’t ask questions they think that you don’t care.
Margo Beitel:
Yeah, exactly! So you have to kind of try and do it yourself first. Like be like, Hey, I looked into this. Is this correct? You know, you don’t want to just be like, hey, how do you do this? Hey, how do you do this? Like, you want to kind of try a little bit yourself before you just go and pile it on someone else, you know.
Aru Serikova:
Yeah. Yeah. In my position asking questions was very important. We actually had a training week where we were sitting… all the new staff were sitting in one room and everyone was asking questions. It was very helpful. So for the first two weeks, I think, we worked like that and then went back to our desks. And then my desk buddy was the person who I was asking because she did a co-op term before me. So she had experience and I was asking her questions every five minutes for my first couple of days being in my desk because it’s very hard to get you to a new system. Of course, you’ve never worked there before and you have so many questions, so everyone was very helpful. And yeah, the tip ask questions all the time.
Margo Beitel:
Yeah. And people understand they don’t… they don’t think you’re dumb for asking questions. They know that you’re coming right out of school.
Aru Serikova:
Yeah. You didn’t complete your degree, so.
Margo Beitel:
Yeah, exactly.
Mitch Clingo:
Yeah, That’s what’s great about co-op right? It’s that the expectations are kind of exactly where they should be, right? They’re not expecting you to walk in with experience in the role. And I think what we get in our department is, is a lot of employers who… who go into the experience with kind of the right set of expectations. And then it allows the students to really blow it out of the water when they do ask a lot of questions and when they do get really involved and then can exceed some of some of those things later on. Do either of you have any interesting stories about your co-op experiences?
Aru Serikova:
I had a very crazy day at the lunch room. So the lunch started and I almost burned the lunch room—I set it on fire.
Mitch Clingo:
Did you just say you almost burned the lunch room down?
Aru Serikova:
Yeah.
(Laughter)
Margo Beitel:
What did you do?
Aru Serikova:
So I had this sushi take out from the other day, and I left it in the fridge and it was in this foam container. And I didn’t realize that the rice was in foil. And I put the container with the foil in the microwave. And thank God, I was standing next to the microwave and watching because I saw this fire inside the microwave coming.
(Margo gasps)
Aru Serikova:
The foil started burning and the container started burning and my life just was… I said I’m going to be fired because there was going to be news that the co-op student from TRU was fired because she started a fire in the office. But thank God, took only a few seconds to open the microwave and blow out everything.
Margo Beitel:
Oh my gosh.
Aru Serikova:
Yeah. What about you Margo?
Margo Beitel:
I don’t have anything crazy like that. One really cool thing about my co-op that I loved is… I didn’t travel a ton when I was younger. But for this, I was a recruiter so I would go around to different high schools in Alberta and BC and I always got to stay in hotels. So yeah, I just thought it was so cool to stay in different hotels. Sometimes it’s like five different hotels in a week. And I just loved it. It was amazing. And I got to go up to like Port Hardy on the coast. I’ve never really spent time on the coast at all. It’s just… I just saw so many different places in just the same province that I’ve never seen before. And I never thought I’d, you know, you never really think to just head out on a road trip. But it was so cool. I just yeah, I got to explore the province lot more.
Mitch Clingo:
So cool. I’ve always wanted a job that I could travel and something like that. And yeah… get put up in hotels on the company’s dime.
Margo Beitel:
Yeah. It was awesome!
(Laughter)
Mitch Clingo:
What was that like… were you on your own? For those travel trips?
Margo Beitel:
Yeah. Yeah, I was. Obviously that wasn’t my first couple months. My first couple of months were definitely spent in the office. But then they kind of decided, okay. Like, you know what? You’re doing well. We have this travel week. Would you be interested in taking that on? I was like absolutely. So yeah, I got to book my own travel. Kind of figure out how long the drive is, when I need to be there. This is my hotel for this night, this is my hotel for the next night. Yeah. And, you know, in-between that, of course I was working so doing presentations at schools and doing mini-fairs and such.
Mitch Clingo:
What was that like? I know… kind of my personality when I was in the middle of my degree was not somebody who would’ve been able to drive halfway across the province and give a presentation for school. (Laughter) Yeah. Tell me more about what that was like.
Margo Beitel:
Well, I’ve always been really independent. So the solo travel was awesome and I loved that. The thing that stretched me a bit more was the public speaking aspect. And especially talking to high school students who are kind of intimidating. Like I always think of teenagers and like… oh my gosh, they’re judging me. What if my shirt is the wrong color. But no. It was a really valuable experience because I was fairly shy before that. I was not a public speaker. But my office is really good. Everyone practiced the presentation with me. I just went through so many times it was like… yeah, I know it. I’ve got my slides. I can do it. It’s, you know. The more you practice it, the easier it gets.
Mitch Clingo:
What about you Aru? Were you ever put into… like into… kind of work responsibilities that made you feel kind of work out of your element and didn’t jive with your personality?
Aru Serikova:
Oh, yeah. I didn’t expect that I’m going to be contacting all those CEOs and directors of the companies that I was working with. Cause as a staff accountant, we’re working on those year-ends and you are the person who got asked question. It’s the clients and you have to call them, email them. And I didn’t expect that as a student and I would be doing this. It gave me such a good experience of, as I said, professional communication and just… yeah. Getting along with professionals. You know, it’s hard.
Mitch Clingo:
So Margo. You were saying like practice and prepare was what kinda got you through it. Any other kind of tips for how to like… get used to those challenging aspects or putting yourself into a responsibility or duty or situation that kind of really seems uncomfortable at the outset?
Margo Beitel:
Yeah. The way I kind of put it for other people when they ask me what it was like is that you won’t get… Physically you don’t get more flexible unless you stretch. And it’s like same thing for learning and growing as a person. Like you have to stretch yourself a bit to grow and to be more flexible. So I would ask for different assignments that would be challenging, but I knew I could do with the support of the people around me. And that’s how I got a lot of the experiences that I did and just knowing that this is a little bit out of my element, but I know I can do it if I really apply myself and I get help when I need it.
Aru Serikova:
Yeah. And I also want to add, as a student who wants to apply for co-op and you’re looking for co-op. I think your transferable skills so important because it’s obvious to don’t have experienced before co-op, because you are just trying to find that experience, right? But that experience that you’re getting from your student life, being involved in clubs or different communities, volunteering. You can apply those skills as well. Not only show it in your resume, but when you know that you’ve done those things and you know that you have that skill set, you will be more confident in yourself. Like for myself, I was involved in the different clubs and different positions where I had those communication skills, meeting new people and communicating with them and just talking to different people with different backgrounds. And from that, I gained that experience and the skills that I could apply for my co-op and it’s made much easier for me.
Margo Beitel:
Yeah. And I wasn’t as involved in my first couple years as Aru was, but one thing I did that really helped me get a co-op was be really prepared for an interview. So if I was lucky enough to get an interview, I made sure I knew the job like the back of my hand and I was prepared for my interview. I had questions ready for my interviewers and looked up my interviewers on LinkedIn. Like just, preparation.
Aru Serikova:
Yeah, that’s also very important, I think. For accountants, there is like a hiring week for co-op because it’s like one shot in a year. So that month was so stressful. I had couple interviews every week and, yeah. It takes time to get ready for an interview and it’s very important part of hiring process.
Mitch Clingo:
Mhm. That piece of kind of recognizing how do I push yourself and be flexible, I think is so important and understanding kind of… the areas you need to push yourself into. Aru I don’t think we’ve mentioned it but when we were, when we go through kind of the Career Ambassador applications, that’s what stood out on your application… your awareness of what your journey has given you. You were able to articulate that a few years ago the professional communication or teamwork communication, presentation communication, interview communication was something that you wanted to work on. So you went out and found the opportunities that allowed you to challenge yourself. And for us that really kind of stood out to me was one of the reasons we really want to be on this team… that self-awareness piece. So after your co-ops, how did that experience affect… kind of your… your understanding of your career path or how you wanted to return to school, or what jobs or what co-op opportunities you might be looking for in the future?
Margo Beitel:
One thing my co-op really helped me with was returning back to school because before that, like I mentioned, I didn’t know what I wanted to do as a career. And I still don’t. But after doing my co-op I was kind of like, Okay, well, this is something that’s out there and I really enjoyed it. And I know I can thrive there. And yeah, I just now I know that I can do an office environment kind of thing. And so going back to my degree, I kind of had more of a purpose like, okay, I want to do well in my classes, I want to graduate. I have something to look forward to now after my degree instead of just graduating and not knowing what to do, if I get a job, if I could make it kind of thing.
Aru Serikova:
Yeah. For me, personally, building my career with co-op early before graduation, helped me to define my future career goals. Because working in public accounting and discovering the career steps to become a successful account, I found out that I want to pursue the CPA designation… it’s chartered professional accountant. So now I know what I want after graduation and I got that full-time offer with KPMG, which gave me more confidence to go back to school and just finish my degree. And then plan my career already. It made my last year of school much easier.
Margo Beitel:
Yeah. Yeah. Same here.
Mitch Clingo:
Very cool. Before we wrap up, anything else you want to share about… kind of your co-op experiences… pass onto any of our… anyone who might be listening?
Aru Serikova:
Honestly, I… if I was… if I could make the decision, I would make this co-op required for every student. Because there is no disadvantages of co-op. If you think it’s going to delay your graduation, you’re wrong because it’s actually going to give you an advantage. Yeah. I would say just take that opportunity, start now and just apply for co-op. Yeah. We already mentioned so many benefits. I don’t know why you would not do that?
Margo Beitel:
Yeah. Like one thing that held me back originally was not wanting to do the extra course. But it’s a once a week course and it’s really no big deal, and it’s definitely worth it. So the earlier in your degree you do it, the more opportunities you have to do different co-ops. And the more you do, the better it looks and the more experience you have. So yeah, there’s really no downside like Aru said.
Aru Serikova:
It’s like investing right now and then you’ll be benefiting after graduation.
Margo Beitel:
Yeah, exactly.
Mitch Clingo:
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for, for kind of chatting about this and sharing some of those stories.
Aru Serikova:
Thank you for hosting this, Mitch!
Margo Beitel:
Yeah, thank you Mitch!
Mitch Clingo:
You’re welcome. I look forward to the next one. Thanks so much, everybody, take care.