Every term, ThoughtWire has the pleasure of welcoming a new batch of interns. These past few months, we welcomed students from the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, and Seneca College. Being able to work with these students and gain their valuable perspectives on projects, is an equally rewarding experience. For students, this helps them to gain first-hand experience in the working space, and allows for them to be treated as more than interns - but valuable members of their respective teams. For ThoughtWire, this enables us to continue to attract great talent, and have fresher points of view; helping our teams to collaborate and produce the best work possible.
In the first part of this term’s internship series, we will be highlighting Matthew Balkaran, Customer Success intern, Aiman Shafiq, Product Analyst intern, and Jason Amri, Business Analyst intern.
What are the top skills you’ve learned while working at ThoughtWire?
Matthew: A mixture of time management and communication skills. There were many times where different tasks came in that had to be prioritized and timed accordingly. As for communication, this was often important in discussing troubleshooting and working on projects with other people!
Aiman: The top skills I’ve worked on are: prioritization - as I have been splitting my duties between two teams (Data and Product), I really had to hone this skill when taking on new work or switching gears from one to the other. I also gained research skills from working on a ton of projects that required me to conduct external market research and document my findings.
Jason: During my term at ThoughtWire, I’ve learned how to thrive in uncertain and ambiguous business situations. I’ve learned new ways to present ideas, drive initiatives, and work with others to make an impact!
What was your favourite part of your job?
Matthew: My favourite part of the job was working with all the different people here at ThoughtWire. This ranged from access setups to collaborative projects - but in each case, everyone here was an absolute pleasure to work with.
Aiman: My favourite part about my job were the people on my teams, they were always super friendly and helpful throughout my term. I really appreciated their support and greatly enjoyed working with them.
Jason: It’s been wonderful working with everyone on the Strategic Initiatives team and learning from them, both personally and professionally. Their insights and support have helped me develop immensely in the last four months.
What were your favourite moments from your co-op term?
Matthew: Some of my favourite moments from the term were opportunities to take on research initiatives. Having the chance to explore projects on new items/setups for pre-existing products was quite enjoyable. No two projects felt quite the same which also kept things feeling fresh.
Aiman: One of my favourite moments was getting the chance to host a company wide Lunch and Learn on a tool I have been researching (for over a month) to enhance our product analytics!
Jason: It’s always amazing to see your work have meaning. Whether that’s your slide deck being shown to a client company’s senior executives, your proposal successfully getting funded, or your research directly informing a major business decision. Those have been some of the most memorable experiences from my term.
What advice would you give to future co-op students?
Matthew: My advice would be to take advantage of all the opportunities available. There’s plenty of valuable experiences and knowledge to gain here but it all goes so fast. The term will come and go before you know so definitely make the most of your time here.
Aiman: One piece of advice I would give to co-op students is to take initiative! Whether it being taking on a task you have no clue about or pitching an idea you think might work, don’t shy away from taking these steps as they’ll only benefit you and your skillset in the future.
Jason: Move forward, do good work, and stay positive! Focus on the tasks that “move the needle” the most, produce high-quality work always, and regardless of vicissitudes of business, keep your eye on the big picture.
How do you as an intern feel that ThoughtWire approaches diversity, equity, and inclusion? Can you give an example of how your team made you feel a sense of inclusion, belonging, and equity?
Matthew: From my experience, it feels like ThoughtWire has a very fair and inclusive work environment. For example, during my time here my team gave me meaningful projects/tasks to work on and kept me included in meetings and updated regarding the team’s work. It didn’t feel like I was just doing some random intern work that had no impact to the company, but more so that I was included as another member of the team.
Aiman: I think ThoughtWire does a great job at being diverse, treats everyone with equality, empathy, and makes them feel included. One thing I would like to highlight under equality is that no matter if you’re a junior, senior or an intern, your opinion matters and is heard, I have experienced this throughout my term here.
Jason: ThoughtWire is working hard to understand and enable EDI within the organization, and I’m excited to see this captured as we develop an EDI policy. Strategic Initiatives has been a very inclusive and welcoming team!
We thank Matthew, Aiman, and Jason for all of the hard work and success they achieved over the past few months! Looking for a place where you can also contribute, innovate and be inspired? We think you’ll love it here. Check out ThoughtWire's career page.
