Ashley Sun

What motivated you to apply for co-op/internship?

I have always worked 20-30 hours a week during the school year with a full course load, as well as spending time training on the Varsity Badminton Team. I was busy non-stop and considered taking a year off school to make money so that I could reduce my work hours during the school year and focus more on my academics and athletics. The best solution was to do an internship; I could gain engineering experience while working towards my P.Eng, and the pay is definitely higher than any of my previous retail jobs.

Can you describe your position in a few sentences?

As a technical consultant, my tasks vary from project to project. I have been focused on creating the front-end and back-end development of the project’s HMI and PLC to the satisfaction of our clients. My position also involves writing documentation such as the Cyber Security Assessment, Computer System Design and more. As an internal (non-client) project, I have been working on a web development and database project.

Did you receive training to perform your engineering duties? Please explain.   

I was given webinars and courses during my first week as training. The most beneficial has been the support from my co-workers that have taken time to sit down and teach me about my current or future projects. My technical lead had also brought me to the OPG Information Centre which was extremely helpful to be able to see a display of a calandria. I have also completed Alithya courses such as Quality Assurance and Nuclear Quality Management System.

What was your work atmosphere like? (flexible, formality, team-centric, supportive)

During the first two months of my internship, I had gotten extremely sick but the flexibility that Alithya offers and support from my team made such a positive impact on my experience because I was able to work from home. If I hadn't been given the opportunity to work from home at the time, I know that I would have forced myself to go to work and my condition would have gotten worse.

What new skills were you able to learn/develop during your co-op/internship?

Almost everything that I had taken on as tasks was new to me. As a result, I have learned so many hard skills such as designing an HMI in compliance with Bruce Power's Human Factors Design Guide, PLC programming, creating documentation in compliance with governance, as well as C#, SQL and Azure. I have also further developed my soft skills including time management, communication and problem-solving.

How did your experience compare to your expectations?

My experience has exceeded my expectations. Within the first three months, I already learned more and had been given a huge variety of tasks compared to my expectations. Besides educational experiences, the Alithya team is incredibly supportive and I love the work environment! 

What was your proudest moment? 

As Alithya's first and only engineering co-op student, I wasn't sure what my duties would include and how directly engaged I would be with our clients. My proudest moment was being chosen to attend our client's on-site kickoff meeting for my second project. This added to my confidence, knowing that I am more than presentable, professional and knowledgeable enough to be chosen. Both of my projects had been with this client so it was also cool to have the Program Manager introduce me to the Design Engineer that was testing my code from my first project.

What advice would you offer to current students thinking about pursuing co-op or internship?

Apply for winter-start internships! There's a stigma surrounding internships starting in the winter semester and students often only wanting 4-month co-ops or 16-month internships starting in the summer. Use this stigma to your advantage because fewer students apply to winter start internships so it's less competitive than trying to obtain a summer start internship. By doing my 12-month winter-start internship mid-way through my third year, I still have the opportunity to do a 4 month co-op next summer and it gave me a much-needed break mid-school year to gain industry experience.