{"id":24976,"date":"2017-02-07T15:12:45","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T20:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/?page_id=24976"},"modified":"2025-12-16T14:06:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T19:06:12","slug":"alexandra-mackenzie","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/life-in-english-student-blogs\/alexandra-mackenzie\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to Alexandra’s Co-op Experience Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n \n \n \n \n
\n\n
<\/div>\n \n
\n
\n\n

\n Welcome to Alexandra’s Co-op Experience Blog\n <\/h1>\n \n \n\n

BA Combined Honours English and History (2019)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alex was born and raised in Ottawa and started out as a keen Journalism student at Carleton. After some time in university, and much debate, she decided that English and History would be a better fit for her. She now spends most of her time reading countless pages about early Canadian trade expeditions, the Venetian wine fountain, and the adventures of the Faerie Queene \u2013 and she loves every minute of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After completing her first co-op term working as a Junior Policy Analyst for the Build in Canada Innovation Program (BCIP), she was invited to stay for the following work term to take on new roles and learn new things. Her role has shifted to communications and outreach tasks that involve a lot more research, writing and event planning and she\u2019s excited to face new challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\n

\n Table of Contents\n <\/h2>\n
\n
\n \n
\n
\n \n 1.\n <\/span>\n\n \n November 27, 2017\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n 2.\n <\/span>\n\n \n April 10, 2017\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n 3.\n <\/span>\n\n \n February 7, 2017\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

November 27, 2017<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Office Hacks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working at your first office job can be a strange shift, especially if your only previous employers come from the service or retail industry. Over the past year, I\u2019ve picked up a couple of small ways that you can make the most of your space (and experience) while working in an office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to start by saying that these tips are brought to you by an older office building; you know, the kind of office that has a questionable patterned carpet that seems to absorb everything you spill on it. It\u2019s also worth noting that I manage to do all of these even without having a permanent desk space (I don\u2019t sit in the same spot every day). So for those of you who don\u2019t have a large office space where you can store all of your goodies, fear not! I still have some tips that you can work with no matter where you sit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#1: Makeshift Laptop Stand<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is for those of you who like to extend the display<\/strong><\/a> between your laptop and monitor so you\u2019re able to take advantage of a larger screen space (if you\u2019ve never done this, do it). If you have an obnoxious amount of paper stacks near your office printer, you may want to consider borrowing a few to stand your laptop on. It\u2019s really nice having my laptop and monitor at the same height and a lot of people in my office do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#2: An (almost) Ergo Assessment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the more long-term employees are lucky enough to have professional ergonomic assessments for their desk spaces. Although most students don\u2019t have the opportunity to be professionally assessed, there a many googleble online resources that you can use to give yourself a self-assessment. Obviously it won\u2019t be as accurate as a professional assessment, but it\u2019s good for things like knowing how to specifically adjust your chair position or your posture (nobody likes being hunched over all day).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#3: Emergency Shoes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know about you, but I\u2019d prefer not to be wearing my business casual footwear while sprinting through the winter slush to catch my bus. I started leaving a pair of black flats or heels at work so I can wear my oversized red Bogs to work with no shame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#4: The Extra Phone Charger<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This one may seem obvious, but I can\u2019t begin to tell you the amount of times that my phone has died at work or on the bus home (maybe I should consider getting a phone with better battery life?). I would suggest buying a charger to keep at work. This way, you never have to worry about your phone dying, and as an added bonus, you can become the hero that your office needs: the bearer of the phone charger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#5: Tea Drawer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I keep a box of tea, a mug, and a small bottle of honey at work to avoid dropping daily dollars on social tea. Don\u2019t get me wrong, it\u2019s really nice to go for tea or coffee with my coworkers in the morning, but when I found myself paying $2 for hot water almost everyday, I knew something had to change. I generally just make my own tea and carry my mug with me during the coffee stroll with my coworkers. It may sound weird, but it saves me a lot of money and it\u2019s the first step in my fight against social eating (and drinking).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#6: The Power of Cookies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re having trouble socializing in your new job, just bake cookies and bring them in for your office to enjoy. In my experience, people tend to love having baked goods to spice up their day and it\u2019s a good way to show that you\u2019re friendly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope some of these office hacks are helpful for some of you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

April 10, 2017<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Offsite Work Days – Working at the Innovation Centre at Bayview Yards<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I\u2019ve got good news \u2014 I get to work once per week at a really cool place. Have you ever heard of an innovation centre? In short, an innovation centre is a place through which entrepreneurs, startups, grant programs, etc. can work collaboratively in one work space that facilitates the sharing of ideas. They have a lot of shared workspaces that include well-lit board rooms filled with ergonomic chairs and flat-screen televisions. The centre even has a seating area that features a very inviting, casual workplace hammock. You may be wondering: \u201chey Alex, what does this have to do with your job? Aren\u2019t you an English student? Don\u2019t you work for the federal government?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you may remember from my last post, I work for a commercializations program that buys state-of-the-art technology from innovators and tests it in a government facility. This place is actually really useful for our program to make connections within Ottawa\u2019s innovation ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now \u2014 let\u2019s talk about working off site. At first, I was a little weary about working at the innovation centre myself since, as a student, I wasn\u2019t sure if I was the best person to represent the program I work for when speaking with entrepreneurs who may be future applicants. However, I decided to go with the flow and look at it as an opportunity to further improve my people skills and spice up my week. I have to say that in my experience, taking opportunities like this is a very important part of the co-op experience. I find that pushing myself really boosts my confidence and reminds me that I\u2019m really a valuable member of my team. I genuinely look forward to working in a new environment once per week \u2014 and not just because of the delicious food and kombucha from the in-house LUNCH caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

February 7, 2017<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

From English Student to Public Servant<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d like to start by admitting that this isn\u2019t my first work term. My days of being bright eyed and bushy tailed have passed, and I no longer remember what it feels like to be a student. How is it going over there? Is the Loeb building<\/a> still strangely hot all the time? Has anyone decided yet if we should use the oxford comma or not? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been completely immersed in the workplace for five months now, and I\u2019d like to think I\u2019ve learned a thing or two about transitioning into the workplace as an English<\/a> student. Before I tell you about that, an important piece of information about me is that I\u2019m very bad at planning. I\u2019d like to think that I plan things in advance, but I never end up sticking to my schedule and things can change pretty quickly. I didn\u2019t plan on taking co-op<\/a> at Carleton. In fact, I didn\u2019t plan on taking English at Carleton. I started out as a Journalism<\/a> major in my first year. Carleton Journalism is an incredible and (admittedly) challenging program. Though I\u2019d like to pursue a career in the publishing industry, Journalism just wasn\u2019t for me. Half way through my first year I decided to bite the bullet, leap into the breach, take the bull by the horns (or whichever clich\u00e9 phrase of your choosing) and switch into a degree that I had a passion for. Though it\u2019s a slightly different (and likely, longer) route, I\u2019m hoping that switching my majors to English and History<\/a> will still lead me to the publishing industry someday. This was one of the reasons that I decided to take the co-op option at Carleton. My professor mentioned it at the beginning of Brit Lit one day before we resumed our discussion about the chaos ensued from Grendel\u2019s Mother. I thought about it and figured it would be a good opportunity for me to make some money and explore my options.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

So take it from me, someone whose plans frequently derail \u2014 if you work hard, things will often eventually swing in your favour.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

So here I am, five months later, working for the Federal Government. Though it\u2019s not completely on track with my career path, I actually have a really cool job. For the past five months, I\u2019ve commuted across mountain and valley (from Orleans to Gatineau) on my noble steed (a dingy OC Transpo express bus) to work for the Build in Canada Innovation Program<\/a> (BCIP). In a nutshell (through which I will refrain from using trendy government jargon), our program is a commercialization program that buys new and innovative technologies produced by Canadian businesses, and tests them in various government departments. I know what you\u2019re all thinking, and yes, we have worked with robots before. Maybe not the WALL-E<\/a> or Iron Giant<\/a> kind \u2014 but still robots by definition, which is pretty cool in my humble opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My actual title is \u201cJunior Policy Analyst,\u201d but I have never once analyzed policy. It\u2019s actually a running joke in the office, because every student on my team has the same title and does completely different jobs. My roles are more communications related, and have been for most of the time I\u2019ve been with BCIP. My team focusses on outreach and engagement, so I often find myself writing material about the program or the innovations that we work with, much of which is shared externally. I also get to write posts for Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, which is pretty fun and sometimes challenging. Twitter\u2019s 140 character limit has never been so cumbersome throughout my entire life until this point. You might be wondering what this has to do with an English degree<\/a>. To be honest, the friend and foe of pursuing an English degree<\/a> is that it\u2019s very versatile. A lot of employers look for people with writing and research skills<\/a>. Though this job isn\u2019t directly on my career path, I\u2019d like to think I\u2019m gaining experience writing for different purposes and audiences. The experience is really what you make of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve come a long way from being a scared little first year in the wrong program, and I\u2019m pretty excited to show you all of the cool stuff I get to do, and the cool places I get to go. So take it from me, someone whose plans frequently derail \u2014 if you work hard, things will often eventually swing in your favour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex was born and raised in Ottawa and started out as a keen Journalism student at Carleton. After some time in university, and much debate, she decided that English and History would be a better fit for her. She now spends most of her time reading countless pages about early Canadian trade expeditions, the Venetian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13777,"parent":18417,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cu_dining_location_slug":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_page_type":[],"class_list":["post-24976","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24976"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27845,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24976\/revisions\/27845"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_page_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_page_type?post=24976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}