Today, I completed the second day of my internship at OPG’s Lambton Generating Station. Although I was only two days into my internship, I was already touring through every corner of the plant learning tons of new things!
I started the day with my supervisor, Steve Repergel. Together, we sat down and went through a presentation about the company, discussing different sources of fuels for electricity, and the financial aspect of the generating station among many other interesting topics. Later, I had the pleasure of meeting another employee of OPG who gave me an introductory tour around the generating station, giving me snapshots of the different processes that went on and how they all fit together. I ended up touring and learning about all four generating units at the station, the flue gas scrubbers, and even about the wild-life protection program that Lambton Generating station has set up in their vast acres behind the plant. After lunch, I got to further tour the station this time visiting the boilers and the actual turbines that generate the electricity!
With all the touring that I did today, one blog would simply not be enough to cover what I did and what I learned. However, if there was one thing that made the most impact on me today, it was the advice given to me by two employees: “There is no such thing as can’t.” and “If you do something that you’re passionate about, success will follow”. It has been quite an enriching experience working at OPG so far and I can’t wait to return back to work and learn more!
Akruti Patel
Hometown: Sarnia, ON
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
July 29 – Employment with EnCana
This summer, I am working at EnCana, a natural gas company. Today I had a really unique opportunity at work to take a course on presentation skills offered to students employed at EnCana. The course was such a great experience for many different reasons. First, this course was offered exclusively to students at EnCana. This provided me with the opportunity to get to know students currently attending post-secondary institutions and learn about their areas of study and the schools they attended. I met a variety of students attending universities across North America and around the world from a business major studying in Paris, to engineers at the University of Calgary, to a sociology and economics major studying abroad.
The workshop itself was also an incredible experience. I got the opportunity not only to learn about how to construct a great presentation with power points and presentation structures, but I also got the chance to go up in front of the workshop class four times and practice presentations on a variety of topics from the introduction of another student, to the process of how I came to work at EnCana, to different theories attempt to explain the universe. I got great feedback from my peers and I came out with a great base of knowledge on presentation skills.
Peter Gustainis
Hometown: Calgary, AB
The workshop itself was also an incredible experience. I got the opportunity not only to learn about how to construct a great presentation with power points and presentation structures, but I also got the chance to go up in front of the workshop class four times and practice presentations on a variety of topics from the introduction of another student, to the process of how I came to work at EnCana, to different theories attempt to explain the universe. I got great feedback from my peers and I came out with a great base of knowledge on presentation skills.
Peter Gustainis
Hometown: Calgary, AB
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
July 28 - my third day!
Today is my third day working at RBC. Thanks to my supervisor, Audrey, I am starting to get acquainted to the work environment at the technology and infrastructure department.
To start me off, Audrey gave me a “welcome mat” project on the first day. This project required me to create a brochure that provides details essential to new employees covering information anywhere from recycling to safety and emergency procedures. Originally, Audrey was responsible for this task; but she brilliantly thought to delegate this to me. It will help me get oriented to the organization by compiling the information used to orient future new employees. After I finished the draft copy of the brochure that morning, I booked a meeting with Audrey and one other person to review the draft. Later in the afternoon, I had the pleasure of hosting the meeting. I presented the “draft welcome mat” and received many feedbacks. The “welcome mat” is to be edited and further reviewed.
Aside from this project, I also had the opportunity to attend the meetings of 2 multi-million dollar projects of which Audrey is the project manager. After every meeting, Audrey and I always have a debriefing period where I get to ask questions and she will explain to me the details of the project, meanings of common terminology used, and most importantly how to effectively run a meeting.
My three days working at RBC has already shown to be a meaningful and extraordinary experience. I look forward to the rest of the internship.
Hank Xu
Hometown: Mississauga, ON
To start me off, Audrey gave me a “welcome mat” project on the first day. This project required me to create a brochure that provides details essential to new employees covering information anywhere from recycling to safety and emergency procedures. Originally, Audrey was responsible for this task; but she brilliantly thought to delegate this to me. It will help me get oriented to the organization by compiling the information used to orient future new employees. After I finished the draft copy of the brochure that morning, I booked a meeting with Audrey and one other person to review the draft. Later in the afternoon, I had the pleasure of hosting the meeting. I presented the “draft welcome mat” and received many feedbacks. The “welcome mat” is to be edited and further reviewed.
Aside from this project, I also had the opportunity to attend the meetings of 2 multi-million dollar projects of which Audrey is the project manager. After every meeting, Audrey and I always have a debriefing period where I get to ask questions and she will explain to me the details of the project, meanings of common terminology used, and most importantly how to effectively run a meeting.
My three days working at RBC has already shown to be a meaningful and extraordinary experience. I look forward to the rest of the internship.
Hank Xu
Hometown: Mississauga, ON
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Internship with Ericsson Inc.
It is the end of my second day working with Ericsson Inc. I’m so excited to be working with the same company which invented Bluetooth technology! I’ve met with my supervisor and we outlined what I would be working on for the next week. I will be having semi-weekly meetings with him to discuss my progress with the project I’ve been given.
The project itself is to design a website for Ericsson’s “Green Team”. Ericsson already has such a website in place on their intranet but they want to develop one on their own collaboration site, EriColl. What’s nice about designing a website on EriColl is that there is no programming or coding involved whatsoever. It’s similar to the software used to design wiki pages on Wikipedia. Today I completed the first draft of my outline for the new website. The final draft will be presented to my supervisor on Thursday.
Working with Ericsson is a pleasure. There is a lot of flexibility in terms of when you work your forty hours a week. You can leave your desk whenever you like, there is no one looking over your shoulder. As a consequence you can take your lunch break whenever you like, wherever you like. You can eat in their café, at your desk, or in the employee lounge. Finally, I discovered today that employees can sign up for weekly massages. I had one today, it’s nice to be able to leave your desk in the middle of the day to get a massage just a few floors down.
Harley Nadler
Hometown: Montréal, QC
The project itself is to design a website for Ericsson’s “Green Team”. Ericsson already has such a website in place on their intranet but they want to develop one on their own collaboration site, EriColl. What’s nice about designing a website on EriColl is that there is no programming or coding involved whatsoever. It’s similar to the software used to design wiki pages on Wikipedia. Today I completed the first draft of my outline for the new website. The final draft will be presented to my supervisor on Thursday.
Working with Ericsson is a pleasure. There is a lot of flexibility in terms of when you work your forty hours a week. You can leave your desk whenever you like, there is no one looking over your shoulder. As a consequence you can take your lunch break whenever you like, wherever you like. You can eat in their café, at your desk, or in the employee lounge. Finally, I discovered today that employees can sign up for weekly massages. I had one today, it’s nice to be able to leave your desk in the middle of the day to get a massage just a few floors down.
Harley Nadler
Hometown: Montréal, QC
Monday, July 26, 2010
July 26 - My first day at IBM!
Today was the first day of my work term, and being new to IBM and to Toronto, I had no clue where I was going. My Dad was driving along and we were listening to the directions on the GPS. All of a sudden, the GPS said “You have reached your destination.” Surprised, I looked around, and the only thing on my right was a cemetery. However, we soon located IBM at the end of a ramp, on its own private ‘island’, with high security and the interior of the building is creatively decorated.
My first day there was absolutely amazing! Firstly, a tour was completed and next, I met my manager and my team and got to know them and our project a little bit more. My partner and I received our desktop computers and started to download the necessary applications and software. We started learning the basics of computer programming, and started writing a few applications of computer software! It was a great opening day where I felt extremely welcome. After seeing some of the work previous interns had done, my intrigue for this job increased. After my first day, I am thrilled to say that I can’t wait to see what the rest of this internship has in store for me!
Kriti Kumar
Hometown: Nepean, ON
My first day there was absolutely amazing! Firstly, a tour was completed and next, I met my manager and my team and got to know them and our project a little bit more. My partner and I received our desktop computers and started to download the necessary applications and software. We started learning the basics of computer programming, and started writing a few applications of computer software! It was a great opening day where I felt extremely welcome. After seeing some of the work previous interns had done, my intrigue for this job increased. After my first day, I am thrilled to say that I can’t wait to see what the rest of this internship has in store for me!
Kriti Kumar
Hometown: Nepean, ON
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