Work Experience

Queen's University - Teaching Assistant

2021 Sept - 2021 Dec, 2022 Sept - 2022 Dec

A different perspective compared to previously being a student, practising a variety of communication skills

As part of the graduate student contract at Queen's, one term of teaching assistant work per year is required, with more positions possible pending availability and interest. Accordingly, I have worked as a TA in two different terms. Overall, this experience has helped me better appreciate the work of teaching assistants during my own undergraduate education.

The first class I worked on was a lab course for materials testing. I was responsible for leading groups of 2 or 3 students through experiments and data collection, with several sessions per week. This was followed by evaluating and providing feedback on the submitted reports. When writing feedback, I try to ask questions to make students rethink their approach if they have arrived at an inaccurate conclusion instead of directly correcting it. If a point of confusion appeared to be a pattern between groups, I tried to adjust the way I taught the later sessions to accommodate it.

The second class was the Mechanical Engineering department's 4th-year capstone design course, where teams of students are assigned to a client with a need to work on and get experience in a more realistic design project environment. The majority of the time I spent on this course was grading deliverables such as project management-related documents and design reports. Similar to the previous course, I try to provide feedback to point students in the desired direction. Working on this course has let me again appreciate the diverse range of perspectives and ideas that exists among a group of students who are otherwise going through a fairly similar education.

DCL International Inc. - Research Technician Intern

2018 Sept - 2019 July

An internship with somewhat limited scope, but providing useful knowledge to better approach future opportunities

Between my third and fourth years of study, I was a co-op (Professional Experience Year) student at DCL, a company which develops and produces catalytic converters for diesel generator exhaust streams, reducing air pollution via the selective catalytic reduction of nitrous oxides. My primary responsibility was the operation of the test equipment on a daily basis and the collection of data in accordance with the experimental plans. Smaller irregular tasks include creating models and drawings for the fabrication of sheet metal pieces and insulating jackets. These smaller tasks allowed me to explore the company buildings to better understand and gain an appreciation for the operation of medium-scale production facilities. 

While my responsibilities and activities during this position were fairly limited in scale, I still learned some valuable lessons and can recognise in retrospect how I could have tried to improve this experience to be more valuable. I am now more familiar with the leadership styles, management approaches, and types of working environments that I would consider beneficial to my working ability. I am also more familiar with the strategies and resources available in the management of interpersonal conflicts. I am hoping to find more fulfilling work in the future and do not wish to be limited by undesirable circumstances experienced in the past.