November 12, 2021
Blog 2: A day in life of a JDI IT Co-op Student
My name is Tanish Dagar. I was born and raised in New Delhi, India and completed high school there as well. After that I came to Canada in 2018 for my Bachelor’s in Computer Science. I am pursuing my degree from Dalhousie University and am currently in my third year.
My professional journey started with the team at JDI IT as a Programmer Analyst Intern this fall. I always had a great interest in the technical side of computing like developing applications, while also understanding the business behind it. JDI IT provides me with the perfect opportunity as my work includes developing applications for different businesses in this huge organization.
Within this short period of time, I have fallen in love with the company and the city of Saint John. I would like to thank my team for assisting me in becoming familiar with all the technical and business procedures. I have the best team here.
I have a tremendous amount of gratitude towards JDI IT for providing me with the opportunity to grow as a young professional in the field of Computer Science. I plan on learning more throughout my co-op work term and I would love to join my team again after I graduate from Dalhousie University.
Second episode coming soon, looking forward to updating you guys!
Some of you may be reading my blog posts and thinking “Okay what you’re telling us is great but is what you’re learning really something you’ll use forever?”. My answer to that question is the same as what your high school teachers said when you used to ask them if you’d ever really use what they’re teaching you in the real world: YES!
To reassure you, here are 4 things I think everyone will learn when they do a co-op term with JDI:
How you work
Working in a professional environment is a lot different than managing coursework at school. During a work term you’ll learn a lot about yourself, especially what it takes for you to be motivated and excited about your work. You’ll also be able to learn how best to prioritize your work and what helps you stay organized to get things done.
It’s good to take risks
To clarify, I’m not saying you should run wild and try to do everything yourself. What I mean is that after you’re comfortable with your role, sometimes it’s good to take a chance with something or make an independent decision. You might end up being wrong or making a mistake, but that’s just another chance for you to learn.
The work culture you want
School is way different than a professional work environment because most of the people around you are the same age and dealing with the same problems. Working in a “real” work environment for a co-op term can help you figure out the culture you’ll be looking for when you start your career. Luckily for me, the culture at Lake Utopia is a definite example of what I’d like to be a part of. Everyone is friendly, welcoming and approachable – which is great for a student who has a lot of questions.
What your future career will be
My supervisor told me that there are three “L’s” that will help you decide what your full-time job will look like: Love, Location and Lifestyle. One of the things your co-op term will help you figure out is if you love that industry, job, or company. You can adjust your future job searches accordingly when you know what you love from an actual experience. Location and lifestyle might not be as easy to figure out as a student, but you have to wake up every day and do your job, so loving what you do is really important.
I will never forget my first day of my first term at Irving Shipbuilding, as I walked through Halifax Shipyard for the first time. At the end of orientation, all the new hires, (several of which were co-op students from my own university!) were brought on a tour of the yard to see shipbuilding in action. It was quite a significant thing to witness in person.
It is a massive production line that extends 4 football fields – with several ships in various stages of production. Plates of steel are mark the beginning of the ship as you enter the Assembly Hall. Laser cutters make precision cuts for the steel to be welded and formed. As you move down the hall the mega blocks (there are 3) are taking shape. At the end of the Assembly Hall, the awesome mega block is in front of the massive blue hangar door, ready to be moved 27 metres high, 2600 tonnes of ship!
Caption: Stern and Centre Mega Blocks for the third Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship, the future HMCS Max Bernays move from the Assembly Hall at Halifax Shipyard to be joined at land level, January 2021.
Stern megablock (1) being moved alongside centre megablock (2)
A lot has changed since that first tour of the Halifax Shipyard. Those steel plates I was initially surrounded by at the entrance of the building are now pictured above in the form of the recently moved Mega Blocks for the third of six Artic and Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS) being built for the Royal Canadian Navy. This move was a major milestone for the program.
In addition, during my 2020 co-op term, HCMS Harry DeWolf (AOPS 1) was being prepared for test and trials – it has since been delivered to Canada’s Navy and is in active service. At the same time, the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) program has been progressing quickly! The team is working on the Preliminary Design Phase right now to ensure the CSC design is meets the requirements set out by Canada for the various missions the Royal Canadian Navy will undertake with this new class of ship. Everyone is working hard to have everything ready in time for when the fast-paced build of AOPS ships has concluded.
It is an exciting place to be as a Naval Architect – part of a new era of sophisticated ships. There is always something new –and interesting— to be observed or learned. Adapting quickly and using every opportunity to take in something new has meant some really rewarding assignments!
Tanish Dagar
Blog 1: Hello World
October 22, 2021
In this edition, I would like to share the most important thing in a co-op student’s life: their work! I’ll briefly describe what a day is like for me at JDI IT.
I work as a Programmer Analyst Intern and my job is to work on PowerApps application development by creating, making enhancements or fixing any bugs - or, in simpler terms, a request from a business that can include building an application or adding a new feature to an existing application. The best thing about working as a Programmer Analyst Intern is that coding and designing applications is just one part of the job. Another part is to figure out where to start and that includes understanding the business and communicating with them throughout the task.
My day starts with a large cup of coffee. It’s my fuel. I go to the office at 8:30 AM and the first thing I do is look at my emails and go through my Microsoft Teams, then I get to work on the fun part: “CODING”. When I am doing this the time flies by so quickly that by the time I look at my clock, it is already time for lunch. Most of the time I try to bring my lunch from home but the location of JDI IT is so good that sometimes I step outside and go to the Saint John City Market. There are so many places to go near the office to explore.
As mentioned above the work is not only doing coding or designing applications but also talking to the businesses and solving their needs. The latter is the challenging part. In university, students are only taught about how to code or build applications but in co-op you learn the real stuff. It is not only coding, it is more than that.
I think co-op is an amazing opportunity for any student to learn skills like this and where else would be a better place than JDI IT?
See y'all soon!!!
Some of you may be reading my blog posts and thinking “Okay what you’re telling us is great but is what you’re learning really something you’ll use forever?”. My answer to that question is the same as what your high school teachers said when you used to ask them if you’d ever really use what they’re teaching you in the real world: YES!
To reassure you, here are 4 things I think everyone will learn when they do a co-op term with JDI:
How you work
Working in a professional environment is a lot different than managing coursework at school. During a work term you’ll learn a lot about yourself, especially what it takes for you to be motivated and excited about your work. You’ll also be able to learn how best to prioritize your work and what helps you stay organized to get things done.
It’s good to take risks
To clarify, I’m not saying you should run wild and try to do everything yourself. What I mean is that after you’re comfortable with your role, sometimes it’s good to take a chance with something or make an independent decision. You might end up being wrong or making a mistake, but that’s just another chance for you to learn.
The work culture you want
School is way different than a professional work environment because most of the people around you are the same age and dealing with the same problems. Working in a “real” work environment for a co-op term can help you figure out the culture you’ll be looking for when you start your career. Luckily for me, the culture at Lake Utopia is a definite example of what I’d like to be a part of. Everyone is friendly, welcoming and approachable – which is great for a student who has a lot of questions.
What your future career will be
My supervisor told me that there are three “L’s” that will help you decide what your full-time job will look like: Love, Location and Lifestyle. One of the things your co-op term will help you figure out is if you love that industry, job, or company. You can adjust your future job searches accordingly when you know what you love from an actual experience. Location and lifestyle might not be as easy to figure out as a student, but you have to wake up every day and do your job, so loving what you do is really important.
I will never forget my first day of my first term at Irving Shipbuilding, as I walked through Halifax Shipyard for the first time. At the end of orientation, all the new hires, (several of which were co-op students from my own university!) were brought on a tour of the yard to see shipbuilding in action. It was quite a significant thing to witness in person.
It is a massive production line that extends 4 football fields – with several ships in various stages of production. Plates of steel are mark the beginning of the ship as you enter the Assembly Hall. Laser cutters make precision cuts for the steel to be welded and formed. As you move down the hall the mega blocks (there are 3) are taking shape. At the end of the Assembly Hall, the awesome mega block is in front of the massive blue hangar door, ready to be moved 27 metres high, 2600 tonnes of ship!
Caption: Stern and Centre Mega Blocks for the third Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship, the future HMCS Max Bernays move from the Assembly Hall at Halifax Shipyard to be joined at land level, January 2021.
Stern megablock (1) being moved alongside centre megablock (2)
A lot has changed since that first tour of the Halifax Shipyard. Those steel plates I was initially surrounded by at the entrance of the building are now pictured above in the form of the recently moved Mega Blocks for the third of six Artic and Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS) being built for the Royal Canadian Navy. This move was a major milestone for the program.
In addition, during my 2020 co-op term, HCMS Harry DeWolf (AOPS 1) was being prepared for test and trials – it has since been delivered to Canada’s Navy and is in active service. At the same time, the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) program has been progressing quickly! The team is working on the Preliminary Design Phase right now to ensure the CSC design is meets the requirements set out by Canada for the various missions the Royal Canadian Navy will undertake with this new class of ship. Everyone is working hard to have everything ready in time for when the fast-paced build of AOPS ships has concluded.
It is an exciting place to be as a Naval Architect – part of a new era of sophisticated ships. There is always something new –and interesting— to be observed or learned. Adapting quickly and using every opportunity to take in something new has meant some really rewarding assignments!
