written by: Dalyn Hebert
For the past 4 months, I have had the pleasure of being an employee at the EPICentre. I say employee because I never felt like a co-op student. From the moment I walked in the door I have felt like I was an employee like everyone else. All the fears co-op students normally have when starting a placement disappeared. Will they trust my work? Will they give me grunt work? will the work help me in the future? Will the other employees like me? All of these were not a problem at the EPICentre as they had time and time again gone out of their way to give me important tasks, trust and value my ideas, modify my workload to better suit my career, and be nice and friendly to me.

While at the EPICentre they made me the lead of a competition they run called the Blue Sky Competition and I was tasked with everything from planning, marketing, and running the event. They were always available to give me feedback and advice when I needed it but I never felt like they micromanaged me and didn’t trust what I was doing. The experience was amazing for me as I was able to see a large-scale project from beginning to end and gain all the skills and knowledge that come with it.

I cannot recommend the EPICentre enough as a co-op position. The work you will be doing is very diverse and impactful, the work environment is very welcoming and creative, and the employees are some of the nicest and hardworking people I have met. If I never had to leave the EPICentre I wouldn’t have. I can confidently say that I not only left with new skills and experience, new connections in my network, but also new friends who I can check-in and ask for help whenever I need it. I would like to say thank you to the EPICentre from the bottom of my heart for the EPIC Co-op placement.