Name and where you worked for co-op?

“Mike Wheaton and i have done my co-ops at IWK health center, the center for research and family health”

When was your last co-op term?

“This past semester” “September 2012- December 2012”

How many co-ops have you done there?

“I have done 4 co-ops at the same place”

Where was it located?

“The IWK health center is just located on university avenue, just up the street here”

What type of tasks did you complete while on co-op?

“It has changed a bit, with each co-op i have done more. Overall Web development and App development.”

Describe a Problem that you were faced while on co-op and how you dealt with it?

“The biggest project we have is looking at research on helping people with headaches. So we are building an app to help people track their headaches, what may be causing them, what they can do to relieve them. So this has been the biggest problem over the past few years, trying to take the clinical knowledge and turn it into an app that actually works for people. Designing it based on their requirements and then actually building something that matches the design.

What did you like or dislike about your team / environment?

I like it the best because its a very small team, recently i was the only developer. It was me and some psychologists.I guess that’s a dislike because there’s not a whole lot of guidance — if you want to be a better developer it’s good to be on a team of developers. So there’s less guidance but I’ve had a lot of flexibility in terms of starting with a blank slate and build whatever you think is going to work for us and it’s nice to start new projects instead of maintaining old stuff.

Has this experience impacted what you want to do in the future?

It started off as just one co-op but then I went back and back and now I work there full-time, it has turned into my after graduation (job). So yeah, a big impact for sure.

Would you recommend Co-op?

Yeah definitely, I’ve heard some stories of some bad co-ops but I think like 80% of them probably are good and it’s just .. yeah there’s no other substitute for getting out there and having a job and getting some real experience. I think it’s great.

Did you experience a lifestyle change?

Yeah, you know the whole structure of it like having to work an actual 8 hour day. I think it’s hard to go from 4 years of university without having a real job, a daytime job, to just graduating a being thrown into you work from 8 to 4 — it’s such a different lifestyle to just having to be focused during the day and not have homework at night. It’s good and bad.

How would you rate your experience from 1-5 (5 being most positive)?

Five