Monthly Archives: April 2015

by Calvin Cheng – Tec-UBC RA

Over the past term, I have had the opportunity to work at Ericsson as a co-op software developer. Just like any other phase in life, there were a number of great successes and wonderful memories, along with a number of challenges and even better memories. Given that it is the end of the term and you may be thinking about what lies ahead in your journey, I thought I’d share a few notes about my experience in the co-op program.

1. The classic interview question, “Tell me about yourself,” is a trick question.

The question would much better be phrased, “Tell me what about yourself is going to want to make me hire you to work for our company.” Start thinking about what value you bring to the company, and what experiences you’ve had that make you a right fit for the job. In talking to my manager at my current workplace, I was told that his hiring decisions are often made just from that first question. After all, how you answer this deceptively simple question says a surprising amount about you—whether you’ve done your homework about the company, whether you are able to articulate your strengths and communicate effectively, and whether your values and passions align with that of the company.

2. It’s better to ask silly questions than to do something silly and have to fix it later.

Numerous times during my work term, I was reluctant to ask my manager for clarifications lest I be ridiculed in his mind. I carried on with my work, with my best assumption of what I was expected to do. It’s almost poetic to admit that every single time I did so, I managed to screw something up and ended up having to spend more time fixing what I had done than I would have spent if I had simply asked my manager first.

3. Get to know the fellow co-ops at your company.

They’re in the exact same boat as you, and it’s likely that few other employees at the company are nowhere near your age range. I would definitely say that having lunch with my co-op colleagues every day makes even the most dreadful and monotonous days better, as it so often seems that they totally understand. Being able to catch up on each other’s lives outside of the workplace is also a nice feeling, especially given that you’re spending a third of your life for the next 4-8 months here. And besides, who knows? You might be working with them again once you graduate—so not only will you have gained a new friend, you’ll have obtained a potential resource for your future career as well!

4. Embrace your mistakes, and learn from them.

This may sound cliché, but really couldn’t be any truer. A few weeks ago, I wrote a script to publish our team’s documentation onto our website. In the script, I included a line that would automatically reset our repository to our last confirmed revision, so that we would not be publishing things that haven’t been reviewed yet. The next day, I spent most of my time writing several sections in the documentation for our project. I saved all of the files and ran my script, completely forgetting that I needed to commit my changes into the repository first. The script reverted the documentation to the previous day’s revision, erasing all of the work I had done that day. Needless to say, I was very disappointed and demoralized, since my entire day had essentially gone to waste, and there was no way to retrieve it. What happened next, however, truly inspired me. I spoke to my manager about it, expecting to be ridiculed and laughed at. He did none of that; instead, he told me to remember the moment, and realize that mistakes happen and can bring us down sometimes, but picking ourselves back up and learning from our mistakes is what’s important. He told me he was actually happy that I did something like this, so that it could be an opportunity for me to grow as an individual. Coming from my manager… It definitely meant a lot to me, and is something that I will definitely remember.

5. Doing nothing doesn’t sound as appealing as it did in school.

Naturally, as a co-op student, there may be times when you have nothing to do, through no fault of your own. Your team may be working on tasks that must be completed before you can start yours, your manager/supervisor may be busy and not have the time to assign you new work, or perhaps you’re at a stage in the project where no work that you can do can be done. Regardless, I’ve found that not having anything to do at work is often excruciatingly monotonous; in school, I was overjoyed by the times when I had no assignments to do or exams to study for. In the office, however, periods of inactivity would often feel like tedious strings of unproductivity, as you want to do something to contribute, but there’s nothing you can do.

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by David Zhang – Korea-UBC RA

April is Finals Month, but don’t forget about your taxes!

April seems to be a bittersweet month for most university students. At times, it can be full of fun, and at other times, it is stress-filled. Besides being the last month of the university school year, unfortunately April brings along the 2-3 weeks of hair pulling, sleep deprived days that accompany exam season. Amidst these busy weeks, one can often overlook the fact that April 30th is also the deadline to file your Canadian Tax return. While some people may be lucky and have their parents take care of it, a lot of us will be left to ourselves to be responsible for filing our own Income Tax returns. When it comes to tax returns, there are two ways to get them done: do it yourself, or pay someone else to. Fortunately, at UBC there is a volunteer run tax clinic on campus that assists students with their tax returns. The people at UBC Tax will ask you to fill out a form regarding your personal information along with your tax forms and they will happily complete your tax return for you, free of charge.

If you would prefer to learn how to do your own tax return, so that once you graduate from UBC you can continue to do your tax return without having to look for a paid aid, then download the software call Studio Tax. Studio Tax is a free and safe software that allows you to construct your tax return through an easy to use interface that simplifies the process and reduces the amount of calculations needed.

When filing your tax return, there a few important forms that you will need. The first is your T4. If you worked during the past year, your employer will give you a T4, which tells you the amount that you earned in the last year, as well as how much you contributed to employment insurance and the Canadian Pension Plan. Another common form is the T5. This form illustrates how much you earned through interest on investments and for the average student, you will get a T5 from your bank for any interest you made off of the money you held in your account. On your tax return, you can also include amounts paid towards medical expenses and public transit passes. Considering that students do not generally make a substantial amount of income, including these small things will not affect your ending balance. However, if you make more than ten thousand dollars a year, then including these expenses will increase the amount of taxes you will get back from your Income Tax return.

Now that you have a brief introduction to filing your own taxes, I encourage you to learn more about filing tax returns and how to maximize your amount refunded, since you will be doing them for the rest of your life. Feel free to learn more by visiting www.cra-arc.gc.ca

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By: Stephen Ji

Time has fooled all of us with seemingly endless lectures on rainy Mondays and long Tim Horton’s lines. Low and behold, we are all just a number of weeks until we have to move out, and for some of us, clean up our rooms for the second time this year. Having been through this stage in first year I can tell you that it feels very much the same, and there is nothing I wish more than to stow away my books and notes to collect dust for 4 months after walking out of that last final. It is this time of the year that motivation reaches an all time low. As such, it is important to not lose that drive that has kept us going so far, to not forget about all the endless hours we’ve dedicated to our studies, and to go out into the summer days on a high note and fond memories. Here are some personal tips to stay motivated throughout the last days of class and finals season.

Put things in perspective: Whether it’s a class you’re not doing so hot in, or finding the energy to finish those last few chapters of readings, taking time to reflect on the larger picture will help collect thoughts. What are your goals? What are you passionate about? How will what you’re doing now benefit your pursuits? These are just a few of the questions that we can ask ourselves to hopefully get organized and stay focused.
 
Take care of YOU: We’ve all heard the “Oh I’m going to grab a monster real quick, not sleeping tonight” two times too many. Granted, sometimes extenuating circumstances call for such drastic actions, simply “catching up” or changing your sleep schedule is not beneficial in the long term. Therefore, getting a consistent sleep every night is key to taking care of yourself, and I don’t think there’s a better way to staying motivated than feeling like a rock star every morning.
 
Set Goals: We’ve all been there. “Do I study more for this final or the other? “ In the ideal academic situation, we’ve already been studying for both for 2 weeks. But as we all know, things don’t always go according to plan. This is not to say being in the ideal situation is not possible, it is completely possible, and all it takes is some good goal setting. Goal setting also comes in handy when you’re in a pinch, and what I’ve found helpful is to refer to the syllabus learning goals, writing down the key points you don’t understand, and then planning a way to tackle each within a certain period of time; keeping in mind you won’t have enough time to go into detail for all points.
 
The 1% rule: If you ask me, the 1% rule is the secret behind all the above tips. It combines putting things in perspective by setting goals so in turn you can take care of yourself. Here is the breakdown, it works by cumulative growth, which means you’re improving a small amount every day, or a couple of days, so that in the long term, you end up making substantial leaps. Take something as simple as sleeping earlier. If you can manage to sleep 1 minute earlier every day, in a month you’ll be sleeping half hour earlier, in 2 months, a whole hour earlier. The 1% rule helps you set goals that are reasonable. It can be adapted to fit anything you like, so give it a try and stay motivated.
 
Lastly, although looking to other people for motivation can help to inspire new ideas, it is ultimately up to you to find it in yourself to stay motivated and find that inner drive. Try new studying habits. Find what works for you. Don’t let small hiccups along the way slow you down. Most of all, it’s not the mistakes we make that define us, but what we choose to do about it that does. So, here’s an awesome last weeks, let’s all go out on a high note. And as they say, if you can survive first year, you can survive anything.

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