That Thing I Did For A Year

We're really excited to share this story - this week we got to talk to Abe Ratnofsky, our first computer science student! He had a really interesting year that took him from one startup to another in San Francisco, where he is still working.

Notes

0:21 - Exposure to computer science in high school and not being so into it, but then coming back towards it through first year

2:26 - Co-op terms prior to PEY, working on transit in Los Angeles and on derivatives trading in New York

4:05 - Making the decision to do PEY, going to company info sessions to find something

11:36 - Gaining confidence in technical skills, finding "the dream job" at a drone inspection company through Hacker News

16:06 - Interviewing for a job at a 3 person company

19:34 - Moving to San Francisco and getting settled in

24:40 - Leaving the dream job after just 3 months

29:00 - Setting a deadline to find a new job or going back to school

31:35 - Swiftly, where he currently works as a full-time software engineer

45:01 - Seeing a young company grow up in front of you, watching bureaucracy develop in real time

52:30 - The decision to continue working instead of coming back to school, education being "preemptible"

Music by Shawn Lee

In this very eye-opening episode we talked to Olivia Mogielnicki, a mineral engineering student, who spent her PEY around Northern Ontario and Manitoba literally mining for gold!

Notes

2:02 - Why she chose to study mineral engineering, some of her previous work experiences

2:58 - Living on the mining site working 12 hour days in 2 week rotations

4:30 - Working at the oil sands as a project coordinator for AECON

6:46 - Maintaining friendships during on rotation weeks; a day in the life doing metallurgy

10:07 - Investment banking for mining, negotiating her PEY contract

13:30 - Deciding to leave AECON and the logistics around that

17:03 - Lessons from deciding to leave a job

19:05 - New job - working on surveying at Vale, pushing for more work

24:00 - How well school prepared her for working underground

26:15 - The high stakes of work inside a mine

27:30 - Learning curve over the first 2 months

31:44 - Things she wishes she'd been taught before going on PEY

34:00 - What changes she plans to make to her courses in 4th year

35:10 - What she likes about working underground

37:30 - Learning to "tone down your Toronto"

41:30 - Playing DnD for the first time!!

Music by Shawn Lee

Up this week is Sam Stuart, our first MSE student! She did her PEY at Synaptive Medical and did a research exchange in Liverpool, while also doing some intellectual property consulting on the side.

Notes

0:00 - Being picky in applying for PEY jobs, interviewing for Synaptive Medical

1:50 - Canada Wide Science Fair, research background, ending up doing research and getting an interest in biology

5:15 - What Synaptive Medical does - robotic surgery

7:20 - What it means to work in quality: minimizing risk

10:57 - Learning curve working on a high tech product

12:45 - Learning to code

15:32 - Good days, bad days - bad day at work, burnout, learning to meditate

21:04 - Applying for research exchange through the CIE

22:20 - Improving fitting practices for contact lenses in Liverpool, for the BBC reporters!

25:30 - Travelling and travel blogging, hitting 20 countries over the summer, Headspace

28:07 - Learning to do IP inside a company and how that’s different from doing that at a law firm

34:05 - What you have to do to become a patent agent, and how an engineering background is useful for it

38:00 - Changes in plans to go to grad school, design + research based masters

41:15 - Giving a TEDx talk in Collingwood and working on outreach and having engineers share their stories

Links

Ready Set Zen travel blog!

Headspace

Isowater Corporation

Sam's TED talk!

Email Sam at [email protected]

Music by Shawn Lee

This week Andrew Kidd (EngSci Physics 1T8 + PEY) takes us through his time working at two different consulting companies, ZS associates and McKinsey & Company.

Notes

0:00 - First summer jobs, politics and government work, volunteering on campus

4:00 - What a consultant does

5:07 - Sales and Marketing consulting at ZS, working with pharmaceutical companies

8:45 - Project lifecycles, what makes a good one

14:26 - "The product is the people"

15:55 - Andrew's technical skillset, how his physics background has been helpful

18:34 - Selling yourself as an engineer, having to prove you're not antisocial

22:00 - Getting the job, how the interview process looks, case interviews

27:10 - Comparing the experiences at Mckinsey and ZS

30:35 - SCHMOOZING

33:28 - Coming back as a more effective person, potentially going back to work in consulting

35:38 - How the value consulting companies provide has changed; expert networks

43:15 - Closing thoughts, getting involved non-academically

Links

• Contact Andrew on Facebook

Music by Shawn Lee

In this episode we talked to former Mr. Blue and Gold, David Boroto, about working in civil engineering in Kenya and then Toronto!

Notes

1:37 - Getting involved in Engineers Without Borders, taking an interest in international development

7:42 - First 4 months at Kwangu Kwako - building affordable slum housing in Nairobi

13:10 - Innovation in civil engineering - building houses like lego

17:40 - Day-to-day tasks at an infrastructure startup

20:26 - Talking to families in the biggest slum in Africa, a different perspective on poverty

33:39 - How EWB has changed over time, going from being self-centered to human-centered

38:44 - Traffic engineering at IBI Group back in Toronto, working on dozens of different projects

42:30 - One particularly interesting project with Boulder traffic data

47:50 - On civil engineering moving slowly

54:09 - How the work has influenced David going into 4th year, making a career in infrastructure and global development, advice for PEY students

Links

• IBI Group
• Kwangu Kwako

Music by Shawn Lee

This week we spoke to Deborah, who split her PEY between 12 months at Clarifai in New York City and 4 months at the MIT Media Lab!

Notes

1:20 - getting into engineering, previous work experience and first jobs at JR Deep and with Project Include, becoming interesting in working in tech

3:45 - developing skills through attending lots of hackathons, attending TechCrunch Disrupt!

6:20 - learning about Clarifai in NYC and computer vision in school, deciding on doing PEY

10:00 - Embarking on a campaign to find a job at a startups, getting a job at Clarifai

13:00 - Work experience at Clarifai, startup work culture

18:10 - Transitioning to a role that felt more like a full-time position

20:05 - Living in Manhattan, moving to Brooklyn

22:20 - Neighborhood culture, comparing Toronto, Ottawa, and NYC, having space for personal growth

27:42 - Summer research at MIT Media Lab, "anti-disciplinary research"

30:45 - Finding out about the researcher through a TED Talk, research in algorithmic/data bias

36:17 - Other things going on at the lab, prosthetics, "do-ocracy" vs a meritocracy

39:58 - Constraints of industry vs. research, justifying research, corporate sponsored research

43:20 - Life outside of work, meeting cool hip musical friends in Cambridge

45:24 - Differences between MIT and UofT, "intersession", alumni relations

52:02 - Coming back and appreciating Toronto in a new way, changes to plans for 4th year

56:00 - Mentorship, machine learning twitter

Links

• Twitter
• Campaigning for jobs, another one
• TED Talk on algorithmic bias

Music by Shawn Lee

In this second episode we had the chance to talk to Anna, who did 12 months at RBC followed by 4 months at Apple working on the Siri team!

Notes

0:00: Intro

2:09 - Working as an analyst at RBC on prediction automation

3:45 - Comparing "technical" and "non-technical" roles and companies

7:05 - Switching to a management role at Apple, getting the job

12:54 - Work culture at Siri, feeling like a startup within a larger company

18:30 - Social life at Apple in California

21:30 - How the people at companies affect decisions to work there

26:18 - PEY changing her thoughts on the finance option and careers in the field, social lubricant

36:20 - Advice she'd give to her past self from before PEY

Links

• Contact Anna - [email protected]

Music by Shawn Lee

We kick off the show by interviewing Mohammed, who has just come back from 4 back-to-back internships at Facebook, Drop, Facebook again, and Microsoft!

Notes

0:00: Intro

2:05: Applying for many positions, getting himself to the point where he was ready

12:08: First internship at Facebook in Menlo Park

15:53: Internship at Drop, startups vs. large companies, imposter syndrome, 'big company skills'

23:20: Second internship at Facebook in London, cultural differences in UK vs US

29:09: Internship at Microsoft, this time as a PM

37:00: General takeaways, guiding questions from the year, looking forward to final year of school

Links

• Getting a Gig Github page
• Cracking the Coding Interview
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things
• Contact Mohammed

Music by Shawn Lee