If we could use one word to describe the IAL journey, the only one that comes to mind is “adventure”. From the company reveal date to the interviews and the matching process, every student anxiously waited to find out about the opportunity they were about to receive.
Team IAL had three very different experiences at each company:
Shirley Han CONNECTED with a dynamic team within Bell Canada as a Business Intelligence Analyst. Read about her experiences below with one of Canada’s largest telecommunications company and their ventures in The Internet of Things.
Corinne Peters had the opportunity to apply analytics to her passion – HOCKEY! Find out how she contributed to the analytics of team performance as a Hockey Analyst at Stathletes Inc.
Afshin Nensi spent the summer PATIENT-ly trying to find the perfect model to drive better outcomes for Ontario healthcare. His time as a Data Analyst at Cancer Care Ontario proved to be an informative and eye-opening experience.
Our three students answered the below questions about their time during their Ivey Analytics Lab:
The hardest part about IAL:
SHIRLEY: Working under ambiguity and time constraint to find the right people, ask the right questions and get the right data. I was assigned with five other interns to work on an Internet of Things (IoT) consulting project for the company. The goal of the project is to better support customers’ IoT needs via online, in-store, and call center channel. Nothing was given except for a project topic, we had two project primes to kick off the project. The most challenging part of the project is to find the right people, ask the right questions, and request the right data within a corporate environment. We had to be clear on what do we want to get out from each contact and conversation. Using the available resources to investigate into the gaps and come up with recommendations to mitigate the problems.
CORINNE: The hardest part about IAL for me was moving to St. Catharines. After having moved to London and being surrounded by friends every day I was off to St. Catharines alone. Being the only intern was an amazing opportunity that allowed me to focus on my projects and showcase my skills. However, it also meant I was arriving at the office alone on my first day, in a new town where I knew no one. Things got a lot better after I made friends with my coworkers. I also visited some friends from Ivey on weekends which helped.
AFSHIN: The most difficult part was deciding what to tackle. Working within the Healthcare sector, there is a copious amount of data, from many different sources with a lot of valuable information to drive insights from. It was hard to not only find the appropriate information, but to be as accurate as possible – conclusions that you draw are impacting patient’s lives. The exploratory experience proved to be challenging, but one of the most rewarding internships I’ve had, knowing that I had the chance to play a small role in driving better patient outcomes towards a better life for them.
The best memory you had about IAL:
SHIRLEY: My best memory about IAL is the time I spent with my team. I had the most diversified team with six people in the group. My team had two BI consultants include myself and another intern, which make us the data persons for the project. The rest four interns were the experts in various areas. We were be able to leverage our talents and all contribute to the project. One member had strong communication skills and became the main contact of the team, another member had strong time management skills, he made sure all the progress we made is on time. Two other members are very good at building deck and writing, who managed to build the slides. We all helped each other out whenever we need anything, I never had a team function as efficient as this team did. Gladly we all became close friends in the end.
CORINNE: One of the team building activities we did this year at the office was jet boating on the Niagara River. It was really fun to be out of the office with my coworkers. I also love anything on the water so this activity was right up my alley! Here is a picture of us on the jet boats!
AFSHIN: Our frequent CCO squad lunches! I had 5 other Ivey students working at CCO, and we would all look forward to lunch, explore downtown to find new lunch spots and restaurants, talk about how different all our projects are, and actually get the chance to learn a lot about each other. I will always appreciate the opportunity we had to get to know each other outside of Ivey. We shared our exciting moments, our frustrations, and some of the funniest things that happened to us over the summer.
One piece of advice you got that you will keep with you:
SHIRLEY: Know your strength and build up on it. A well-functioned team needs people with different talents. Throughout the internship, I became more self-aware. I found myself like analyzing information and calculating the risks between different options. I have some prior marketing and data analytic experience, which made me an ideal candidate for marketing analytical role, finding customers insights from data and make recommendations to increase business performance. This helps me position my role in the team, not only myself but the whole team benefits from this as we could work more efficiently.
CORINNE: Whatever opportunities come your way, grab them and run.
AFSHIN: Go into every discussion, every presentation, and every meeting with an open mind. You’re surrounded with individuals that have different experiences, various ideas and more than likely will have questions. Instead of being defensive, understand what they are sharing with you – take it as an offering, a privilege that someone is looking to help you become better.
