I still remember the email I got from career management stating that I had been shortlisted for an interview with Plaid Analytics (formerly known as Plaid Consulting). The very next day, I had my interview scheduled with the company over Zoom. I was excited and nervous as this was the first time I would be giving an interview over Zoom.
The interview went better than I expected, and I was offered the position and thus began my IAL (Ivey Analytics lab), which took place over the summer and the entire Fall semester. If I am being candid, I was apprehensive about working remotely and working with people in different time zones. Many concerns were put to rest on my first day of work as the onboarding process went smoothly, and in less than half a day, I had a good idea regarding the technologies used. During the first two weeks, I had daily check-in meetings with the company, which really helped me hit the ground running. Later on, we started following a biweekly schedule, which included providing updates on our progress and plan for the next week. To track progress, the company uses Jira, a project management tool. To the uninitiated like me, it felt like a different ball game altogether. Andrew Drinkwater and Pat Lougheed, the co-founders of the company were kind enough to explain to me how it works numerous times over my time at Plaid. We also had Slack for instant messaging, and everyone was available for quick Zoom calls to help clear out my doubts regarding things that did not make sense to me in the first place.
My experience at Plaid Analytics was nothing short of exceptional. The team wanted me to learn as much as possible while working for them, and numerous times they gave me projects which helped me learn new technologies and software. During my time there, I became adept at Tableau and learned a lot about the data virtualization tool Denodo. From the start of my work term, I did not feel as if I was a newcomer in the company, and all my ideas and opinions were taken into account; the treatment that I got at Plaid did not make me feel like I was interning at the company, but rather I was part of the company itself. Not to mention that the company was very accommodating when I asked them for a few days off to go on a trip with my friends on a short notice or when I asked them to speed up my transition from a full-time to a part-time employee early by a week or so. The whole team provided me with mentorship that I believe I could not have received elsewhere; they were very accommodating in my learning process and were instrumental in both my professional and personal development. Both the co-founders Andrew and Pat made the steep learning curve a lot easier for me with their support.
My biggest take away from my work term at Plaid Analytics is that even working remotely can allow you to achieve the same efficiency level as long as you have effective communication between your team members. What started as a full-time role in July transitioned into a part-time position in September when school reopened for the fall semester. My work routine completely changed because of school, but I believe that this did not affect our output as a team since I always tried my best to keep them in the loop regarding my progress, and at the same time, they were accommodating to the fact that I could not work on a fixed schedule. While I was in Toronto, I started working for the company and then worked part-time while I was in London. I then finished my internship while being in New Delhi, India. This would not have been possible had this opportunity had not been remote! Now that my work term is over, I feel surreal that almost six months have gone by. I have never met Andrew, Pat, or Anya in person, but it feels like I have known them for the longest time. I have gotten used to our check-in meetings on Tuesday’s and our planning meetings on Friday’s. Hopefully, I will be able to meet them in person one day when things get back to normal.
