Hey! It’s been about a week since I finished my Fall 2024 co-op term as a MarTech Software Engineer at Sun Life, and I wanted to share my thoughts on the experience. This will be me reflecting and rambling about the work I did, the people I met, and the things I learned.
Team & Work
I’ll start off by saying that I had a great time at Sun Life. I was part of the MarTech Engineering team, which is responsible for building and maintaining marketing technology solutions that help Sun Life reach its customers. I worked on a vairiety of projects, including a new internal tool for finding specific keywords across all of Sun Life’s content, and a couple new features for some upcoming marketing campaigns. My team consisted of 15 other engineers, all split up onto smaller “squads” (sub-teams, essentially) that focused on different projects. I was on the “Elite Squad”, which was responsible for building these new campaigns and tools.
My squad was great. I was lucky to have a team that was very welcoming and supportive. I was the only co-op student on the team, but I never felt like I wasn’t part of the team. I was given a lot of responsibility, and was able to work on some pretty cool projects. The other engineers on the team Calvin, Love, and Fanindra were all incredibly helpful and patient with me, and I learned a lot from them. I would like to think that I was able to contribute to the team in a meaningful way, and I hope that I was able to help them out as much as they helped me.
I would also like to mention the rest of my squad, who I didn’t work with as closely, but were still great people. Toni, Mangesh, Swapnil, and Tahmina were all great to work with, and I hope that I get the chance to work with them again in the future.
The main technology my team worked with was Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), which is a content management system that Sun Life uses to manage all of its web content. I had never worked with AEM before (or even heard of it!!), so there was a massive learning curve. Fortunately, I was mostly writing backend code in Java, as well as some JavaScript which I was already familiar with through course work and my previous co-op term.
I also had the chance to use some DevOps tools like CDD and Jenkins, which I had never used before. Nothing too complicated, but it was still nice to be able to learn my way around these tools.
People & Culture
My role was technically hybrid, based in the Waterloo office, but my team and squad were both 100% remote. I was a bit worried about this at first, as one of my main goals for this term was to meet new people and to experience working in an office setting.
Fortunately, Sun Life hosts a lot of events and activities for co-op students and interns. These events were absolutely incredible, and I had a great time at all of them. I met more people than I can remember, and I hope that I can keep in touch with them in the future.
One of these events, the “Beat the Boss” event, was hosted every month and was a great way to meet both current co-ops and managers/higher ups at Sun Life. They also included some sort of competition, like a trivia game, ping pong, or haunted house decorating contest.
Here’s a couple of the people I met at Sun Life events that I would like to mention:
- Ervin, Rishad, Ava, Diya, and Barry: Honestly, the best team I could have asked for. I am so thankful that I was able to work with them on the CI Challenge and meet up the few times we did. I hope that we can keep in touch in the future.
- Mahir, Alex, and Rishad (again): Absolute geniuses. So happy that I was able to work with them on the Elevate Cloud Tech Hackathon, and I hope to work with them again in the future.
- Alan, Arseny: Even though we never had the chance to work together, I am glad I was able to meet up with them every time I went into the office.
I wish I could mention everyone I met, but there were just too many people. I hope that I was able to make a good impression on everyone I met, and I hope to see them again later.
Sun Life also hosted 2 longer term events that I was able to attend: the “CI Challenge” and the “Elevate Cloud Tech Hackathon”. The CI Challenge was a 3 month long competition where teams of co-op students would design a pitch that would either improve Sun Life’s current processes or create a new product. The Elevate Cloud Tech Hackathon was a week long event where teams would build a AWS cloud-based solution to a problem that Sun Life was facing.
CI Challenge
I am so thankful that I signed up for the CI Challenge. I was put on a team with 5 other co-op students, Ervin, Rishad, Ava, Diya, and Barry. Working with this team was by far top 2 experinces I had at Sun Life. We worked incredibly well together, and created a pitch that we were all proud of. Unfortunately, we didn’t end up winning, but I am still so happy that I was able to work with this team.
The day of the final pitch was one of the most stressful days of my life. I was coming off of a cold, and I was so nervous that I was shaking. We were the second team to present, and I was so relieved when it was over. We ended up presenting to a panel of 5 AVP or higher level judges, as well as 70+ other managers, co-op students, and anyone else who wanted to watch. We even presented to the EVP & Chief Information and Technology Innovation Officer, Laura Money, who said we had a great pitch & idea.
Elevate Cloud Tech Hackathon
I originally wasn’t even going to have a team for the hackathon, but fortunately, just a couple days before the event, Rishad asked me to join his team. The team consisted of me, Rishad, as well as Mahir and Alex. We worked incredibly well together, and ended up winning the entire event! This was my first time ever participating in a hackathon, and I am so happy that I was able to win.
I have an entire blog post dedicated to the Elevate Cloud Tech Hackathon, which you can read here: week10
One of the prizes for winning was a lunch with the CTO & SVP, Allen Porter. This was an incredible experience, and I am so thankful that I was able to have a nice lunch and casual conversation with him.
Conclusion & Reflection
Sun Life has been an incredible place to work. I can see how they keep winning “Best Place to Work” awards, haha. I will be forever grateful to my manager, Michael, for giving me the opportunity to work at Sun Life. I am glad to have gained the experience of working at a large corporation, and I hope that I was able to make a good impression on everyone I met.
Fall 2024 Goals Conclusion
At the start of the term, I set some goals for myself. Here’s how I did:
- Succeed at Sun Life. Be an actual useful member of the team has meaningful ideas & contributions.
I would like to think that I was able to do this. I was given a lot of responsibility, and I hope that I was able to help my team out as much as they helped me.
- Climb at a V5 level consistently (higher if possible :D).
I am definitely not at a V5 level consistently, but I have made some progress. I am able to climb some V5’s, but I still struggle with some V3’s. I can confidently say that I am a better climber than I was at the start of the term, which is really all I wanted.
- Swim at least 1x a week
Definitely did not do this. I only went 6 times over the entire term, and have only gone once in the last 3 months. I really enjoyed it, but I just never had the time to go. Technically a fail, but I’m not too upset about it.
- Go to the gym at least 1x a week.
Don’t even want to talk about it. I haven’t gone since the second week of September.
- Start some hardware-based (Raspberry Pi) projects.
I’ve started a project, but haven’t made any significant progress. This was a bit of a stretch goal, and I never considered the fact that I would have to wait multiple weeks for parts to arrive off of AliExpress.
- Write a short blog post / weekly recap once a week.
I can confidently say that I did this (except for the last 2 weeks, but this one is so long I’ll consider it acceptable for both). I wrote a blog post every week, and I even wrote a separate post for how I made Packing during my previous co-op term.
Though I did do it, I definitely will not be doing it during my next term. Maybe once a month, but once a week is just too much haha.
What’s Next?
I am going back to school for the Winter 2025 term, where I will be taking:
- COSC 2P05: Programming Languages
- COSC 2P08: Programming For Big Data
- COSC 3P91: Advanced Object-Oriented Programming
- COSC 4P50: Introduction to Cyber-Security
- MATH 1P05: Applied Calculus I
For now, I am excited to go back to classes, but I know the feeling won’t last long.
Another exciting thing: I will be starting as a Club Executive & Webmaster for the Brock Computer Science Club (BrockCSC). I am excited to be able to help out with the club, and to be able to work on some cool projects.
Me and Oliver have also made some significant progress to the Brock Timetable automatic course schedule generator, including some new features, performance improvements, and a complete frontend redesign. I am excited for March (when the spring/summer course schedule is released) to get some real users and feedback.
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After:
