EDCI 335 Post 1: My Best Learning Experience

Throughout my 4 years studying Civil Engineering at UVic, I have been given the opportunity to complete 4 work terms. Each work term, the knowledge I have accumulated throughout the previous school year comes into play in the real world. Today I will be writing about one work experience in particular working for a company called Summit Brooke Construction.

Working at Summit Brooke, I had one of my best learning experiences. I can accredit this to the team-oriented and collaborative environment in the office, as well as the particular tasks I was given on a daily basis. During this work term, I was given the responsibility of managing my own project, which started off by learning the basic skills and techniques that will constitute a successful project. My supervisor, who was a Professional Engineer and Project Manager himself, was very interested in ensuring I was successful. Everyday I would compile a short list of questions that I wanted to ask him about the construction industry, or an interaction I had during the day, or how to approach the next step of the small project I was managing. After a while I thought to myself how annoying this must have been to him, always having to answer my questions and take time out of his day to do so. But that’s just it, it wasn’t annoying for him. He enjoyed educating people and was genuinely invested in making sure I succeed. This is the core reason why this work experience was great for me.

Aside from just my supervisor, there were 2 other people in the office who were also great teachers. A few times a week one of them would pull me aside and give me some random lecture on something to do with project management or running a successful business. It was little things like these that helped me realize that there really are other people who want me to succeed and anyone can find these people, you just have to find the right place.

So that was a little spiel about my best learning experience. To summarize, my best learning experience came as a result of having mentors who were genuinely interested in my success and who always put time aside to answer my questions and teach me something new.