Blog: Yet Another

That was a quick four months.

The co-op program at Waterloo provides the opportunity for students to gain work experience during university. Students can gain crucial information about working in the field and leverage that into a full-time job later on.

During AP Physics at TOPS, whenever we would groan about the results of the recent test or lab report, my teacher Mr. van Bemmel often reminded us that his class (or in general, high school) is where we can make mistakes and have several chances with "Uncle Henri", and how past high school, things will become more serious. That's how TOPS prepared me for university, and I believe the same can be applied with co-op. We're given six chances to tour around Canada and even the world before settling down.

I had a great time working at Yahoo. Since it was my first internship, I dove in without many expectations. That didn't matter anyways; if I had any expectations, they would have been shattered.

During my time there, I was a front-end developer and part of the growth team for Yahoo Mail. The new version of desktop Yahoo Mail was in development when I joined, and was only available to Yahoo employees. That's where my first task was, and it helped me get familiar with Mail's tools such as React. Afterwards, a friend and I created MercuryWM using React, applying what I had learned from the internship.

There were a few aspects of my internship that truly made it amazing:

  1. My changes would be visible to the public. After completing a project, I would be able to see it live and other users can already interact with it. Having an agile workflow with frequent production pushes helped bring this faster.
  2. At first, I was expecting to only work on Yahoo Mail's desktop website, but I was assigned tasks across several Mail products, rather than sticking to one. My tasks covered two different Mail platforms, and one part rather detatched from Mail. With such variety, I got to learn the workflow and tools of three independent products.
  3. Not only did Yahoo Mail undergo a huge change, but so did Yahoo. Verizon's deal to acquire Yahoo closed halfway through the term, and I'm lucky to have been part of it. I was able to experience Yahoo and its culture by itself, but also experience how a company can change after an aquisition. I joined Yahoo, and left Oath.

Over the course of these four months, I've made new friends, learned new technologies, met new people, and lived a different life. I've even grown fond of MacBooks (although they're still way overpriced). Overall, it has been an amazing experience working at Yahoo, and I can't to see where co-op will bring me next.