A Day in the Life of a Business Co-op Student
Guest post by Nick Pineau, BCom student & 2016 Co-op Student of the Year
“What do you actually do every day?” is a question I’m commonly asked when I tell people I’m working at a tech company. Even though I’ve been asked this dozens of times, it’s still tough to nail down exactly what I do, day-to-day. I usually respond with something like: “A little bit of research, a little bit of writing, a few meetings a week.” In reality, no single day at my job looks the same as the one before.
Another difficult question I’m often posed is: “What does your company actually do?” In essence, Redbrick is a product development company that specializes in software analytics and distribution. Last year, we were named the second fastest growing software company in Canada by Profit 500, with over 8,000% growth over the last five years! Right now, Redbrick is in an exciting growth phase between startup status and full maturity, and has some owned and operated software that drives the majority of its revenue, which allows Redbrick to fund a ton of exciting new projects.
This means I get to work on cool stuff like marketing a B2B software analytics platform entitled Deskmetrics; a B2C Gmail productivity client called Shift; an influencer-marketing management platform entitled Assembly; and a digital healthcare product that is still in private beta. These four projects are all incredibly diverse, and learning how to market each product strategically has been fantastic.
With the variety of products that Redbrick creates, I’ve had the chance to do some ridiculously weird and awesome marketing work. Some of my (cooler) duties have included writing blog posts, creating an online ad campaign, helping design an Instagram-influencer contest and writing (hopefully) funny email and online ads. The list is essentially endless of what I have done and will continue to do, and that’s a big reason I would love to continue working in tech after I graduate: you’re never, ever bored.
All of this sounds pretty exciting, right? It is – and I haven’t even mentioned the best part about my job yet: the people (cliche, I know). However, Redbrick (and tech is general) is filled with smart, fun and hardworking people that not only produce great work, but also create a fun and dynamic working environment. I’m always shocked at how bizarre some of our lunchtime talks are thanks to the diversity of minds at our office: when developers, marketers, and sellers mix together, there are certainly some unexpected conversations. We have in-office ping pong tournaments every Friday, run club on Wednesdays, have gone curling and had a quarterly party at Peacock Billiards already. Our next big company-wide excursion is to go dragon boating!
All this contributes to a simple formula that explains why I’ve enjoyed my co-op so much:
Interesting Work + Great People x Dynamic Culture = An Awesome Working Environment
This is definitely a combination you find at Redbrick, but I’m sure it’s also seen at tech companies all over the city, country and world. The dynamism is never-ending and the internet truly is ever-changing. If you’re considering a career in tech, I would highly recommend it for almost anyone; not only will you learn a ton and get to flex your brain in ways you can’t in other industries, you will wake up each morning excited about what you’re going to be doing at work that day.
