Setting and Achieving Goals as a Co-op at Taplytics

With the end of the year came the end of my co-op term at Taplytics. I’m a double major in Computer Science and Statistics which fit well into my role at Taplytics as an SDK engineer.

Having completed several co-ops in the past and this being my final one, I wanted to focus on setting goals to track my progress throughout my 4-month term. My 3 goals this term were to take on half the SDK work, add more testing capacity to our current SDKs, and design a future feature for one of our SDKs. Reflecting back on my co-op term, I’m happy to say that all those goals were accomplished.

Taking on New Challenges

Staying focused on your goals can be challenging, especially when you’re a co-op joining a new team remotely. One of the biggest challenges I faced in my role was working with all the SDKs – and at Taplytics, we have a lot! Prior to working at Taplytics, I had never made an iOS app, but during my term, I was able to work on various codebases from Android, iOS, and React Native. This meant I not only had to learn about Taplytics products but many new mobile technologies. I loved the amount of ownership I got to take over the React Native SDK. With this SDK I learnt how to prioritize issues, and work with our clients directly to provide the help they needed. This gave me an insight into the importance of understanding how to work with a client to solve any problems they are facing.

Adding More Testing Capacity

I was able to achieve my goal of adding more testing capacity by learning how to set up a continuous integration pipeline. This means that whenever we try to add new code, it automatically gets prepared to be tested and reports to the team whether you can merge your new code. This is essential for keeping your products stable and bug-free, something the team is always on the lookout for!

Developing a New Feature

This goal was not only fun but challenging. I found that achieving this goal came from talking to people on the team and learning about the different SDKs. Once I got the hang of understanding each of them, I was able to think, “it would be nice if the SDK had this feature”. From there I asked people on my team if my idea would be something worth building out. Staying focused on your goals with such a limited amount of time at a company can be a challenge, but constantly keeping them top of mind throughout my term and reaching out to others when I needed support helped keep me on track.

Getting to Know the Taplytics Team

One of the best things about working at Taplytics was their remote onboarding experience. Since I joined the team remotely, I never had the chance to meet people in person and was worried that I may miss out on the fun culture that startups are so well known for. During the first week I was given a thorough intro to the product and how it works. 

Despite not meeting the team in person, I had the opportunity to meet people throughout the company with bi-weekly donuts meetings. These are bi-weekly meetings where you’re randomly paired with someone else on the team. During this time, you get the chance to chat with people you may not regularly work with or have the opportunity to meet. This was a wonderful way to meet people remotely and make connections.

Donut pairings were not only great for team morale but introduced me to people across the company which made reaching out to people easier when I needed to ask for help, something that can be intimidating to do as a co-op.

I learned a lot at Taplytics. Not only about how to build SDKs, but how to be proactive. Taplytics gave me the opportunity to take on a lot of responsibility. When you’re a co-op it can be daunting to try something new, meet new people, or even ask for help. As someone who did several co-ops throughout University my best piece of advice for other co-ops would be to ask for help. As awkward as you may feel, people will be happy to give a lending hand and there’s so much you can learn from co-workers. Having time at different companies during University is so valuable. You learn so much from not only the work you do but the people you meet. Plus, I can guarantee it will also help you reflect on the career you want to pursue.

During my time at Taplytics, I also discovered that if you think outside of the box and find ways to work on things outside of the tasks you’re given, you’ll grow a lot and build things you’re proud of! So if you have an idea, tell someone!