Another week, another post from your favourite marketing co-op student.

At the end of February I booked a meeting room, hurriedly tried to write down some accomplishments from the last month and met with Marcia, my co-op advisor.

Anyone who’s been though a co-op term should be familiar with the process: one day you get an email from your co-op advisor; it’s time to set up your site visit! Ready or not, it’s your chance to show off what you’ve been working on all semester. For me site visits always feel like a mix between show-and-tell and parent-teacher conferences from Elementary school. One part of you is excited to show off everything you’ve been hard at work doing, while the other part is a little nervous, even though you’re not quite sure what there is to be nervous about.

Your site visit is a great chance to reflect on what you’ve been learning and working on. Personally, I have a lot of difficulty setting out clear work term goals, with set steps and checked off accomplishments. It’s not that I don’t think I’m learning anything, I know I am, it’s just hard to pinpoint exactly what I’ve learned when I’m still in the thick of it.

Despite this, I still really enjoyed my site visit. It provided the opportunity to talk about what I’ve been doing, and I realised I was actually pretty proud of what I’ve been doing. I was also able to hear feedback from my supervisor and share my own feelings about the job, which I thought was really valuable.

Normally advisors speak to your supervisor alone, but my supervisor invited me in, so we were all able to discuss my progress together, which I really enjoyed. She was really open about what I was doing well, and what I could work on, which I could respond to immediately. Plus, who doesn’t love a bit of an ego boost?

Has anyone else recently had a site visit? Tell me about it here or tweet @lizzmoffat or @SFU_OLC.

If you’re still preparing for your visit read up on how to make the most of it. Either way, make sure you check out the rest of my Diary of a Marketing Co-op series.