A Day in the (Possible Future) Life

Today was Take Our Kids to Work Day -- an opportunity for Grade 9 students to spend the day with their parent, family member, volunteer, or family friend experiencing the working world.

Digital Echidna was proud to welcome Emilie Simmons, a grade nine student from London’s Catholic Central High School. Emilie’s aunt Sarah Kraushaar is a account manager at Digital Echidna, and Emilie spent the day meeting with various Echidnas to learn about the various roles at the company.

So what brought you to Digital Echidna?

My aunt works here. We had talked about it and we thought it would be cool to come here. The office is in a great building and I wanted to explore it.

Do you know what you want to do as a career?

I have no idea to be honest -- maybe something in kinesiology. I currently play hockey for the London Devilettes and play soccer with Southwest competitive.

Now that it’s the end of your day, what were some of the highlights?

I thought it was cool to learn new stuff on how people look at coding and discovering how are there are different ways to code. I found it really interesting going into the conference call and taking notes -- it was pretty cool and interesting to hear how people learn about building a site. I also enjoyed watching Asha [Ramji] show me the coding and how she does it -- how there are different variables. The designing that Aaron [Judd] showed me was cool too.

Was it what you expected? And does it give you an understanding of working life?

It was more of what I expected, seeing how there are different departments in the building working together and looking at all the different things people do. It’s hard to learn it all in one day, but it helps to learn how to do it and understand it.

Is Take Our Kids to Work Day something you were excited about?

I did look forward to it. I wanted to learn about this kind of job and see if it would be something  I’d be interested in and how it could relate to what I’m interested in. I think it’s cool.

It helps looking at these types of jobs, seeing if you’re right for it, and whether it’s something you’d want to be doing every day. You want to know whether it would bore you or if you’re smart enough to do something like coding.

Were there any surprises?

No, I pretty much expected to see people doing what they’re doing on the computers. I didn’t expect the environment to be this way -- I thought it would be more office-y. I like this work environment a lot. The looks of it, it’s relaxed.

How much thought do you give to the future, such as jobs and education?

I do worry about it. There’s the uncertainty of how, at such a young age, you’re choosing what you want to do as a career. Maybe in 30 years you won’t want to do it anymore.

You’re kind of on your own in some ways. The schools teach you what the curriculum wants to teach you. But if there’s something you want to do, you may have to wait until you’re older for them to teach you.

So what do you take away from this experience?

It gives me an idea. I don’t know if I could see myself coding, but I like the environment and seeing what Emily [Galan, Echidna’s HR co-ordinator] does -- I could see myself doing something like that when I’m her age.

What’s next? Volunteering? Jobs?

Those are still things that are farther along the road. I think I want to do something in the medical or business field. It depends on what changes happen in the future.

The most important thing is finding a job that I’m going to like, that I want to do, and that I want to go to every day.