Julie Babineau is just over a month into her first co-op term with Kent Homes. The fourth year Operations Management student from Université de Moncton, was first introduced to JDI student opportunities in December, when she was on a winning team of a case competition that JDI’s Sawmill Division sponsored. Julie sat down with us to chat about her career and experiences gained so far during her co-op.

JDI's Construction and Equipment Division's Build Your Career Program is geared toward helping co-op students, what excites you most about this program?

Julie: I personally cannot wait to start building my life including the career of my dreams. The Build Your Career program with Construction and Equipment permits me to grow personally and professionally by creating meet and greets with individuals. It lets me make connections and bring out multiple opportunities as well as giving me training on multiple aspects that are important in order to create a good workplace environment.



Kent Homes is a great place for that, can you share a little bit about what you’re working on this summer?

Julie: This summer I will be playing a role in the procurement department by managing the expediting. I will be keeping tabs on open orders to ensure they will be here on time, contacting vendors to rush orders if needed and helping this department with anything they need.



Given what you've already learned about the business, what else do you hope to learn about the business?

Julie: I hope to learn the reality of the business; what drives the work environment, the process of creating theses units and how the team works together to get it done. 



Co-ops are a great way to gain experience, what skills do you hope to learn that you can apply throughout your education or career while at your co-op at Kent Homes?

Julie :I hope to learn every skill that could help through the rest of my career. I would like to keep developing existing skills and learn more through the summer. In this field I think organization, time management, initiative and autonomy are all extremely important traits so I hope I will learn tips in tricks to better myself.



You're a month in now, and have a bit of an idea of the lay of the land, what are you most excited about?

Julie: I am most excited to get more experience in this field of work, to have a different perspective on this type of job and get more connections with the objective of building my future career. I think it’s very important to work in different locations in order to understand the field of work, the different ways of management and experience a variety of work environments that allow you to grow, be able to understand the responsibilities given to you and their importance in the workplace. Making connections is very important to me as I have learned [through my other co-ops], good relations with vendors, clients and co workers bring you the most reward at the end of the work day because they are the ones that will be able to help and accommodate you when you need it. I want to continue doing this all through my career to work my way up in this field.



Interested in becoming a Build Your Career student? Check out our opportunities at students.jdirving.com/