By Adrian Shiu.
As a high school co-op student, the opportunity to gain real work experience relating to a field that interests you can be both exciting and scary. However, the anxiety of working slowly melts away as time progresses. Working for an online business such as Wudbites gave me a deeper insight into the world of e-commerce, and marketing, as well as knowledge about the culture of the Middle East.
Before my placement, searching for a placement relating to business and finance proved to be a more difficult task than I initially anticipated. I would email around 5-10 different businesses per day, and a few days later, I found that I had emailed at least 30 businesses with only 3 of them responding to me. It was only through my mother’s neighbors that I found this wonderful opportunity to work as a co-op student in Wudbites, and it felt like a giant weight had been lifted from my shoulders when I found out. Initially, I was hesitant, I didn’t know what to expect from co-op, let alone an online placement. All I knew was that I needed to work in something relating to marketing and chocolates. When I began my placement, the first thing that I noticed is how the business incorporated Middle-Eastern ingredients into chocolates, which is something I have a limited understanding of. Cardamom, Tahini, Pistachio, those words sound so foreign yet so familiar, I have probably heard these words somewhere before, I thought. The task that I was assigned for my first week is relating to creating descriptions for the different types of chocolate for social media, and that meant I had to conduct research relating to all of the products that I am unfamiliar with. It was only through asking questions of my friends who lived in the Middle East did I gain a better understanding of the products I was working with. While the week that I had done for my first week wasn’t perfect, my supervisor, Nesreen, was understanding and kind enough to give me advice on improving my work, and it was the encouragement that allowed me to continue learning.
After a few months of working in my placement, I was able to understand the flavors of the Middle-Eastern ingredients featured in Wudbites through research and creating draft posts for Wudbite’s Instagram, but I had never actually been able to experience them. It was then that I was allowed to visit a Christmas Market to not only help out the Wudbites stall but also to finally taste the chocolates that I had only seen on images. Needless to say, I was very nervous since the only other time I had managed a stall was for my school’s cultural festival. I woke up not knowing what to expect in this event, and once I got into the car, Nesreen calmed my nerves by essentially telling me that the event wasn’t as scary as I would have thought it was. Even though I was still a little nervous, I considered her words and readied myself for a new experience. As I was setting up the stall, I was able to experience first-hand the flavors of the chocolates of Wudbites, and while I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect at first, it was definitely a pleasant surprise. The aroma of the rose and cardamom lingered in my mouth throughout the entire duration of the Christmas market. After we finished setting up the stall and waited for a while, the people began walking into the Christmas market. As the people passed by the Wudbites stall, I greeted them and internally memorized the prices for all of the products in hopes that I wouldn’t mix them up. And when our first customers rolled in, I would say my pitch about Wudbite’s products, and the price, and try to answer any questions that they may have. Overall, everything went smoothly in the market, and even though there were some difficult customers here and there, Nesreen could quickly handle the situation. Moreover, it is with experiences like this one that will allow me to learn, and grow as a person, and Wudbites effectively provides me with this opportunity and lesson.
As I head further into adulthood, I will carry on the lessons and skills that I have gained over my time in Wudbites, as well as the knowledge of the flavors in the Middle East with me. This placement had been insightful and informative for a student such as me, and while the future is unknown, one thing that is for certain is that based on my experience with them, Wudbites’ success would only get larger as time goes on.