Introduction

Hi! I’m Nicholas Januar, a Computer Science student at the University of British Columbia, graduating in May 2026. I have co-op experience in quality assurance, bioinformatics, and full-stack development, and am now exploring DevOps—containers, infrastructure, pipelines, and cloud systems. Outside of work, I enjoy playing sports and video games.

The Duck Whisperer

Why WorkSafeBC

I previously did a 4-month co-op at WorkSafeBC as a QA in a different team, and I had a great impression of WorkSafeBC. That was my first time working in an office and it was interesting to see how nice everyone was with most people greeting or smiling at you in the hallway. The office building itself was great too with the cafeteria serving delicious food and a gym that offered sports like badminton and volleyball, along with gym weightlifting equipment. The team I had was awesome, especially my supervisor. I wanted to extend it for another 4 months, but it was not possible at the time.

Around 6-7 months after I finished, I was reached out by WorkSafeBC’s HR to see if I’m interested in a Software Developer Co-op position. During the interview, I learned that the team I’d be joining is a service team, working with blueprints and pipelines, which is aligned to my current interest in DevOps. I applied, got accepted, and started another 4-month journey at WorkSafeBC.

Role & Projects

During my 4-month co-op, I worked as a Software Developer in the Common Engineering team. Before jumping into projects, I had to undergo onboarding training such as completing Dojo belts, which are self-paced training modules. I remember during the first few weeks, I was learning a lot of theory, but I was itching for hands-on work as I feel like that’s when I learn the fastest. I eventually spoke up to my team and manager asking for work. Looking back, I realized I should have been more proactive and communicating sooner.

My main co-op project was to investigate dependency tracking problem. In large organizations like WorkSafeBC, applications often depend on each other, and when one gets updated or decommissioned, it can be hard to know what else is affected. My role was to research and analyze potential solutions to make these dependencies easier to track and manage.

Another major part of my co-op role involved researching AI tools to help developers work more efficiently, such as setting up GitHub Copilot Custom Instructions files to help enforce code standards in our development teams. I also worked on updating YAML files and blueprint templates.

One of my favorite projects is experimenting and setting up custom Copilot instruction files for Angular development. One of the challenges being faced by our developers is that the code generated by GitHub Copilot does not follow the code standards and conventions that the team has. To solve this, I created custom instruction files that guide Copilot to generate code aligned with our code standards. I had a chance to demo this solution to our stakeholders and developers in our monthly Engineering Espresso meet up, and helped integrate the instruction files into our Angular project template.

New Experiences

What made this co-op the most memorable for me is that I had a lot of fun new experiences. I got to experience working in the office with everyone else back, as well as presenting in-person in a room full of stakeholders and developers from outside my team. I also attended my first ever tech meetup, Vancouver DevOps Meetup organized by WorkSafeBC professionals, where I got to meet new people from the industry. Another cool experience was writing my first ever blog post, which was something I did not expect out of this co-op term.

Ending Statement

Overall, this experience was one of the most fun and memorable co-ops I’ve done. From working on interesting projects, working with the amazing Common Engineering team, and having new experiences. I got to meet a lot of new friends as well, with many memorable moments from going out for lunch, morning coffee, exploring the office building, and hanging out outside the office. Additionally, as someone who loves badminton and volleyball, the sport sessions were really fun, and I got to meet so many new people coming from different departments. This co-op was the perfect balance between learning and connections.