Colliers is a Canadian commercial real estate (CRE) firm, headquartered in Toronto. The firm provides services to tenants and landlords ranging from brokerage, property management, urban planning, engineering, and beyond. As fulfillment of the requirements for my co-op program, I first worked at Colliers in a data entry role in Winter 2023, after which I transitioned to a data quality analyst role for the summer. This year, I returned to the firm as a GIS Intern, where I have used my aptitudes for the software to make an impact on the team.

              My interest in GIS was first spurred on by a required course for my program, an introductory course to the discipline (ENVSOCTY 2GI3) taught by Patrick DeLuca. I was immediately drawn to the technical elements of this industry, and I found the applications to business solutions especially interesting. I furthered that interest by taking an Advanced Vectors GIS (ENVSOCTY 3GV3) course in my third year, taught by Dr. Darren Scott. In my fourth year, Dr. Scott taught me a course in GIS Python scripting (ENVSOCTY 4GS3), and also acted as my thesis supervisor, where I used Python scripting extensively to analyze large datasets of bikeshare user behaviour. Also in my fourth year, Patrick DeLuca taught me a course in web GIS (ENVSOCTY 4GT3), where I learned how to use ArcGIS Online for interactive applications.

              During my previous co-op placements at Colliers, I was seated near the Research Team. This team employs analysts who work across a range of disciplines, to provide services to advisors internally within the firm, and publish reports externally to media outlets and the general public about trends in CRE. Due to my proximity to this team, I was able to get an idea of their role within the business.

              Employed on the Colliers Research team are two GIS Analysts, who form their own subgroup within the department. These analysts work with Esri Software to provide a range of spatial solutions to the firm. The team creates reports for clients, which showcase analytics about the impact of office relocation, as well as the viability of different investment opportunities, based on demographics. They also create interactive applications using Web GIS, which inform clients about a range of metrics, to inform their decision-making.

              As a previous employee of the firm, I reached out directly to the National Director of Research to inquire about any opportunities on the GIS Team this summer. I was connected to the team of analysts, who spoke to me about what they would need from an intern. The main priority was the automation of some production-creation workflows, to enable the team to take on more projects and shorten turnaround times. Having previously worked with Python in my coursework and thesis, I was confident that I would be able to deliver on this requirement.

              At this point in my internship, I have been extensively using Python scripting, and this skill has been very valuable to the team. I have almost entirely automated the end-to-end process driving the most popular product created by my team, the Commuter Analysis, which reports on the impact of relocation on employee commute times. This was done using the Esri ArcPy package, integrated into a custom geoprocessing tool which has been shared with the rest of the team. Recently, this tool has had functionality added to automate the creation of the interactive dashboard equivalent of this report.

              Due to my experience with Python scripting, I have also been brought onto projects outside of the GIS team. I have learned to write code to scrape webpages, which has helped with extending the data available in our databases.

              The two co-op terms I have spent at Colliers have gone by very quickly, and I hope to still be able to initiate new projects during my remaining time with the firm. There are other products which could have their creation workflows automated, and I am also hoping to extend the breadth of my knowledge about web scraping, as this is a new skill for me which has proved very useful to the team.

              My confidence not only with the technical elements of my job, but also in my general ability to learn new skills has grown, which I will take into any future positions. I am very grateful to both my team at Colliers, for giving me the opportunity to demonstrate my abilities, but also to the faculty at McMaster who taught me valuable skills which helped me secure this role. I would encourage any co-op students, or other students searching for employment to focus on building marketable skills and give thought to how those could be applied to future roles.