Emma Ulveland: 00:33

Hello everyone and welcome back to Work It, a UVic career exploration podcast. This is the show where we talk to UVic alumni who are doing some really incredible things out there in the working world, and they're here to share with us about all the unique career paths that are out there. There's so much we can learn from them.

Emma Ulveland: 00:53

We also are talking with our amazing team of career educators who are giving us guidance on everything from gaining work experience, looking for work that you love, and even investigating the world of AI as it relates to work. So buckle in everyone. I'm your host, Emma. And today, I'm really grateful for the opportunity to be a student. I graduated once before.

Emma Ulveland: 01:17

As many of you who have listened to this show will know, I'm back in school now for my 2nd degree, and it's such a wonderful feeling being a student. I love getting to learn about new things. I love getting the opportunity to share ideas with really bright and wonderful people and seeing where the future will take me. So today, I'm just really grateful for the opportunity to study and be a lifelong learner. I'm joined in the studio today with my co host, Katy.

Katy DeCoste: 01:46

Hello, everybody. I'm Katy. I work in communications here at UVic. And today, I'm extremely grateful for, a little bit of vacation time that I have coming up at the end of the month. As soon as the sun comes out, I'm like, it is time for vacation, and my past self gave me the gift of booking a week off at the end of May.

Katy DeCoste: 02:06

So I'm very excited.

Emma Ulveland: 02:07

That's exciting.

Katy DeCoste: 02:09

Before we jump into our conversation today, I want to acknowledge that as always, we're recording at the University of Victoria, which is located on the traditional territory of the Lekwungen peoples. We want to extend our profound gratitude for being here as uninvited guests on this land, and also want to acknowledge the Songhees, Esquimalt, and WSANEC peoples whose historical relationships with this land continue to this day.

Emma Ulveland: 02:34

We're really fortunate. I'm so glad we get to record here. It's really special. And on today's episode, we are super thrilled to be speaking with Matt Heywood. Matt is a UVic mechanical engineering graduate who is the founder of Heywood Academies, a local tutoring company that supports students in math, science and engineering.

Emma Ulveland: 02:54

Matt has had quite the interesting career journey thus far including experiences at a startup with BC Transit in a machine shop and now as his own boss. Welcome to the studio, Matt. We're so happy to have you.

Matt Heywood: 03:07

Thanks. I'm stoked to be here.

Katy DeCoste: 03:09

This season, we've talked to a lot of folks who have made pivots somewhere along their career journey as they figured out where they wanna go, what they wanna do, and what works for them at different points in their life. Your story, Matt, has followed a kind of similar track. You've had different pivots. And you didn't come to UVic right after finishing high school. Could you take us back to sort of where your journey first started and how you ended up at UVic eventually?

Matt Heywood: 03:33

Yeah. For sure. So I grew up in Mill Bay, which is about an hour away from Victoria. So after I finished high school, I moved down to Victoria, moved in with my brother, and started working as a custodian. And I did that for about a year and then I was looking for something else, so I decided to sign up for the mechanical engineering technologist program at Camosun.

Matt Heywood: 03:52

So that was the 2 year program over there. And then once I completed that program, I did the bridge to UVic. So I ended up starting my UVic journey in my 3rd year of mechanical engineering.

Katy DeCoste: 04:03

And do you mind, for those of us like me who have 2 degrees in, like, literature, clarifying what the differences between that 2 year program and then the bridge and, like, a 4 year engineering degree and just making the distinction a little bit?

Matt Heywood: 04:16

Yeah. For sure. Because there's a lot of options. So the Camosun program, the 2 year technologist diploma, you are doing a little bit less of the heavy math and science and you're more jumping straight into the engineering courses. You spend a lot of time in the machine shop, so it's great for people who really want to do stuff with their hands.

Matt Heywood: 04:34

And after that 2 year program, you can go straight to work after that, but I decided to keep it going. So the bridge program is an extra year at Camosun, and then that'll get you into your 3rd year at UVic. You could go straight to UVic and do all 4 years all in one go and end up with your bachelor's, or you could do the 2 years at Camosun, or you could do this sort of hybrid program where you do the 2 years at Camosun and the 2 years at UVic.

Katy DeCoste: 04:56

Nice. So it's a nice little pathway, I guess, for people who maybe when they start don't know if they wanna do the 4 year program.

Matt Heywood: 05:03

Yeah. Exactly. And that was what I liked about it was 2 years versus 4 years. I was like, okay. I could commit to 2 years, but 4 years seems like a lot. And then once I was in it, then I was like, yeah. Okay. This is something I really wanna do. So I kept it going for the 4 year program.

Katy DeCoste: 05:16

Very cool.

Emma Ulveland: 05:16

That's awesome. And, you know, it's interesting that you say that because I think a lot of people don't necessarily know what they want to do right out of high school. So a 2 year program sounded like a great way for you to discover that. And so I'm wondering if you could tell us for other students who may be in this same situation, what advice would you give to those students and what supports did you access?

Matt Heywood: 05:39

Yeah. I think it's really hard to figure out what you wanna do, especially when you're right out of high school and trying to figure out if you want to go to school and what program you want to do and all that kind of stuff. But I think the key is really to just try as many different things as you can. Once you keep doing enough stuff, eventually you're going to find something that you like or something that you're good at that you can sort of lean into. But that's basically what I've been doing is just pivoting over and over again until I find something that I like.

Katy DeCoste: 06:04

Yeah.

Matt Heywood: 06:04

And I would say your best supports are people who have careers. So I always try to talk to people who are maybe 5 or 10 years older than me and, like, ask them how they navigated through their career. I like to ask people how they ended up in the role that they're in right now. And almost always, it's this weird path where they're bouncing back and forth between things and not what they originally intended, but they ended up somewhere that they really liked.

Katy DeCoste: 06:26

Absolutely. We think of careers as being very linear uphill, an equal amount of progress, never circling back or reevaluating. But for 99% of people, it's really not like that.

Matt Heywood: 06:38

Yeah. For sure.

Katy DeCoste: 06:39

So I'm curious. What drew you towards engineering as a field and inspired you to start the program at Camosun? And what did you like about it that kind of led you to continue on with that education and decide to do the bridge program?

Matt Heywood: 06:55

Yeah. I felt like engineering, I was drawn to that because in high school, I liked math and physics. Those were areas that I was interested in, but I also really liked doing things with my hands and being creative. My dad's a carpenter, so growing up, we always had a wood shop in our garage or somewhere on the property. So I think being able to combine those two things where you're using your hands to build things in sort of a creative way, but you're also using math and science to kind of back it up.

Matt Heywood: 07:19

It felt like engineering was a good mix of all of those things. So that's how I ended up going to Camosun.

Emma Ulveland: 07:24

That's great. And those are all things that are not my strong suit. So it's really nice getting to talk with people whose brains just work that way because mine certainly does not. But I really wanna look at your work experience too because through Camosun and UVic, it sounds like you were able to take part in different co op experiences. And I'd love if you could walk us through what those positions were that you had and what skills or any specific knowledge or anything that stuck out to you as being particularly helpful during those times?

Matt Heywood: 07:56

Yeah. I love that they have a co op program because you get to try out all these different jobs throughout your degree so you can really say, like, I'm interested in this field and try and get a job in that position and then see how you like it. So I did 4 co op positions and they're all 4 months long. The first one that I did was at a startup company called Cryologistics Refrigeration. Wow.

Matt Heywood: 08:17

And, yeah.

Katy DeCoste: 08:18

Sounds like a science fiction novel.

Matt Heywood: 08:21

I'm gonna call it cryo from here on out because it's so much easier to say.

Katy DeCoste: 08:24

Absolutely. Yeah. Very reasonable.

Matt Heywood: 08:25

Okay. So working at cryo was awesome because when I first started there, there was only maybe 4 or 5 people working there. There was the CEO, a senior engineer, myself as a co op student, and a friend of mine who's another co op student, and then I think there's maybe 1 or 2 other people working in the background. But we started developing a product from scratch. They had this one prototype which was kind of small and so they want us to take that existing prototype and scale it up.

Matt Heywood: 08:51

Oh. And it was for a refrigerated shipping container. So, ultimately, what they landed on was a refrigerated shipping container where you take a pallet of cold or frozen food and you can load this pallet in this big box and then it will keep itself cold so you don't plug it in or anything. It has CO2 tanks on top and it makes dry ice on the inside. So it can keep itself cold so that when you're shipping it around, you don't need to always have it in a refrigerated truck.

Matt Heywood: 09:14

You can put it on a truck that doesn't have refrigeration. So it's like no one has ever done this before, so it was fun to do something where you you don't really have any other resources to lean on because it's something totally new. And so that was really fun, that first go up position, and I decided to go back for a second round at the same place because even though only 8 months had passed, it felt like the company was in a totally different stage. When I first went there, it was, like, very much the beginning stages, a lot of raising capital and trying to get prototypes to kind of prove the concept. And then when I came back later, there was a whole team of engineers, a whole office and workshop and everything.

Matt Heywood: 09:53

And then they're in the later stages where it was more moving into small scale production and, like, getting the devices in the field. And so it was really cool to be able to see a product go from, like, just an idea in someone's head to actually become a thing that people are using. So that was really great to be able to see that for the second one.

Emma Ulveland: 10:11

Wow.

Matt Heywood: 10:12

Yeah. It was really fun.

Katy DeCoste: 10:13

That's really cool. And it must have been very cool also to kind of go from being a co op student and one of, like, 5 staff members at, like, a really small team to working with a larger team with more engineers and, like, a whole group of people. Did you find that the day to day kind of, like, work experience was also super different?

Matt Heywood: 10:31

Yeah. Once we had more people, we could divide and conquer the task a little bit better. So, that part was sweet. There's a couple business people who were involved as well, so they handled all that kind of stuff. So we were really working in the background doing development and then there's some industry partners so we'd go in the field and test them out and see how they actually work.

Matt Heywood: 10:49

Yeah, it was cool. Definitely a good thing to see a company grow like that so that I have a better idea of what it actually takes because that whole process of bringing a product to market was years years to

Emma Ulveland: 10:58

Mhmm.

Matt Heywood: 10:58

To do multiple rounds of prototypes, multiple rounds of funding, all of that to get to where it needs to be to be something that you can sell. Yeah. It's a it's a lot of work. So it's cool to see that start to finish process.

Katy DeCoste: 11:09

Yeah. That's awesome. Okay.

Emma Ulveland: 11:10

So that was your first two.

Matt Heywood: 11:12

Yes. That was the first two. And the the third one was at BC Transit. And after doing 2 co ops at a really small company, I said, okay, I have to do something different. So I'm gonna try and find a bigger company to do a co op with.

Katy DeCoste: 11:24

So Yeah. BC Transit kind of polar opposite.

Matt Heywood: 11:27

Yeah. Exactly. So I wanted to get that well rounded experience. Sometimes people try and do their co ops and things that they're interested in, but I sort of took the opposite approach. I was like, I'm just gonna do a bit of everything

Emma Ulveland: 11:36

Yeah. And then

Matt Heywood: 11:36

we'll see how we go after that. So, yeah, BC Transit, that was kind of a cool role because I was split between 2 different departments. So I was half the time working with Fleet Engineering, which is devoted to maintenance protocols and that sort of stuff and then the other half was with Fleet Capital Projects, which is all about buying new buses. So figuring out where the new buses need to go and how many and all the different specs. It's so much bigger project than I initially thought.

Matt Heywood: 12:00

How many different details you have to work out when you're buying new buses. So it's kinda cool to see those 2 different departments in that one.

Emma Ulveland: 12:06

Yeah. That is cool. Man, I love taking BC Transit. I do it all the time.

Matt Heywood: 12:10

And a cool project that I did there was bring in one of those white destination signs and install it on an existing bus. Something happened with the company that provides the orange destination signs, and so they had to make a switch. And so just to make sure that it would fit on the existing buses so that we could retrofit the buses and then just test it out, make sure that you can still see it as well and all that kind of stuff. And then the new buses, they gave the okay to put the white signs on the new buses. So that was kinda cool.

Matt Heywood: 12:37

So I know I can point to that and be like, see those white signs? That was something that I worked on.

Katy DeCoste: 12:40

Yeah. That's awesome. And, yeah, this is something that I often remember as a person without engineering expertise is just literally all around us all the time. And everything that you interact with in your life, someone had to engineer it.

Emma Ulveland: 12:51

Yeah. You're leaving your mark on the world. That's for sure.

Matt Heywood: 12:54

It's nice to see because sometimes with engineering, you're kind of working in the background, but that's when I'm like, okay. I can actually point to that and be like, I was involved with that. So

Katy DeCoste: 13:01

that's great. Yeah. Or you're like, I've been doing this one math problem for weeks. It's like, how does this apply to life? And then, well, we have a bridge now, so that's great.

Katy DeCoste: 13:08

Do you wanna tell us about your final co op experience?

Matt Heywood: 13:12

The 4th one was here at UVic in the science machine shop, and that was another one where I wanted to do something a little bit different. I think it's super, super important for engineers to get hands on experience with the things that they're designing and that was really great because working with 2 people in the machine shop, they're both machinists by trade. They've worked in commercial production machine shops, so they know how to manufacture things in a place where their goal is to get business and make money. They were really great and they showed me a lot about how to do different manufacturing stuff there. And they have a lot of cool equipment over there.

Matt Heywood: 13:43

They have like 3 d printers and laser cutters and mills and lathes and all that kind of stuff.

Katy DeCoste: 13:48

That's very cool.

Matt Heywood: 13:49

Yeah. That was really good to just be able to get my hands on some stuff. I did a lot of AutoCAD, like, designing stuff on the computer too, so it was great to do that on the computer and then bring it to the shop and then actually build it. It really made it a lot easier to design good things when you know how they're being made.

Katy DeCoste: 14:06

Yeah. And I think it ties back to what you said before of what brought you into the program at Camosun in the first place, which is this interest in the theory and the of what goes into making these things, but also actually getting to build them and put them together, which is

Matt Heywood: 14:17

very cool. Yeah. Exactly.

Emma Ulveland: 14:19

So let's chat about what happened after graduation. So you finished your program. You finished your co ops. You graduated in the summer of 2021, and then you started working as an application engineer and technical salesperson for a pump distribution company as well as starting an online tutoring business on the side. So can you tell us a bit about that point in your life?

Emma Ulveland: 14:39

Yeah.

Matt Heywood: 14:39

Things were a little bit uncertain when I graduated. I saw this job come up that was application engineer slash technical sales, and I've never done anything remotely close to sales before. So that was a totally new thing for me, and I just thought what a perfect opportunity to round myself out with that experience. So I jumped on that one and that was really interesting. It was a smaller company, but they've been around for a while and they are a pump distributor for pumps in the mines in BC and up north and and that sort of thing.

Matt Heywood: 15:06

So it was really cool to be on the front end of the business because I felt like in all my other positions, I'm sort of working in the background.

Katy DeCoste: 15:13

Totally.

Matt Heywood: 15:14

So this one was really good to be able to see how does an engineering company actually make money and, like, how much should our margins be and that kind of thing and what does it take to make a business run like that?

Katy DeCoste: 15:24

I think also it's a very good reminder that you don't need to have experience in, like, every part of the job that you're applying to. There can be parts of it, like the sales part that you need to learn. And when people are hiring new grads, they are aware of that. Like, they're they expect it.

Matt Heywood: 15:40

Yeah. Exactly. Their vision was to hire engineers and train them on sales so that they would have that technical background, so they would understand what's going on with the pumps. So a lot of what we do is we spec out different pumps and motors and stuff and they're these big spec sheets that are like a 100 pages long with all these different numbers. And 99% of them, you don't have to worry about, but there's a couple on there that are super important for making this work.

Matt Heywood: 16:00

So Yeah. Trying to communicate that to people was a really good thing to learn, I think.

Katy DeCoste: 16:05

Totally.

Matt Heywood: 16:05

I was working there for about a year, and I felt like I wanted to do a bit of a career change or some kind of a pivot, but I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. I started doing some tutoring at UVic with some of the 1st year courses like physics and calculus for the engineering program. And one of the first students I worked with,

Matt Heywood: 16:22

He had failed his first physics test considering dropping out of engineering, and then we worked together for a few weeks, took his next physics test, and crushed it. It did really well. And so just to, like, see him be so stoked on it and turn that around for him was really great. I just fell in love with it right away. It just felt like I was able to really make a difference in people's lives, especially if they're right on the border of passing a course.

Matt Heywood: 16:44

It usually doesn't take much either, like, just a little bit of help and you can get it so that they're making it through that program. So I just found it really rewarding.

Emma Ulveland: 16:52

Oh, I wish that you had been doing this and I had known you in 2017 when I was trying to pass physics because physics was the reason I dropped out of biology. So would have been really nice if I had known you and you were doing this work at that time.

Katy DeCoste: 17:06

Holy moly. Fact about me. This is one of my biggest life regrets. So I was doing a BA in English, and I had to take a science course. And I was like, I did great at calculus in high school.

Katy DeCoste: 17:17

I'll just take a calculus again. It will probably still be easy. Reader, it wasn't. It was so hard. I could have taken psych 100 and just had a much better time.

Katy DeCoste: 17:28

But here we are. I was gonna ask you, what do you like about tutoring? But I feel like you told us, which is awesome. And I also really see, like, the connection between learning how to take these really technical concepts and explain them to people who that might not be their area of expertise and how those skills can really prepare you for a teaching or tutoring role. So I think that's a very neat connection.

Matt Heywood: 17:51

Yeah. Definitely.

Katy DeCoste: 17:52

When you started tutoring, were you planning for that to be kind of the pivot you were looking for? Were you kind of planning to keep it as a side thing? What inspired you to make the full change? Yeah.

Matt Heywood: 18:01

I was planning on keeping it a side thing. There was a teacher when I went to Camosun, and he was part time teacher and part time freelance engineer. He just had a really great schedule because his freelance work was pretty independent. In my head, I was thinking later on in my career, I might wanna split it up that way. Mhmm.

Matt Heywood: 18:19

I just didn't think I would lean so hard into it right away. Yeah. But but I ended up really liking it, so I pivoted to it right away.

Emma Ulveland: 18:26

So can you tell us a little bit about your business then so that our listeners get a sense of what we're talking about?

Matt Heywood: 18:31

Yeah. So I started the business about two and a half years ago now. I originally planned it to just be for engineering students to help them out with their courses. And what I found was that students in 1st year with, calculus and linear algebra and physics, those are the ones that people really need help with. And then over the years, we've hired on a few more tutors, a few UVic students and graduate students to help out with those courses, and we've expanded out a bit.

Matt Heywood: 18:56

So now instead of just engineering, it's all the STEM courses. So the science, math, and engineering. And we also started doing some high school math and physics as well. So we do in person tutoring and online tutoring and then help out with the resources that they need.

Katy DeCoste: 19:10

That's awesome. So you're starting up online tutoring. And at a certain point, there comes a moment where you're like, I'm gonna quit my job and I'm gonna go all in. Do you mind telling us a little bit about that moment in your life? I'm ready to move to Australia and, like, take that big leap.

Matt Heywood: 19:30

Yeah. There's a lot going on there.

Katy DeCoste: 19:31

Yeah. Yeah. Last one pack.

Matt Heywood: 19:32

Yeah. So I was working at my engineering job ready for a pivot there. I was doing a bit of tutoring and could feel like a little bit of momentum growing with that. Right around the same time, my lease was just about, on the place that I was renting. I was talking with my fiance and we're trying to decide what to do and so we decided to travel together to Australia and do a big lap of the country.

Matt Heywood: 19:53

At the time, I thought, okay. Well, I'll do as much tutoring as I can and then I'll do other work as I need, but the tutoring ended up being pretty busy while I was there. So I just sort of leaned into that while I was traveling.

Katy DeCoste: 20:03

That's awesome. And what was it about Australia that made you guys decide to go there?

Matt Heywood: 20:08

I had known a few people who have done trips there and said it was really great. So I thought I'd check it out. I love the hot weather too. So I just felt like as soon as I was there in the heat, I was like, yeah. This is where I need to be.

Matt Heywood: 20:20

That's amazing. Yeah.

Katy DeCoste: 20:21

Once you're like, whatever is the opposite of the Pacific Northwest in terms of weather.

Matt Heywood: 20:25

Yeah. Exactly. We landed in Brisbane and it was June. So it wasn't super hot there because back home, it was in the twenties, but there it was, like, maybe 15 degrees, something like that. And so we immediately went up north where it's a lot hotter.

Matt Heywood: 20:37

So I just switched it. The entire year, we basically just followed the heat that's been around around there.

Emma Ulveland: 20:43

So it's pretty brave of you to uproot your entire life and just say, yep. I'm gonna travel across the world and set up shop over here for a bit. Were there any major challenges you faced while you were there or things that were uncertain? Anything you can tell us about in that regard?

Matt Heywood: 20:59

Yeah. It's probably maximum uncertainty for my life. Yeah. For real. Didn't know where I was gonna be in Australia or what I would be doing and all that kind of stuff.

Matt Heywood: 21:09

But, yeah, I just kinda took it day by day. I think it was a little bit tricky getting things going for tutoring at the beginning because it was online, but at the same time I had always kind of set things up to be online. And so I just got all the equipment set up and all the ads were online And I had this big stack of posters that I would keep in my backpack. And then every time I'd go to a new town, I would just go to the high schools and the colleges and universities and just slap these posters up everywhere. Amazing.

Matt Heywood: 21:35

And talk try and like get in touch with the teachers and things like that. So I did a lot of tutoring for Australian students and then also Canadian students as well while I was over there.

Emma Ulveland: 21:44

Wow. I'm really impressed. So now that you're back in Victoria, you've been here for almost a year. And clearly, Haywood Academies is in high demand. So how many students do you work with?

Emma Ulveland: 21:58

What does your day to day look like right now?

Matt Heywood: 22:00

We've had, I think, over a 130 students over the past couple years, which is great. We have a lot of students who are recurring. So it's been really cool to see students who have started in their 1st year and to watch them grow and get better as a student. And my day to day is a little bit all over place. It is definitely different every day.

Katy DeCoste: 22:20

Yeah. That's very much more like entrepreneur way, I think. You're like hands in all the little buckets.

Matt Heywood: 22:24

Yeah. Exactly. And it really depends on when people book tutoring sessions too. So sometimes I'll have sessions in the morning or sometimes I'll have them in the evening. I also work at Camosun College in their science help center in their physics department.

Matt Heywood: 22:37

So I'm there part time during the week in the mornings. So usually the tutoring sessions happen in the evenings and then throughout the rest of the day, there's other things with running the business like accounting and marketing and that sort of thing. And then also the product development for resources. So that's kind of a big chunk of what takes up my day right now as well. But, yeah, every day is totally different.

Matt Heywood: 22:57

So sometimes I'm at home doing sessions online or sometimes I'll be going to the different schools or different people's houses and doing in person sessions there. So, yeah, it's totally different all the time.

Emma Ulveland: 23:08

Well, that certainly keeps it interesting. I guess you probably don't get bored.

Matt Heywood: 23:12

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Katy DeCoste: 23:13

I feel like you went into this knowing I love math and engineering and knowing very early on, like, I love teaching people and working with students. I'm curious if there's anything else about being an entrepreneur, like, being your own boss or the business y side of running Hayward Academies that you have discovered that you like or maybe didn't expect to enjoy or vice versa, if there's anything that'll box you down.

Matt Heywood: 23:35

Yeah. I like the business side of things a lot more than I thought I would. I do a lot of brainstorming of, like, what's the next move that I'm gonna make? And so I'll make this big list of things that I could try to grow the business and then I just try them out. And if it doesn't work, I move on to the next one.

Matt Heywood: 23:50

If that doesn't work, I move on to the next one. I just keep doing this over and over and over again until I get something that gives me a little bit of traction. And it's also been really great working with the other tutors that we have on board too and getting feedback from parents. It's not just me that's helping, but now there's other people that are helping and being able to give students opportunities to do part time work that's pretty flexible. All in all, it's great.

Matt Heywood: 24:10

It's helping the students with their courses, but then also helping students get these part time jobs. So I really like the business side of things. It's it's been a lot of fun.

Emma Ulveland: 24:17

Well, maybe you should consider in the future becoming a co op employer.

Matt Heywood: 24:21

Oh, maybe.

Emma Ulveland: 24:21

We'd love to have you. But that's really exciting, and I love the fact that you were able to take the things that you were interested in and find your niche. My sister was talking with me about this yesterday. She's actually doing biomedical engineering here at UVic, and she was saying this program is so broad.

Emma Ulveland: 24:40

I don't know exactly what I'm gonna do once I graduate because there's so many pathways I can go. Is there any advice you'd give to people looking to find their niche?

Katy DeCoste: 24:48

Advice for Emma's sisters?

Emma Ulveland: 24:50

Yeah. Advice for my sister, yeah, would be great. Abby, listen up.

Matt Heywood: 24:56

Yeah. I think that's pretty common. I mean, when I was doing mechanical engineering, I didn't have a good sense of what different careers are out there. And I feel like even now I keep hearing about new roles that people get into and I'd never heard of that before. I didn't realize you could do that with a mechanical engineering degree.

Matt Heywood: 25:10

So there's so many different avenues that you can go. What's been really helpful for me is trying out different things in the co ops. That's a great way to see all these different industries, see which ones you like. And then also just trying to talk to as many professionals as you can. If there's a networking event that you can go to, I just love asking people, how did you end up here?

Matt Heywood: 25:27

And usually that'll explain a lot about what different options there are. When I was getting my first co op position, I was at Camosun at the time and I was doing really well academically. I was putting a lot of effort into getting good grades and doing well in my courses. So when I went to go and do my first co op, I felt like I did all the right steps. I made my resume and cover letter.

Matt Heywood: 25:49

I was changing my resume and my cover letter for each position that I was applying to, but I was in 1st year at the time. So I didn't have any engineering experience. And what ended up happening was I put out 37 resumes and cover letters and I got 0 callbacks from those.

Katy DeCoste: 26:06

No. No. Oof. Yeah. I'm glad

Emma Ulveland: 26:07

to say that. Yes. No.

Katy DeCoste: 26:08

It isn't. You spend all that time and, like, work. Yeah. It can be really disheartening.

Matt Heywood: 26:13

Yeah. Exactly. So, yeah, big hit to the ego.

Katy DeCoste: 26:15

Yeah. For real.

Matt Heywood: 26:16

What I ended up doing was I ended up just started talking to other students and asking them about what their co op situations were. And then I started reaching out to all my different teachers and being like, I'm looking for a position. What do you suggest? And then I ended up talking to a teacher at Camosun who said, yeah, I'm talking to someone talking to someone about this project right now. We might have something for you.

Matt Heywood: 26:34

And so that was how I ended up with the cryologistics position. I guess the lesson there is that you need to cover all your bases when you're trying to look for a co op position.

Katy DeCoste: 26:43

Yes.

Matt Heywood: 26:44

Talking to people has been super helpful. So there's been multiple times where that's happened to me. Same thing when I got back here. I've gotten multiple positions just from throwing it out there being like, here's what I'm doing. Here's what I'm interested in.

Matt Heywood: 26:56

What do you got? And most of the time nothing happens, but, you know, there'll be that one person who's looking for something and then that's all it takes.

Katy DeCoste: 27:03

Totally. Your network is not necessarily just the person that will offer you the job, like happened at that event, but it's also people like your professors who maybe, like, know some guy or your fellow students who maybe know that the company they did their co op at hires every term. You can be very expansive and you do wanna cover all your bases. So I love that story.

Emma Ulveland: 27:20

Absolutely. I think that's fantastic. Something I'm very curious about now is what you envision for the future of Haywood Academies.

Matt Heywood: 27:29

Yeah. So I love to keep growing the business and bring on more and more tutors. Right now, I've reduced my tutor workload a little bit because I'm helping out the other tutors. So I think what'll happen as I keep going is my tutoring workload will shrink and shrink as everyone else's grows and grows. Yeah.

Matt Heywood: 27:46

So bringing on more students, we're focused on mechanical engineering because that is my background, but we started to branch out to other courses as well. What I'd really like is to be able to cover the electrical and the civil and the computer science as well. So I have a really solid team that can handle all the STEM courses because we're getting there but we're not quite covering all of them yet.

Katy DeCoste: 28:04

Yeah. And I guess that's one of the benefits of getting to work with other people too is you have, like, your knowledge and passion and then you can also benefit from other people's, which is awesome.

Matt Heywood: 28:14

Yeah. Exactly. My chemistry sucks. So we put on a chemistry student to, to do chemistry. So Yeah.

Matt Heywood: 28:20

I've never tutored it before and I've always kinda leaned away from it. So we brought someone in who just finished their PhD in chemistry at UVic. He's been tutoring chemistry for years and really great resource. That is great because a lot of the students that I work with, they might be in physics but also in chemistry. And up until now, I've had to say, I can help you with the math and physics, but I can't do the chemistry.

Matt Heywood: 28:40

But now it's great because now we could do that all in house instead of having to refer them to other people.

Katy DeCoste: 28:44

Yeah. That is really great.

Emma Ulveland: 28:45

Well, you'll clearly have a market forever and ever because students will always need help with these sorts of things.

Katy DeCoste: 28:51

The calculus will always be hard. Oh, yeah. It's not gonna be yet easier.

Emma Ulveland: 29:01

It's time for rapid fire. So,

Katy DeCoste: 29:05

Matt, what was your first memory of your time at UVic?

Matt Heywood: 29:08

My first memory at UVic was walking into the lecture hall. The engineering students will know I'm talking about Numerical Analysis 349 A.

Katy DeCoste: 29:18

Sounds terrifying.

Matt Heywood: 29:19

Yeah. It's this massive lecture hall, and it was the first time that I had seen hundreds of students all together in the same classroom. And literally my jaw dropped when I walked in the room. I was like, there's no way. There's this many people taking this class right now.

Matt Heywood: 29:32

So it was a huge shock for me.

Katy DeCoste: 29:34

Wow. Intimidating. Yeah. One fear.

Emma Ulveland: 29:38

Are you a coffee drinker, Matt?

Matt Heywood: 29:40

Yeah. I am.

Emma Ulveland: 29:40

Okay. What was the best place to get coffee on campus?

Matt Heywood: 29:44

Well, I can't lie. I love Starbucks. I know some people aren't gonna like that, but it is what it is. I love it.

Katy DeCoste: 29:49

I am a Munchie Bar truther. I think I only think it's the best coffee because it's the cheapest, but I love the Starbucks answer. And I will say, like, when it comes to getting a cold beverage, like an iced coffee, nowhere else on campus is doing it like them.

Emma Ulveland: 30:03

It's true.

Matt Heywood: 30:03

Definitely.

Katy DeCoste: 30:05

So engineering, notoriously a super chill, relaxed program to be in. What was your favorite activity that kept you busy outside of your classes?

Matt Heywood: 30:13

So I did intramurals ultimate Frisbee.

Katy DeCoste: 30:15

Nice.

Matt Heywood: 30:16

And that was super fun. I loved it. And when I was doing that, I was in my 3rd year and the team that I joined, the team captain was a 1st year engineering student. So he had just started at UVic. He's one of our tutors now.

Matt Heywood: 30:28

So Oh, wow. You never know where you're gonna meet people that

Katy DeCoste: 30:31

Yeah. Exactly.

Matt Heywood: 30:32

Have a good connection. So.

Katy DeCoste: 30:33

That is so good.

Emma Ulveland: 30:34

What was your favorite place to visit off campus in Victoria?

Matt Heywood: 30:39

Well, I love bowling, so Langford Lanes is my spot.

Katy DeCoste: 30:42

Yes. That's so fun. A little commute out there, but it's worth it. We have talked a little bit about various advice that you would give throughout the episode. Specifically, what advice would you give to a student just starting at UVic?

Matt Heywood: 30:56

Yeah. I would say you gotta put your all into it. Yeah. A lot of the times when I'm working with students with tutoring, really the difference between passing and failing is just a little bit of extra effort, a little bit more studying, and you can really pick yourself up. And I would say that you should really just try and do as much as you can.

Matt Heywood: 31:15

Anything that you think that you might be interested in, just jump on it and try different things. So whether that's, intramurals or different sports or whatever, clubs or hobbies or anything really, but just try as many different things as you can.

Katy DeCoste: 31:28

And there is so much to try out. I feel like I'm learning about a new student group every week.

Emma Ulveland: 31:32

Mhmm.

Katy DeCoste: 31:33

The shared number of things you can do even without leaving campus is kind of crazy.

Emma Ulveland: 31:37

Always check out Clubs and Course Union Days students listening to this podcast because there are so many groups doing all kinds of stuff that you can join.

Katy DeCoste: 31:45

Will give you a free snack.

Emma Ulveland: 31:47

That's true. Perfect. If you could do it all again, what would you do more of?

Matt Heywood: 31:54

Oh, good question. I think I would really try and connect with people more that are around me at, like, different stages, whether that's at your co op positions, like really getting to know the people that you're working next to or just other students. One thing that I do now is I try to have a coffee with someone every week. Just someone who I think might be interesting. We might get along.

Matt Heywood: 32:13

I'll just reach out to someone and try and connect with them that way.

Emma Ulveland: 32:16

Oh, that's such a good idea. Well, thank you so very much, Matt, for spending time with us, sharing your wisdom, sharing your experiences. We're really grateful to have you.

Matt Heywood: 32:26

Yeah. Thanks for having me.

Katy DeCoste: 32:28

Work It is developed and distributed by Coop and Career Services at the University of Victoria and hosted by Emma Ulveland and Katy DeCoste. Today's guest was Matt Heywood, a UVic mechanical engineering graduate, and founder of Heywood Academies. Our theme music and art were created by Emma Ulveland with audio editing by Emma Ulveland. If you liked today's episode, don't forget to subscribe to Work It anywhere you get your podcasts, and you'll never miss an update. To learn more about career possibilities and resources from UVic, visit uvic.ca/career-services.