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In my program at the college I go to there is a co-op service, which is sort of like an apprenticeship or what have you in the regard that employers hire undergraduates to give them the chance the gain some work experience in the field before graduating as well as make some extra money. I'm registered for co-op from this coming January to August 2011(8 months), and the employer from one of the job postings I applied to just send me an email saying:
"Hello Skylar,
We received your resume for a co-op position and are interested in speaking to you about this. Please call me directly at 250-***-**** to arrange an interview."
This company replying to my application is USNR. If I get hired I should be working in the electrical plant doing network administration and support.
I'm really excited for this opportunity because:
a) It's work experience in my field of study; looks great on my resume after I graduate.
b) It'll pay a hell of a lot better than the grocery store I'm working at now. There's a shortage of hours so I only have like 4 hours a week instead of the 20 I want. I have bills to pay and am broke!
c) I get to move out of home. In all honesty, this is probably my #1 motivator. I can't stand living at home sometimes...
At first I was nervous because I realized I'm not done my studies and thought I wouldn't have the actual technical skills to accept this job, but I've got about an 85% average and they know I'm an undergraduate, so they should be aware that I will need training(even if I did graduate I'd hope they give training first). They also didn't list specific skill requirements on the job posting initially, so that also makes me feel a little more comfortable.
After my co-op term I will be heading back to school to finish my last year of studies, and the college has said that if employers like their co-op student then they often will ask them to come back and work for them once they complete their studies.
All in all, I'm pretty excited about this. I'm going to do some more research on the company then make the call later today or tomorrow to set up the interview. Wish me luck!
 
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United States7481 Posts
Good luck, co-op and internship programs are one of the top ways to have a job waiting for you when you get out of school. And even if you aren't that lucky, you'll still gain valuable work experienc.
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gj grobyc! I'm sure you'll kill it!! 
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Calgary25981 Posts
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Thanks
I'm going to have to go a bit further up north to Salmon arm for the position, which is why I have to move out, which is getting me to start thinking about where I'm going to live and all that jazz. I've got virtually no money right now, so I have no idea how I'm supposed to pay first and/or second months rent, or where I'm even going to be staying. hmmmm
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sure as hell beats the grocery store.
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Good luck! Going to be the start of a good future hopefully!
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Hyrule19091 Posts
My university had co-ops as well, and the experiences my friends had (I left before I was supposed to go on my first co-op) were:
1% couldn't find any job at all and had to do some project instead
49.5%: Awesome experience (and about half of them went back as an employee after graduating)
49.5%: Awful experience (but good pay), usually they were assigned menial or tedious.
It really depends on the company though. Mid-sized companies tended to have the best results. I don't know anything about USNR, but good luck :D
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Welcome to the working world T__________T
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You got this Gorbachev!!!!
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Skylar is a badass name.... you got this buddy 
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FREEAGLELAND26781 Posts
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Good Luck, it sounds very exciting.
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United States11637 Posts
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so...
does mean more or less bw?
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GOGOGOGOGOGOGO SKYLARRRRRRRRRRRR
YOu will do fine yo, other than living in salmon arm, bleh
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On November 03 2010 08:35 ilovezil wrote:
so...
does mean more or less bw?
maybe more, seeing as I will be moving somewhere where I don't know anyone. my days off work will probably just consist of playing video games =/
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You sure you're gonna get paid more? I'm interning at a reputable company right now and getting paid less than working part time at a fast food joint pays...
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Sick! I'm scheduled for co-op from January to August as well. Job hunting can be frustrating. Hope you get the job!
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How nostalgic. I'm on my last coop term now.
Hope you get the job and GL!
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On November 03 2010 11:24 madnessman wrote:
You sure you're gonna get paid more? I'm interning at a reputable company right now and getting paid less than working part time at a fast food joint pays...
I'm fairly sure it will be more, but under the wage field of the online job posting it just said "tbd". Other job postings that have already announce the wage tend to be between $15-20/hour, which is good by my standards, as right now I'm making about $10.50 in the grocery department at work. I've applied to other postings as well, so if it's too unreasonable I have the option to wait longer and see what other employers may try to contact me.
On November 03 2010 11:56 King K. Rool wrote:
How nostalgic. I'm on my last coop term now.
Hope you get the job and GL!
where are you located and how relevant is your work to your studies? Wage(if you don't mind sharing)? I've heard good things from people who have gone through co-op in the past; I'd love to hear some more opinions.
On November 03 2010 11:52 Chromyne wrote:
Sick! I'm scheduled for co-op from January to August as well. Job hunting can be frustrating. Hope you get the job!
gl to you as well :D
what area are your studies in? apply to any promising postings yet? I take it neither of you guys are in BC eh? 
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On November 03 2010 12:10 Grobyc wrote:gl to you as well :D what area are your studies in? apply to any promising postings yet? I take it neither of you guys are in BC eh?
Nah, sorry bro. I'm at Waterloo for Engineering. I applied to several jobs already, but didn't get any interviews =(. It's my last co-op term, so I want to find a good job. Unfortunately, that means I'll be applying to fewer jobs and will probably get less(no? =/) interviews.
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kkkkkkkkkkk i got an interview schedules for 10:15am tomorrow. why do I have a feeling I'm going to get lost on the way there...
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gl! leave like an hour earlier if you think you're gonna get lost :D
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On November 03 2010 12:10 Grobyc wrote:Show nested quote +On November 03 2010 11:56 King K. Rool wrote:
How nostalgic. I'm on my last coop term now.
Hope you get the job and GL! where are you located and how relevant is your work to your studies? Wage(if you don't mind sharing)? I've heard good things from people who have gone through co-op in the past; I'd love to hear some more opinions.
I'm a CS major at UWaterloo working in Mississauga right now. Work is relevant (it's a dev job) but the language perhaps is not exactly what I want to do in the future (working with C#, job desc. said windows programming C/C++/C#, so I thought it'd be more C++ based). Wage is a little over 21, which apparently is average for my program year at my school, but I've been paid 21 for the past 3 work placements -_- and tuition just gets higher. So make sure you know exactly what you'll be doing, and what phase of the project it's in (right now we're in the last stages of release, so we're scrambling to fix bugs, but there's still some implementation to be done).
Co-op is great. Breaks up the monotomy of school all the time. Depending on your place they might treat you like an intern, but most of the places treat you like a near-full time employee. Sure they all say "you're treated like a full-time employee" but everyone knows the coop is a coop.
It builds experience; nothing is a replacement for hands-on work, and being subjected to what working actually is like is I suppose, a good thing. Also I'm about to graduate so I'm looking into a couple of the places I worked before for job interviews; I don't actively network, but even I know a few people here and there.
Also the $$ is great. I get paid basically enough to pay my way through school (~5k a term), had to ask parents for a few hundred bucks here and there, but that's it. If your parents pay for your tuition then you'll have 4-5k~ left over after housing+food (depends on your rent of course, and if you eat out everyday it'll cost ya).
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Ahh thanks for sharing. I have to pay for everything 100% myself; I don't know if I'll be able to afford a place during the first month of my co-op until I get a few paychecks. Time to get comfortable sleeping in my car?
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On November 04 2010 06:11 Grobyc wrote:
Ahh thanks for sharing. I have to pay for everything 100% myself; I don't know if I'll be able to afford a place during the first month of my co-op until I get a few paychecks. Time to get comfortable sleeping in my car?
That's rough. Parents aren't willing to lend you some money? It's getting to be winter too. Never had to borrow from a bank but maybe you should look into it especially since you know you'll be able to pay it back from your job.
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It's not that my parents aren't willing to lend me money, it's that they don't have money to lend me even if they wanted to. My parents are divorced, my mom is about 20k in debt, credit cards maxed out, and my dad isn't in a much better position. I might look in to seeing if I would be eligible to take out a student loan. It might be too late too try to take out one now; even if I can, I don't know if I would get it in time for January. Last time it took like 3 months to get my money :S
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On November 04 2010 06:38 Grobyc wrote:
It's not that my parents aren't willing to lend me money, it's that they don't have money to lend me even if they wanted to. My parents are divorced, my mom is about 20k in debt, credit cards maxed out, and my dad isn't in a much better position. I might look in to seeing if I would be eligible to take out a student loan. It might be too late too try to take out one now; even if I can, I don't know if I would get it in time for January. Last time it took like 3 months to get my money :S =/
Don't know about BC, but Ontario has OSAP which is pretty good. I'm actually applying for it for next term.
GL.
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Tried doing a bit of research on the company in an attempt to possibly come up with some questions during the interview, but I'm honestly clueless as to what I should be asking. I'm only on a co-op work term for 4-8 months, so asking something like "What does your company have planned in terms of growth for the next 5-10 years?" for example, would be stupid. I can't really think of anything half decent to ask. Maybe I'll just be honest about that lol. Any suggestions?
11.5 HOURS TILL D-DAY, GOING TO BED NOW
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ask about what sort of work you'll be doing and what kind of projects the company is working on.
Ask about how big of a team you will be working in and how much interaction you will have with mentors.
Ask whether you are expected to learn a lot by yourself or whether there is a set co op program in place. Also, how many other co ops there will be.
There are plenty of things to ask really, you just need to think more.
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yeah, you're right, I guessing my mind kind of started to go blank :S
those are good suggestions though, I'll make use of them. thanks ^^
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Hyrule19091 Posts
You could ask to crash at a friend's place, if you've got any nearby USNR.
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Update us once you are done please
I'm waiting to hear from two firms at the moment actually, it's a really gruesome process 
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Overall it went pretty well. I didn't get lost on the way there, so I was like 50 minutes early. I just waited until my car until 10 minutes before the interview then went in though.
There was a couple questions I stumbled on a bit and didn't know how to answer. She asked "What are your weaknesses?", "What are your hobbies?", "What classes do you like the least in school?", and "How do you go about correcting mistakes?" to name a couple I that caught me offgaurd, but I didn't completely fail to answer them, I just stumbled for a couple seconds upon hearing them.
I answered most of the questions pretty well though, if I had to rank it out of 10 I'd say 8.5 or so. She I mentioned video games in my hobbies she was like "omg are you excited about the new xbox 360 connect????", so she seems really chill and fun.
Uhh she asked what I expected wage-wise, and I said 16$/hour, which seems rather reasonable IMO. She asked why I wanted to do co-op, if I mind re-locating, what my favourite and least favourite classes are in school, etc.
The job posting is still up on my college's site until tomorrow, so they have another day of interviews(althought I doubt there's many other students, if any, that have an interview), so they said they won't have their decision until wednesday by the latest of next week. I'm pretty confident I have the job to be honest. She also seemed to want to keep me throughout the whole 8 months, even though on the online job posting it was originally for only 4 months.
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Glad it went well for you, GL~
Now you get to play the waiting game.
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EPT
