How does a strong co-op program work, and why do you think it's the best? Am from SEA university programs and I don't believe we have any of those. Would be awesome to understand more about the process.
In many cases, large companies have special days where they'll come onto campuses to do interviews, and they may take a significant cohort of students each semester. There are often rules like, "you have 24 hours to respond to an offer and may only reject one offer" to ensure good faith been parties and high match percentages when some companies may be more prestigious or slow in their process.
Students then spend 3-16 months (this depends on the school's academic timing and the company's own structure -- 4 months in summer is most common) at a company and if it's a good company, they'll be given real work, strong mentorship, and deep integration into a team, and often students near graduation will get offers of employment directly at the end of their term.
There are also usually very tedious written work-term reports to fill out as a bureaucratically useful artifact of the process. They're typically expository essays of topics like "what I learned at $company", and everyone hates them.
Students will have 1-4 (usually 3) terms out in the real world over the course of their time in school, and graduate with meaningful practical skills and usually a taste of what's available to help assess opportunities.
It's on the whole a great system for a lot of people, particularly those who are using university to increase their employability.
wcarss|8 years ago
In many cases, large companies have special days where they'll come onto campuses to do interviews, and they may take a significant cohort of students each semester. There are often rules like, "you have 24 hours to respond to an offer and may only reject one offer" to ensure good faith been parties and high match percentages when some companies may be more prestigious or slow in their process.
Students then spend 3-16 months (this depends on the school's academic timing and the company's own structure -- 4 months in summer is most common) at a company and if it's a good company, they'll be given real work, strong mentorship, and deep integration into a team, and often students near graduation will get offers of employment directly at the end of their term.
There are also usually very tedious written work-term reports to fill out as a bureaucratically useful artifact of the process. They're typically expository essays of topics like "what I learned at $company", and everyone hates them.
Students will have 1-4 (usually 3) terms out in the real world over the course of their time in school, and graduate with meaningful practical skills and usually a taste of what's available to help assess opportunities.
It's on the whole a great system for a lot of people, particularly those who are using university to increase their employability.