I was very excited when the School of Computing Science announced there would be a co-op program dedicated to graduate students at the beginning of 2013. At this time I was already searching for an internship for Summer 2013 but was unsuccessful in my search.

The graduate co-op program offers: 

1. Help with writing a professional resume.
2. Provision of some guarantees regarding the pay and working conditions.
3. Information about open positions in the technological companies.

These services were really helpful, and this is how I actually found my co-op placement and enjoyed 9 months of paid internship in the Fortune 500 Company.

One big advantage of working with the CompSci co-op office was the absence of “cold calls”. As you might know, sometimes technological companies post “eternally open” positions – you can apply, but the chances that somebody will ever reply are close to zero. Such job openings give you the following feeling: “Yeah, we are generally looking for new graduates or interns. Oh, you’ve sent us a resume – no, not exactly at this moment…” In my case with the co-op program, I got several replies within a couple of weeks, which gave me an encouragement that I will find a co-op position soon.

The resume writing course was really helpful.  Because of it, I’ve improved the layout of my resume which helps readability. Afterwards, I had a couple of polishing rounds with my co-op advisor, and the resume was in human-readable shape. Another learning opportunity was learning to write cover letters; I am from a country where people generally don’t write cover letters when applying for vacant positions, so that was one area where I lacked skills. Again, after several sessions with my grad co-op advisor, I’ve become quite practiced with composing a cover letter from scratch.

The opportunity with Broadcom didn’t come right away.  During my search, I had at least 3 interviews regarding positions advertised on Simplicity, and turned down two job offers (one was from India, another one was via the MITACS program).

When I landed my co-op position with Broadcom, I felt very lucky because it was everything I wanted:

1. Internship in a big company
2. Software developer position
3. A project that has to deal with mobile technology (I am developing smartphone apps as a part of my hobby and my research also has to do with mobile phones) 

I am so happy that the Computing Science department made the decision to have co-op for graduate students because it has opened up a wonderful opportunity to enhance my skillset and land a great job.