First round interviews are now in full swing! One of our university’s best offerings is our co-op and it all starts here (or beyond here I guess)! Reminder that first round interviews end on June 21st and match results will be up on June 22nd, rankings are due on the June 25th. More information on interviews should have been sent to your email titled “Interview protocol,” and if you were faked out by that email thinking it was an interview, so was I. Also some third year advice, be very ready to sign up for interview spots as after 10 minutes most of the “good” spots will likely be taken. So monitor your email constantly!
After first round, continuous round begins on June 27th with jobs being posted daily with intermediate interview cycles. For more information on continuous cycles, CECA does a great job of posting their cycle dates at uwaterloo.ca/co-operative-education/important-dates! If you are looking for employer info sessions which continue well into June, check out http://www.ceca.uwaterloo.ca/students/sessions.php?month_num=6&year_num=2018.
Something about interview time brings us all the subconscious competitive nature of what it means to be trying to find the best possible job. What is particularly painful is watching your friends and seemingly everyone around you getting 10-12 interviews where you can’t even get one. Getting your resume critiqued by everyone who’s above first year with a pulse seems to do nothing, your interview skills have been practiced from birth but what does it matter?
We often find ourselves comparing ourselves to others and especially in engineering. We are one of the only faculties that still provide rankings and “as long as you’re above the median you’re doing ok.” The reality is that half of us are below that line. Does this mean you’re not ok; that’s what the above statement implies right?
There’s a thing about first round, that if you don’t get a job with all the “successful” students, that you’re a failure. The reason for first round existing is so that at the end of a month of interviews, you can theoretically have the largest choice in possible jobs to accept. The unfortunate negative of the first round of interviews system is that many, and I mean many, students get zero interviews in first round. This clouds the purpose of first round and bolds the idea that you are suppose to get your job in first round. And these students are not alone, in fact most students in engineering get their jobs in continuous round. Though continuous may not be ideal, there is something to be said for interviewing one day and learning the results on the second.
If you’re below the median, you’re still okay. If you’re not getting interviews you’re not a failure. Keep applying and improving your resume when you can. Compare with your friends, even talk to CEE (Co-operative Experiential Education, previously know as CECA).
Good luck to all of you and RIP Jobmine glitch. Note that EngSoc is hosting another resume critique on June 25th, just in time for continuous!
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